I’ve made a new dress… a sweet little autumn dress. It’s a quiet dress, and demurely plain in colour; which really throws up the details of the design into the spotlight. The colour fits in with my current clothes-making criteria; to have things in my wardrobe that go with as many of my self-made shoes as possible! since I will be wearing only my own shoes this year and some of my shoes are kinda colourful and not basic.
Pattern; Vogue 1152, with minor modifications. This is the second time I’ve made the pattern up for myself, my previous version has just been transferred to the “possible good sammies pile” since I realised I barely wore it last year. The additional modifications I made to the pattern for this new version are in line with the things I grew to dislike about my first version.
Fabric; soft slubby cotton from Fabulous Fabrics. I love the grey; a soft and warmish, almost yellow-y kind of a grey, if that makes sense, and one that actually suits me, I believe. This fabric originally came out in four colours; red, blue, white and grey, and I bought some of each colour! pretty groundbreaking stuff for me, I generally would not be so extravagant but the fabric really is beautiful quality so I just had to! Actually I’ve just revised my memory; it came in black too, which I did NOT buy and did kick myself over shortly after.. Doh! This is the last piece I bought to be made up… I’ve previously made up the blue as a dress here, the red as another dress here and the white as a shirt and shorts set here.
Pattern mods; the V-neck in my first version was so low-cut as to expose the bridge of my bra; so I either had to be sure to wear a pretty, colour co-ordinating bra that day, or a scarf knotted at the front. So this time I raised the height of the V-apex by about 2.5cm… at least I’m decent now.
Sleeves; left off the cuffs, removed about 12cm in width from the middle of each sleeve and lengthened them by 10cm; instead of lots of pleats at the top there is just one single inverted (box) pleat at the top of the sleeve cap. I also made a separate tab or strap that is sewn near the lower edge of the sleeve and wraps around it, catching in the fullness of the sleeve and buttoning upon itself. Shell buttons from my stash. A buttoned tab is not the kind of thing you see on a dress sleeve very often, it is the same principle to the tab/strap that you put on the end of coat sleeves, but I like to be different, appropriating and subverting details like that here and there and thus customising my clothing in some small way. Just one of the reasons I sew for myself!
Also, maybe I’m just a rebel, I hardly ever follow a pattern obediently and just always have to deviate in some small thing. Just one little bit of me in there, somehow, somewhere.
I added an extra row of elastic casing in the back to pull it in more, like I did for the first version, because otherwise it all just looks a bit pouffy back there.Also; added inseam side pockets – well naturelment!.. and lengthened the dress by about 15cm.
Below is my full outfit for today… I included it here because I’m absolutely loving how the grey looks with my mustard cardigan! so much so that I’ve worn this same outfit twice this week, throwing it on again the minute it came off the clothes line! There’s just something about mustard and grey together, I just have a thing for it. Though I’m sure it will go really well with all my other cardigans too. As well as my shoes and some tights. It’s a real autumnal dress, and I can’t wait to mix and match it with all the rest of my more cool weather-y stuff during me-made May. Hurrah for new dresses! 🙂
Details:
Dress; Vogue 1152 with slight modifications, see my first version and original review of this pattern here
Cardigan; the Miette, a free pattern by Andi Satterlund, details here
Shoes; sandals worn below made by me here, black thongs in the first picture made by me here
Gorgeous. And funnily enough I purchased some rayon to make this up myself soon! I thought it would be a perfect autumn dress.
Lovely soft grey tone. Perfect outfit.
The texture on that fabric looks like it would be really great to the touch. I love the sleeve detail, and it’s very flattering as a whole!
Lovely. Sometimes a nice quiet fabric like this stands out more than a pattern, when there are so many great details to the dress. And you’re totally right about mustard & grey together! Just wonderful. You look fab.
Love the dress but especially the fabulous shape of that hem!
What a wonderful dress! I particularly like your modifications to the sleeve.
thank you very much Irene! 🙂
It’s beautiful! So many special details.
thank you so much Sarah! xx 🙂
Beautiful autumn dress, love the colour and how the plain fabric has shown all the wonderful details. Great idea for the sleeve band.
I found this dress in a very old UFO pile cut out of a poly crepe. It was to be a toile but was started before my current fitting insights. Hmmm, might have to give it a whirl, yours is inspirational. Thanks for reviewing this gem Carolyn.
This is a lovely dress! I can see how it highlights your great shoes and other items of your wardrobe like this nice mustard cardigan. It has got a lot of interesting details and you have added some more!
What a beautiful, wearable dress! Now excuse me while I pin/steal that sleeve-tab-idea.
thank you Dalia, and please do! xx:)
Really cute dress. I thought you might like this idea for a pair of shoes. https://www.ae.com/women-bed-stu-soto-sandal-tan/web/s-prod/7413_9043_207?cm=sUS-cUSD&catId=womens&origProdId=7413_9043_207&catId=cat3120012
Val
thank you for the link Val, those sandals are gorgeous! quite my cup of tea 😉
Lovely little details on this dress that make it special
It’s all in the detail. It is lovely and I like those sleeve tabs, useful for me as I have one arm bigger than the other as I am very right handed. Jo x
This is a much nicer version of the dress, not that the last was not nice, but I think you know what I mean – all the extra details make this dress special. And yes, warm grey (yellowish grey) is just right for you, probably why it works with the mustard.
Love the changes you’ve made. I’ve put this pattern in my cart several times and then not bought it – you might have convinced me. I really like the front ‘stomacher’ you’ve done, and the extra length, back elastic, and sleeves. What a nice cotton fabric! looks like a very thick gauze. I enjoyed this post…
This is a lovely dress (and I do agree it’s better than the original). I love all the extra little touches you added.
Looks lovely, especially with the mustard cardi! The extra design details you added really ‘make’ this pretty dress. Especially the way you handled the sleeves.
sweet autumn dress describes it perfectly … lovely! I actually love the whole outfit
Lovely dress on you!
Very beautiful! The fabric really highlights the beautiful details of the pattern.
Your dress has some lovely details. I particularly like the band at the front and the elasticated back. Very nice!
The dress is lovely, but what are those things standing behind you? They look as if they might be trees, but I’m not really sure. Your sewing is always interesting and so well fitting.
thanks Connie! the plants behind me are a type of Xanthorrhoea that occurs only here in the south west of Australia. They are commonly known as “grass trees” and are very slow growing; the ones behind me are particularly fine specimens that would be hundreds of years old.
Those colors do look great on you, very pretty. and how nice to reuse that pattern 🙂
You look lovely in that dress! The fabric choice is perfect to show off all those details of the dress! Also I totally think the alterations you made fit perfectly to the style of the dress, everything works so well together. all the pleats and gathers are were I’d expect them. Okay, maybe by now you’ve realised that I’m struggling with wrapping the emotions I have for your new dress into English! 😀 Let me put it this way: I totally think Vogue should alter the pattern the way you altered it! I would totally buy it 🙂
Those design details. Gosh they really sing in that fabric. Those sleeves are gorgeous.
Such a beautiful interpretation of this pattern. It’s gorgeous in the soft grey fabric.
I am particularly interested in your elegant sleeve modification. I’ve made two sleeveless versions, finding this dress perfect for summer, but I am suddenly inspired to make an autumnal version 🙂
What a lovely dress! All those extra details really give it style. Perfection!
I love this dress in this material so much better than the denim one you made before – such a great example of what a difference material can make to a pattern. This material really shows off all the gorgeous ways it puts fabric in just where you need it but in a subtle way too. Lovely pattern but your sewing is always so nice to behold Caroline. So neat, precise but creative and inspiring too. Beautiful as ever!
thank you very much Kathleen! xx 🙂
Just beautiful! Love the colors together. I have this pattern on my todo list …
thank you so much Belinda 🙂
Gorgeous fabric! Like you said, it’s perfect for letting the details of that dress pattern shine. Pretty!
Amazing dress, I love all the little details that make it so feminine and elegant!
As everyone else has said, this is a wonderful interpretation of this dress and it looks really comfortable as well. I’m from WA as well, and I loved that you chose to have some grass trees, Xanthorrheoea preissii if I can be that nerdy, behind you.
Lovely frock – love the hemline! And yes, grey and mustard are a dreamy combo
Caroline, your dress is beautiful. Can you explain how you took the puff out of the puffy sleeves? Where did you remove the 10cm? I think your improvement of the sleeve really makes this dress and would tempt me to give it a try!
thank you Sonia! I took out some puff by folding a 10cm vertical strip out of the centre of the sleeve on the grain line. So, an allover 10cm “rectangle” of fabric is removed from the centre of each sleeve, all the way from the sleeve cap through to the lower edge. Not very scientific but I still think it’s an improvement for me… puffy sleeves just don’t suit me very well!
So pretty! Love it with the mustard as well.
So much gorgeous detailing going on in this dress. I nearly called you out on the manufactured thongs, then I saw that you’d made them. I’m currently bowing down to you in adoration!!!
thank you so much Gail! Yep, I’m determined to go 100% handmade, no cheating! 🙂
This is such a lovely style. I like the little changes you have made.
I am slow on catching up with my sewing blogs, so please excuse the late gushing on this one…
This is divine. I generally find myself 90% inline with your aesthetics, and this is no exception. Your tweaks to the design and fabric choice make all the difference in the world, and really go to prove, yet again, how much more I have to learn, and experience I have yet to gain. The sleeve alteration is so pivotal. You’re so nonchalant about it, but the inverted pleat, adding length, and altering the cuff to strap moves the whole silhouette.
Gah. I’m thrilled to be humbled by you yet again. I look forward to your posts… I hope you are fed by that somehow…you are one of the few out in the blogosphere that is so advanced, yet approachable, and you’re incredibly inspirational.
Ok. I’ll stop being a sycophant for now!
Such a beautiful dress! The front and back pleats add lovely details, as does the hem.
I really like the changes you made to the sleaves. I am inspired to do the same. Thank you so much for sharing.