Sewing Vogue American Designer Bill Blass 2303

Happy Easter :) I made another dress for Easter. This year because I made such a … statement … hat at East Village Hats, I wanted a much more simple dress. Also somehow I have been into 80s stuff. Which is unlike me. I don’t know, I’ve been watching 80s movies or something and now I have brainwashed myself into liking their clothing. I wanted a 70s or 80s silhouette more than my usual fussy 50s/60s, I also considered some 20s patterns and spent a long time looking at old Lanvin dresses. But in the end I went with a Bill Blass dress from Vogue American Designer pattern 2303, from 1982:

“Very loose-fitting, blouson, self-lined to edge jacket, below waist length, has slightly extended shoulders, shoulder pads, shoulder pleats, and self-drawstring waistline. Full length sleeves pleated cap giving broad shoulder effect, are also pleated into narrow cuffs with button & bias loop closing. Bias, evening length dress with lapped blouson bodice front extending slightly to back has corded bias shoulder straps that criss-cross at back. Bodice & A-line skirt are gathered at waistline seam which has self piping with back button & loop closing. Skirt has back zipper closing.” The jacket is kind of the winner here, the dress is so simple. What a weird looking jacket. For a woman with an imposing presence… Anyway. I only made the dress.

I used a champagne silk charmeuse from Metro Textiles, I worried so much about the color and the sheen of it, like if it would look cheap or tacky or if the color was weird on me. But it’s a really nice high quality silk. And I like this color pink, it’s really like 1920s loungewear/lingerie colored silk.

I used my rotary cutter and my cutting board for the first time! I moved it around on the floor to cut everything, even the long skirt pieces. The silk is slippery and all of the skirt is cut on the bias so I wanted to try it. Even though moving the board around mid-slice is kind of annoying it was a good method and I’ll do that more.

The top pieces have stay tape along the front to prevent the bias from stretching out. I gathered the top and pressed it out - you can see how it shrank on the left side vs the right. I never do this, and I’m not good at it. I never sew the tape in the correct position and then when I’m trimming the seam I have to either sacrifice the stay tape or I have a lumpy seam. I went for option B this time but really, I need to learn how to properly stay the seams.

Anyway, umm, picture of the skirt with lots of pins in. This was actually my first time sewing a bias cut dress. Obviously I have sewn on the bias before, any curve I suppose includes the bias, A line, etc but sewing an actual bias cut was new to me, makes the fabric stretch in a different way. So lots of pins and honestly, it was way easier than I thought. I had built it up in my mind. But it was easy.

The construction of this dress is pretty basic, center back invisible zipper, stay-taped waistband which the skirt is gathered on. And after the top is sewn on then the waistband is faced to finish the raw edge. (the facing is folded in half to enclose itself which looks nice). And I used my rolled hem foot to do the hem, also a first for me! Kind of tricky but came out mostly fine. (90%). Hem is uneven, just ignore that, it’s fine. Also I created a belt out of some of the remaining fabric, it was so unflattering without it. I did not sew in the straps, I just tied it halter style, I thought it looked better.

Then it was Easter, and I had a perfect day, I love my beautiful friends. And of course my hat. Which there you go, it matched perfectly. Hat is not so silly after all, in fact looks right at home doesn’t it? That’s all, happy Easter. Not a faberge egg theme this year, some kind of new thing can still be good.