Circa 1995 ~ Vogue 9220

Or the polka dot dress:



The pattern back describes it as a fitted, and slightly flared, lined dress, above mid-knee, has princess seams, back zipper and short sleeves.

I was attracted to this pattern because of the cover illustration. I am sure now that the dress is finished that I could have used a current pattern like Butterick 4980 or Simplicity 4014. But I had to take the adventure with this pattern. Y'know how you get an idea into your head and then there is no turning back. That's what this pattern's journey was about.

First I made quite a few alterations to this pattern, even though I started with a size 22. Alterations such as:

~ 2 inches in length was added to all of the pieces

~ 1 inch was added to all the side seams beginning at the waist and ending at the hem

~ The sleeve was altered by adding length to the pattern and width to the biceps. I showed a picture of the altered picture in one of my last posts.

~ I also used the pivot and slide techniquee on the center front piece adding another 3 inches at the hemline and 2 inches at the waist.

Of course to achieve the close fitting appearance of the dress, I ended up taking all of those added inches out. I also did not put the lining in the dress. Because the pattern included a lining in the dress, there were no facing pieces. The linen I used for the dress was a medium weight piece and I am sewing for the 90 degree weather we are currently experiencing. I just could not bear the thought of a lining sticking to me.

So I used binding to finish off the neckline edge...a 1" black satin binding that I had in my stash. I added the binding to the neckline, sleeve hems and the hem of the dress. The black did a good job of breaking up some of the red/black in this dress...I don't look like a big polka dot since I added the black trim.

Sorry there are no pics of me in the dress but I finished this dress late last night and started in on the seersucker pantsuit - that is in the next post - but I will add pictures later, I promise! Now the final and most important question is ~ will I use this pattern again? I don't know. This might be one of those patterns that sits and waits for the perfect fabric to come along or then it might never be used again...only time will tell!