Practice Dress

Months ago, my local JoAnns was relocating across town, and getting rid of all their inventory.  They were selling their Vogue sewing patterns for only $2.00, the cheapest I've ever seen other than that occasion they're $4.00. So I got a few, one of which was this light dress, {Vogue 1086}.

I was pregnant at the time, but looking forward to this spring to get a chance to make it.  Later I read on Noodlehead how Anna made a blouse with cotton lawn and loved the lightweight, cotton fabric that had great drape.  I'd never heard of cotton lawn, and started browsing and bought some.

So for a few months I've had the fabric and pattern, just waiting for this spring.  But before I cut the more expensive cotton lawn, I wanted to try the pattern with cheap fabric before I ruin the nicer fabric.

So I made the "practice dress" using the pattern with a black/ ivory print I bought at the thrift store.  About 4 yards were taped in a roll for only $2.00.  It actually pretty nice for being $0.50 a yard.

I was making quite a few modifications to the pattern, so it seemed worth it to me to try it all out first.

The dress has a thick midriff band, with gathered bodice front and back.  The skirt is a slight a-line with gathers in the center front and back panels.  The pattern is sleeveless, so I added sleeves.

One thing I was excited about, was the fact the black piping I added to the midriff actually lined up when I installed the side zipper.  Also, it was my first time sewing in an invisible zipper.  I thought I may make a whole dress and not have to call my mom, but when I got to the invisible zipper, I realized I didn't have an invisible presser foot and called my mom to find out what to do without one.

The pattern also has a low neckline, like plunging cleavage.  So I raised that up quite a bit.

The back of the dress with the gathers and v-neckline.

It had issues with the fit, and so I'm really glad I made this practice version so I know how to adjust it for my precious cotton lawn.  The sizing of the bodice I want to change, and the weird neckline.

But the biggest issue I found after making it was the bodice length.  The midriff seemed too high for me.  I have a really short torso--I only have about the width of two fingers between my bottom rib and the top of my hip, so virtually no waist.  So I thought this very unflattering band laying the majority on my ribs might work better lower to try to give an illusion of a waist.  Also the chest gathers and neck look weird and I wanted to try to fix that.

I think everything looks better on a size 0 dress form. 

So hopefully the "real" dress will be able to fix all these issues so I'll love it, or it may just be an unflattering dress for my shape, but worth a try I guess.  I'm sure I'll still wear this practice dress though--despite the imperfections.