Vogue 9103

I don't often treat myself to quality fabric, more often than not, picking mine up on sale tables and op shops.  In this instance I did treat myself at The Fabric Store's end of summer 2015 sale, to a piece of lovely weight linen.  I had in mind a dress and shortly after acquired Vogue 9103.  Both sat in my stash over winter and then I began researching.  Oddly enough, Googling Vogue 9103 didn't produce many results.  This should have raised a red flag and experience says I should have shelved this pattern right there, or at the very least made a muslin as I often do, out of some less expensive fabric.  But no, I plowed along with my dress plans.



I cut the dress out to a size 10 grading to a 12 at the hips which is my normal big four size.   I had a piece of satin lining in my stash that I used to line the bodice. I then put the dress on to trial the fit.  Hmmm!!  Oh my goodness!  To my credit, I didn't realise this pattern didn't come with a no butt ruffle option or I would have chosen it but the only word that springs to mind over this feature was, UGLY!  It stuck out like a Victorian Bustle and pulled the entire dress out of shape.  It took me all of about 30 seconds to realise that it had to go!  Had this been a muslin I would have abandoned this dress there and then but the lovely linen and my aversion to wastage kept me going.  Out came the unpicker there and then.

A couple of hours and a little thinking time later, I had my rescued back pieces and my pattern pieces laid out on the floor.  My solution was to cut the back to mirror the front, taking into account the back hip section.  I wasn't sure it would work but at this point it was worth a try.  It did make my pieces slightly shorter but given I had cut it to midi length, it wasn't a complete disaster.  I had already decided I needed to let the entire dress out a fraction through the mid section, so I did this at the time as well.

I really like the resulting dress.  It is lovely and swishy to wear and I actually, quite surprisingly like the creases, a day in linen inevitably produces.  There are a couple of things that do irk me slightly about this dress though.  It is a lovely dress to wear to work on a hot day, but I do wish I had used something other than satin for the bodice lining to make it a little more comfortable in the heat.  The second irk is the centre front seam.  The linen being a loosely woven fibre doesn't like that seam and I fear it will pull over time.  For now though it is fine, but sitting in an office all day, this is an obvious area for strain.