21st Century Sewing

I talk to you all the time.

I run an interior monologue addressed to you while I sew that I really wish you could hear.

This week, my interior soliloquy has been about Vogue 8648 which was sent with the Susan Khalje's Crafty class. I made 2 muslin out of it. Muslin one for me and muslin two for Sonia because I have run into a wall of incompetence (mine own) whilst trying to copy and grade her red dress and she is in Paris so the whole process is long tedious and incredibly frustrating because I can't prick her with pins myself. What I could do in an hour of being in the same room as her has turned into months of postal back and forth and I was just about ready to throw in the towel. So I photocopied the small pattern pieces with my new printer-that-does-everything and made her a new muslin in the hope that cutting a similar dress in her size will be easier on both of us.

I opened up the pattern, looked at the sizing, the layout and the instructions, the bodice is constructed in an interesting way, I balked at the sleeve lining instructions which I thought shoddy but I literally had a hissy fit when I saw how and when they ask you to put in the zipper which is at the very end right before the hemming part.

Vogue Patterns, please take us into the 21 Century! Would it be so difficult for you to show us how to make stuff that looks good inside and out?

I haven't seen this type of finish in a store bought item in a good 15 years. I don't know about you, but if I saw a zipper like that on a rack, I wouldn't buy it. Zipper tapes are scratchy, I don't like to feel them on my skin. Even the lowliest of the cheapest H&M lined dress is not made this way. See this strawberry print dress my sister got me on sale last year at Loblaws (Loblaws sells food in Canada)? I think the price tag was $8 and the finish is great.

Would it be so hard for you to show us how to obtain this? I would love to see alternative instructions on your website so we could choose a construction method according to our sewing level. Beginner sewers would benefit greatly from having options.

It's not rocket science to get that sort of finish with a home sewing machine, all the information is here, on the net, but finding is akin to doing a forensic search and sometimes we just don't have the time. (If you, dear readers, would like to know how it's done, let me point you to Sew for fun for a partial lining, Sherry's for a full lining and Colette for waistband facing. More info can be found at Fashion Incubator and The Sewing Diva and this tutorial from Deb will show you how to do the straps with your machine).

I'm not very far into the Craftsy class, my guess is that Suzan won't let that one fly by because it's totally not "couture". 

As for me, if I'm not going to buy a dress with such a poor finish, I am not going to make one either.