Vogue 1194: a bright pink dress

Are you blinded by the snow outside the window in my photos?  I've actually been sewing a bit last month and this month, but haven't taken any photos because the days are so short I'm not home to enjoy any sunlight.  Today Lee snow widowed me (it's our first major snow) to ski in New Hampshire and I got to finish this dress while sipping tea and running a period romance in the background.  I love Helena Bonham Carter movies, and now recommend Wings of the Dove.  It's a little more twisted than you would expect, certainly not a Sense and Sensibility or Pride and Prejudice!

And well, here is my new dress.  It's made from a pink rayon doubleknit from Gorgeous Fabrics.  It pressed wonderfully, but if you look closely you will see some kind of salt residue from my iron on the front.  I need to figure out how to get rid of that.  The doubleknit is wonderful to wear, but I think I would make this dress again in a lighter knit.  There are several points where you are sewing through 6 layers of fabric and I really had to wrestle with my machine to make it work.

Vogue 1194 side.  Isn't the perspective a little quirky?  It looks like the chair is twice my size!

Vogue 1194 back

Vogue 1194 front.  I've never realized this before but I think I have a slight forward right shoulder.

This is another pattern that I've graded down to a size 6, and I made a muslin of the bodice only.  From there I figured it would fit and am pretty happy with the result.  The dress is a very easy one to wear with a full skirt -- I left out the pockets but if you added them this would be a nice casual dress to wear with heavy tights or leggings and flat boots (and I am on the lookout for some cute flat boots!)

And if you'd like to watch a preview for Wings of the Dove...

This is probably my last post of the year.  I've enjoyed the sewing recaps that I've seen many of you, my sewing friends, post on your blogs in the last few days.  I look forward to seeing more of your projects in 2013!