First Time Making a Pattern I've Had Since 1999

 ...or possibly early 2000.  It's Style 2494, and it has a 1994 copyright, but I'm pretty sure I got it when I worked at Joann from mid-1999 to early 2000

 

 Having finally made it, with enough time to develop my sewing skills so much more than what they were back then...  Well.  If I had made it immediately, I probably would have thought the problems were with my skills, and not with the pattern itself.

 

 Now, though, I know enough to be unhappy with the pattern itself.

I will start by acknowledging that the pattern calls for jacquard, crepe, brocade, or velvet, and I used a wool blend instead. A vintage wool blend!  Thrifted in 2013 with a tag still on it

And while it's possible the hand of this wool isn't quite as sturdy as the hands of jacquard, brocade, or velvet the pattern had in mind, I don't exactly think of crepe as being sturdy (maybe "weirdly heavy for how supple it is," depending on the crepe), and this wool blend should be a perfectly serviceable substitute.  However.  None of that is going to make up for the fact that the 120" hem is not going to whirl and twirl like that illustration.

Also, I was good and used the pattern's button guide, and the results are buttons starting much higher than on the envelope.  (I did add a fifth set of buttons at the bottom, because I had ten of those buttons--purchased from the craft thrift store just for this--so why not.)

 

(I acknowledge that this is a blurry photo.  I am still using the old slow camera, and, also, the sun waited to come out until after I gave up on it coming out today and went ahead and took the pictures.  I am not happy enough with this project to take the photos again.)

I was also good and clearly marked where every button hole should go, since I wanted to do the stitching for the decorative buttons, too

 

 

Now.  Being vintage thrifted fabric, I should have known there would be an issue. 

Yep, there's a selvedge mark to let you know there is a flaw somewhere between that mark and the other selvedge.  In  this case, the flaw is two thick weft yarns--visible in this photo--that travel all the way to the other selvedge.

I decided to not worry about it and let it land where it landed. 

Well.

 

 It landed right at the bottoms of two of the pieces.

 

 Fantastic!  Probably the best thing to happen in this project.

The pattern calls for 4½ yards of 60" fabric, cut without nap.  My fabric was a less than 4½ yards, and possibly also a little narrower than 60".  I decided a petite adjustment would be merited, not only because, as given, the finished dress would be about ankle length on me, but, also, because it would save 3" per pattern piece. 

 

I also decided to grade between size 14 at the top and 18 lower, making the shift around where the length-shortening folds are, which provided an easy place to smooth out the abrupt changes made by those folds.

The pattern has you cutting each sleeve separately, instead of on the fold, so I saved them for after I cut the large body pieces.  That's when my abbreviated yardage caught up to me--there was enough fabric for one full sleeve, but the other sleeve was coming up short.

I quickly decided to lean into the silly military styling of a coat dress, and poked around my trim stash for possibilities I could use to hide the seam needed to make the sleeves long enough (yes, one sleeve was fine, but...symmetry.)

 

I also decided to go ahead and have a look at my button options, which turned out to be passable, but not great, especially after I chose all-black cluny trim for the sleeves, to keep things simple (relatively.)

 

 I was happy to find two potential sets of black buttons at the craft thrift store.

I was not enthused by the idea of having a wool blend against my neck, but I eventually realized I could wear a scarf or shirt under it to protect my skin.  I did also consider adding a lining, but that wouldn't have protected my neck, and also would have used up a lot of my lining stash, plus having to improvise around the facings, so, no.

I still wanted the inside to look nice, so I made a long strip of continuous bias, with plans for a hong kong seam finish.

 

 Then I tried applying the bias strips for that hong kong seam finish.

 

Then I ripped out all the stitching on that hong kong bias seam finish, not only because it was turning out lumpy and uneven, but also because I realized that, even if I were to improve my technique drastically, it still meant I'd be sewing every seam five times...every armscye-to-calf-length seam...five times...  

I rummaged in my serger thread box and found a set of three cones of medium brown thread, still in the plastic. 

I didn't want to use black, because I wanted to save that for black cloth.  The brown is good enough for this project.

I also used a not-black button on the inside. 

The trim around the edges of the collar and lapels was maybe not applied with the most care, although I did top stitch all the way around, then pin all the trim before sewing, instead of trying to get things aligned and folded around corners as I sewed.

I did let things slip a bit around the back of the collar

 

However, the collar folds over enough to hide the line of stitching I did from the inside to hold down the bottom edge of the collar piece and hide the seam allowances (I should have stitched in the ditch from the outside.  I did not do that.)  

I really wanted to have black trim in the collar and lapel area, because I like contrasts to happen in three places, so just the sleeve cuffs and buttons would have felt like not enough.

And here's a view of a finished sleeve

 

 I think it works well enough, considering I don't have any proper passementerie trim.

 

It definitely hides the seam of necessity.

I did add pockets, but I was only estimating where they should go, and they ended up very low. 

 

The thread I used for construction was a dark purple.  I managed to keep it from being on the outside in most places by switching to black thread for the trim, with the only exceptions being under the collar, as mentioned above, and in the blind hem stitching.

 

It's so far from eye level that it should go unnoticed.

The back...probably would have benefit from having a center back seam.  Again, though: that's the pattern, not me!

I also, in  general, really don't like when collars and lapels meet right at the roll line--I want them to travel together a bit before parting.  The pattern illustrations and envelope photo clearly show the collar doing exactly what it's doing, though, so that is kinda on me for not noticing.  (It doesn't help that I probably should have interfaced the collar and lapels heavier.)

 

I might have overcompensated for my middle aged body shape by grading out to size 18 so aggressively, and my overall impression of this might improve with some tailoring.  Some other time.  I started working on this three weeks ago, and I'm just glad to have it done-enough for now.  Time will tell if I actually ever like it--aside from the cuffs.  I do like those.