Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. My husband says she’s old fashioned. I love her.
I received vintage vogue 1525 via #patternswap19 organised by The Polka Dot Palace and The Zipper Foot. It was kindly gifted to me by The Voice of a Creative and I was buzzing about this pattern from day one.
When I snapped it up I hadn’t even thought about sizing so it took me by surprise when I received it in size 38″ bust. You know how you’re dreading doing something (in my case grading a pattern) and one day something just pushes you into doing it because you cannot stand the alternative?
I bit the bullet and I don’t regret it in the slightest. According to my measurements and the pattern measurements I needed to take it in by 4″, which is just about one size and a bit. I assumed one size for the height and followed some guidelines from books that I own (yes, I’ve been thinking about learning grading for a while…)
Because of the adjustments I decided to do a toile. My first one seemed short in the waist but baggy at the sleeves and back. In my second I reduced the volume at the back and sleeves, lengthened it and… then I thought about the weight of the skirt to go onto it and decided to go ahead with version one with volume reduced at the sleeves.
I then had to redraft the skirt, because I wanted it to button up all the way to the hem. This meant recalculating all the box pleats and rethinking their placement, which was far more complicated than I want to admit.
I am more than pleased with the result though. It’s super-swishy and, between Calvin Klein design and Valentino crepe, it feels absolutely luxurious!
Till the next time!
Sew your happy 