Pushing my limits- Vogue 1154

My niece got married this past weekend, and I wanted to make a festive dress for the occasion.  I decided on  this Vogue pattern 1154 by Badgley Mischka thinking that it looked like a fairly easy project.  Hahaha!  In my nearly 40 years of sewing, this was my most difficult project to date.

When I opened up the instructions, I was a little overwhelmed.  Thirty pattern pieces and 88 steps!  Should I turn back at this point?  Of course not, I won't let any pattern intimidate me!

The jacket was no problem- it is lined, but I'm used to that.  The dress on the other hand.....The dress has a full boned  foundation, a lining, and an interfaced interior lining as well- 8 layers of fabric and interfacing for the bodice.  I eliminated the interfaced interior lining, but the rest of the layers really do need to be there.

I had chosen a stretch cotton brocade for the outer fabric. The pattern called for china silk for the lining and the foundation layers, but I was afraid it might be 95 degrees at the wedding, and the china silk might be too hot.  So, I used cotton voile instead.  I really liked the pleated bodice.  You can see it more clearly here without the jacket.  And the back pleats mirror the front pleats.  What is with those tan lines (shaking head).

The top picture is what the foundation layer looks like with the sewn in interfacing and boning.  The second picture is the foundation completed with the facing and the ribbon hangers.  This is then sewn to the dress body.

The original design has one set of pleats that overlap another in the skirt- creating more bulk at the tummy area which did me no favors. So I redrafted the skirt to just have two sets of small pleats that didn't overlap.  I also added two inches to the length, but those were the only changes I made.


I had some problems tweaking the fit.  Once the foundation is in place, this dress will stand up by itself, and even though I had thought the muslin had fit, the final bodice ended up standing about 1/2 inch away from my body- just enough that someone taller than myself could have a nice view of my strapless bra, if they so wished.  I had to rip through all of those layers and took it in on the side seams enough to get it to hug my chest.  

I alternated between thinking this pattern was totally crazy, and realizing how much I was learning in the process.  I wouldn't want to sew something like this everyday, but it's a pretty sweet dress, if I do say so myself.   I had no problems with it slipping down at the wedding, which was my fear.  It was comfortable and secure.  This dress cost very little in supplies, but a lot in time.  In the end, I think it was definitely a good investment in my sewing education, all 88 steps!