Finished: Vogue V8811

My sister is what I like to call a Vintage Enthusiast. Cassidy's area of interest is the 1940's, specifically the war years. Her hair, makeup, clothing (hell, even most of her undergarments) are either period specific reproductions or vintage pieces. Needless to say, she gets a lot of "looks". People follow her around taking pictures of her with their cell phones. It's pretty funny, and we've all grown used to it. Since my sister is so period specific, her clothing- as you can imagine -is pretty dang expensive. It's hard to find affordable repro pieces, and to top it all off...she has the biggest boobs I've ever seen. Yeah, I said it and I don't think she'll mind me telling you. I mean...it's obvious. They're ginormous. And since she wears a period correct bullet bra, they look even bigger. Really. I'm sure some of the glances she receives are because of those puppies. Anyhoo, her chest makes it hard to fit. She has ordered many beautiful custom made pieces from etsy and they always come back huge on her. When I asked her specifically what info she sent them, I found she was just sending bust, waist and hips. Well, her bust is huge but the rest of her isn't. As I've become more and more knowledgable about pattern fitting I realized why nothing fit her right and I offered to make her a dress myself to prove I knew what I was talking about.  The pattern my sister picked out is Vogue V8811. A beautiful dress dated from 1940.

 Cassidy found a fabric she loved (gee, can you tell we were inspired by the pattern envelope?) but there wasn't enough on the bolt for me to match the plaids. Given the option between choosing something different and dealing with the unmatching plaid, my sister decided to go crazy and let the plaid ::gasp:: NOT LINE UP! With that, I began fitting. Her bust measurement would have required larger than a sz 18 but her high bust was a perfect 16. I cut a straight 16. I wish I had taken a picture of the muslin for the bodice. It was a disaster. Somehow I figured out how to do a 1" FBA (kimono sleeves, and french darts? I think that's what I was working with). And guess what? It worked!

The dress itself was a piece of cake to sew up. I finished up in a day but that put it on the back burner for a while because I was dreading the boredom that would ensue from sewing that hem. I blame my ADD. It has pattern pieces for shoulder pads and a custom belt but screw that. I took the easy way out and purchased shoulder pads and used a belt I already had. I blame my ADD for that as well. Ha!

Needless to say, Cassidy is super pleased and I have now been asked to sew up the A-line skirt I promised her. For all this free labor, I told her she owes me some Chipotle or something ;)