Hi everyone! I have been so excited to make this dress – this pattern is probably my favorite silhouette – I love the strong shoulders, the blouson at the sleeves, the fullness at the bust and hips but fitted waist – it’s just so cute!
I have a feeling I’ll be making several variations of this dress, probably one for each season. So I definitely want to make a copy of the pattern so I have all of my alterations ready to go for next time! I’m using this Vogue 9076 dress pattern – is it a vintage reprint? or just vintage inspired? Either way I love it!
I’m too impatient to make a fit sample though, so I’m going to check the measurements of the pattern pieces against my own measurements.
Check the back shoulder width, the top of the shoulder to the bottom of the waist, the sleeve length plus cuff, and of course the finished waist measurement. Be sure you’re excluding the seam allowances when you measure the pattern pieces.
I’m a bit of a pear, or triangle shape, so I’m going to cut the bodice and sleeves in one size, and the waistband and skirt in a size up. I can adjust the gathering at the bodice to accommodate the change in size.
I’m tracing out the size I want for each pattern piece of view C, and the sleeve and cuffs of view A.
The most important thing on a pattern is the grain line, so be sure you’ve marked it on all of the pieces that aren’t obvious, for example the back skirt piece and front yoke.
I like to work with 1/2” seam allowances, so I’m trimming all of the seams back 1/8”.
Based on my measurements, I want to add an inch and a half to the sleeve length.
This pattern is made for someone who’s 5’5 or 5’6, so I’m going to add an inch and a half at the bodice length for safety, which includes the front yoke and the left front extension piece.
This pattern doesn’t have pockets. Shame, Vogue. Shame. I’ll have to add them in myself.
Instead of doing the in-seam pockets that I usually do, I’m going to a little slashed entry. I drew a curved line a little to the left of the skirt notch, and down about 6” so my hand has plenty of room to get in there.
Then trace this edge of the skirt out onto a new piece of pattern paper and transfer the pocket opening line, grainline, and notches too.
I want the pocket to be about 6” deeper than the opening, and just a few inches wider. I just eyeball it, then go in with rulers to true the lines.
Add 1/4″ of seam allowance, then cut the pocket out of two pieces of pattern paper.
One of them is the pocket backing. The one with the opening drawn on is the pocket bag lining.
Draw a half-inch seam allowance at the opening on that and the front skirt, then cut away the excess.
Now I’m ready to cut my fabrics! I have this awesome metallic gold skull printed cotton from Joanns (I think I got it in 2016 or 2017).
And this slinky, light weight polyester jersey that has a weird cellular pattern that’s almost reptilian. I’ve had this one for so long I don’t remember where I got it.
I’ve machine washed and dried both of these to pre-shrink the cotton, and get any excess dye out of the jersey.
The skull fabric is going to butt up together at center front, so I’m going to match the print. It’s so easy to do, especially for this style of closure that doesn’t have an overlap. We need to find center front, which is where the seam allowance starts.
I’m putting that right over the center of a skull. Then mark something on the pattern that’s easy to line up to. Here I’m using the top of the skull.
I marked where it hits on the pattern, so when I flip the pattern piece over, line center front up on the center of another skull, then I can put my mark right at the top of this skull now. So when they’re sewn these skulls should butt right up together. I did that for the front yoke and the front waist or midriff pieces.
For the pieces that say cut 4, or cut two on the fold, the extra pieces are lining, so I’m going to cut those out of a plain black cotton, except for the collar, I’ll do that out of the skull fabric for both sides just in case it’s visible at the neck.
Now on to the jersey pieces. I’m always concerned about yardage, so I’m marking all of the pieces out on the back of the fabric. The skirt pieces are too wide to be cut with the fabric folded in half, so mark each side of the pattern as it’s cut so you don’t cut the same side twice.
As I was marking the back skirt I wondered why it was so much smaller than the front, and realized there’s no fullness there! It seems weird to me to have gathers at the bodice, but no gathers at the skirt, so I slashed the back skirt right down the middle and spread it about 4” at the waist to 0 at the hem.
I taped paper to fill in the gap, marked the new center grain line, and went back to marking, then cutting everything out.
Now I have some scraps of my fabrics, and some scraps of interfacing. I like to test my two favorite interfacings – weft and tricot. I get both of these at B Black and Sons.
I fuse little pieces and see how the drape changes – are they as stable as I want them? Are they too stiff? Is it not stiff enough? How does it take a fold? Is it too thick once the seam allowance folds back?
I’ve decided to go with the weft for the skull fabric, and the tricot, which is lighter weight, for the jersey.
I cut most of the interfacing pieces the same as the pattern and fused them. For the sleeve cuffs and the left extension piece I folded the pattern in half to cut the interfacing. I only want the interfacing on the front of the garment, having it in the lining for those pieces is just going to add bulk and stiffness that’s not necessary.
My fabric has a directional print, so I’m making sure I’m fusing the correct half since I can’t flip it over if it’s wrong.
I want to give the pocket openings just a little bit of support, so I drew a line at 3/4” from the pocket opening, and cut it out of tricot.
Now I can fuse this to the front skirt to help stabilize this bias edge and keep my knit fabric from stretching.
At last, all of the pieces are cut and prepped. Just preparing to sew takes a long time, but it’s so worth it in the end to have a custom garment.
Let’s start sewing in the next tutorial 🙂
A few years ago I made a costume that took over 10 HOURS to cut and fuse! There weren’t a ton of pattern pieces, but each piece had to be cut out of the fashion fabric, two or three stabilizers, and lining.
Has anything you have made stood out for how long it took to prepare? What was involved? Share in the comments!
