Indigo dyed Vogue 8897

I have had this pattern for quite a while and decided it was about time I used it. As usual, I googled the pattern to see what others had made. Unfortunately there was not a lot of enthusiasm for the pattern out there. It seemed everyone who had made it needed major adjustments to even begin to achieve a good fit.

Vogue 8897

The pattern is Vogue 8897. The drawing on the envelope makes the dress look quite fitted and lovely:

Vogue 8897

The picture on the website looks more like a nun's nightdress on a saucy evening:

Vogue 8897

The latter is the more accurate picture. Why I looked at this picture and still decided to use the pattern is beyond me. The fit is horrendous and that badly pressed pink fabric with the wonky stripes is hurting my eyes!

To cut a long story short, I should have listened to those wise sewers who had gone before me. However, I am not one to abandon a project so, once I'd started, I fussed with this until it was wearable. I'm very happy with the dress now, but I wouldn't recommend the pattern unless you are after an unwearable sack a loose beach cover-up.

Having established that the pattern was a dud, let's talk about the fabric. This is unlike any fabric I've seen before. It is cotton with random flower patterns slashed into it. The flowers seem to have a dot in the centre indicating that perhaps a special tool was used to make the cuts. I bought it at the 'Breathless' designer fabric sale in Perth a couple of months ago. I don't know if the cuts were made by the designer or if she bought it like that. I would love to find out.

The fabric was originally white and I dyed it blue with the Dharma Trading Indigo kit. I dipped the fabric three times, for about five minutes each time, to get this intensity of colour. To highlight the flowers, the dress was completely lined with white cotton.

The pattern has a centre seam, which was useful to drastically reduce the length of the neckline opening. I omitted the facings since I had lined the dress.

To improve the fit I added back darts using the Colette Laurel shift dress pattern as a guide for length and placement of the darts. I also took in the side seams a fair bit and omitted the pockets, which would have added bulk in the wrong places.

The fit adjustments were numerous, but fortunately not difficult due to the simplicity of the pattern. I love how the dress turned out, but that is mostly down to the interesting fabric and the indigo dyeing. I hope I've learned my lesson not to ignore the findings of my pattern research in future!