Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Tomato Red Dress Reveal

Now that the days are getting longer, I can fit in a photo session after work.  So here is my tomato red V1314 dress in the early evening sunshine.

Long shadows time of day.

I thought I would be finished with the dress on Saturday morning, but I really struggled with finishing the neck. I had to unpick the binding twice.  I'd love to tell you that the third time was the charm, but my final attempt still came out slightly gapey. It's not laying perfectly smooth and flat, which bugs me, but I couldn't cope with picking out more stitches and decided to move on.





I'm liking my hem lines a bit long these days for some reason. So, I lengthened the pattern by a few inches, which then turned out to be more than enough.




Rather than shortening the dress, I simply extended the gathering along the side seams, which stops at the hip in the pattern. That way more of the dress was ruched up, thus bringing the hem to where I wanted it.




The only other change I made was to taper in by about an inch on each side at the hem for a slightly pegged look. But I may go back and take the dress in just a bit at the midriff. There's some extra fabric there and the ruching isn't quite as, well, ruched as I'd like. 





Overall, I give this dress a B. Maybe a B+. It's not perfect because of the neckline, but I like it. This is my second time making V1314 (first as a tunic here), and I doubt that it will be my last. Really, it's easy to sew and fits me very well overall.


Early Evening Rays


I think this version will see a lot of action despite my quibbles with the neck. It's a fun color and easy to wear.

Happy sewing everyone!

14 comments:

Clio said...

Lovely dress and you well red fabulously.

Clio said...

the red is such a great color! and i love waist-ruching.

Clio said...

dude. neckline? moving on was the right call because this extra ruchy red is killer!

Clio said...

Thanks, gals! Somehow I look blah in neutrals and pastels, but give me an eye-searing red/orange/fuchsia and I can pull it off.

Clio said...

Gorgeous!! You wear red very well!!

Clio said...

You look stunning in this dress! If I was gay I would be in love, as it is, I am jealous that anyone can look this good in anything. The colour is amazing and so is the pattern. You must make more.

Clio said...

What a smoking hot red dress! It looks awesome!

Clio said...

Love red dresses, and this is a great one to turn head!

Clio said...

LOL - I'm so very flattered!

Clio said...

I think the thickness of the knit affects the ruching. It's definitely heavier than the called-for jersey. So, instead of lots of little gathers, there are fewer but larger ones.

Clio said...

I should add that this is a very forgiving pattern. Knit + ruching = maximum figure flattery.

Clio said...

Love this! It's incredibly flattering and you can really pull off that longer length with your height. So fabulous.

Clio said...

This looks beautiful on you! What a great shape!

Clio said...

Your dress looks great, that colour in the sunlight is gorgeous and no one is going to notice the very slightly gapey neckline.