Cutting out Vogue 8972

The interesting thing about this pattern is that I chose to use three different fabrics for the dress ~ a border print for the top ~ a gray medium weight linen for the center band ~ and a black mid weight linen for the dress skirt.

Vogue 8972
The Smuggler's Daughter fabric is a border print that needed special cutting to maximize the print and make it most effective for my version of the dress. I used the darkest part of the border print at the bottom of the bodice with the lighter part at the shoulder line.

I reversed the placement for the sleeve ~ using the darker part of the fabric's pattern for the sleeve cap and the lighter area for the length of the sleeve. The sleeves will be unlined unlike the rest of the dress.

A few other things to note about this dress ~

The black linen was used before in this dress. The reason the fabric has sat on the fabric collection shelves so long is because it wrinkled terribly. I'd planned to use it for another dress but was so disturbed by the wrinkling that I moved on. So for this version, I cut black silk organza for each of the dress' skirt pieces and basted them together.

left to right: 1st piece - silk organza pinned and basted to line, 2nd piece that's already stitched, 3rd piece pinned waiting to be stitched
I will use a rayon bemberg for the skirt of this dress. Why? Because being real here it works best with my spanx. Cotton linings catch and rise on the spanx, where the rayon bemberg lays smoothly on top of it. But, I don't like rayon bemberg on the top of my summer linings these days. Being post menopausal, I perspire differently than I did before. So I cut a white cotton batiste lining for the top of the dress using my pinking sheers so I wouldn't have to worry about raveling.

The center yoke pieces were cut from a gray broadcloth lining...though that picture is looking more tan than gray...

Yes, that's right the lining was cut from three different fabrics, just like the dress was. I cut the pattern pieces from each lining fabric except for the skirt pieces. Those pieces were cut as one front and two back pieces.

I've already started to assemble the dress so that will be the next post...then the reveal...probably next weekend.

...as always more later!