What better to do while you are required to stay home than tackle a more complicated sewing project? Well, fortunately for me, I’d received this Vogue 1671 and this absolutely glorious viscose poplin as my latest Fabricville blogger project just before this lockdown started. So I had a more difficult project waiting for me!

This is an “easy” pattern, and when you look at the component steps it is fairly straightforward. But there are SO MANY steps! Taken one by one, the steps may not be too difficult,  but this dress requires a time commitment. I didn’t track my hours, but I did work on it exclusively for at least a week.

The very hardest part of this pattern was sewing on the sleeve bands — opposing curves are tough! You can staystitch the curve and then clip into it to allow your fabric to adjust and fit more effectively, or you can “walk” your curves slowly to match them up. I’m generally a lazy sewist so I decided to try walking the curves — just adjusting the fabric as you go, no pre-clipping, and only a few pins to keep matchpoints even. There was only one little tuck to pick out and redo so I think it worked well. Just very slow work indeed!

Other than length issues I didn’t make too many changes to the pattern pieces themselves. The main change was in order of construction. I didn’t like the interior finish when done as the pattern directed. There is so much work to this dress, I couldn’t see why I’d rush the last steps and have the interior waist seam and zipper seam showing.

When I stitched the collar and waist bodice seams, I left a 5/8″ gap at the zipper ends, and at the side seams. I also changed the skirt construction – I left the back seam open like I do for all invisible zip seams and also left a gap at the hem edge to finish later. Then I attached the outer skirt to the outer bodice only, and inserted the zipper.

I attached the skirt lining (with back seam already stitched and hem made) to the lining only, and hand stitched the prepressed 5/8″ seam allowances to the zipper tape. This gives a very nice clean finish to the inside, with no seam allowances showing anywhere.

I am glad that my decision to try this in a rayon poplin and not the heavier fabrics recommended by the pattern worked out; I thought the lining would give it enough structure, and it has turned out just as I’d imagined. I enjoyed the process, and am really enjoying the final product. Now to be able to wear it past the back yard!