Wedding belle's Pt 2 - The Toile - Vogue V1102


I actually feel a little mean not plunging right in with a post about THE DRESS. However I run the risk of writing a novel trying to cover all the details, and I was actually pretty stoked with the finished toile garb. So without further ado here is the next part of the Wedding Belle’s – the toile - V1102!




Given the gravity of the wedding dress, plus the many extra stumbling blocks in our way, I figured I'd likely be upping the planning/prep I would usually do. However, it was only when my head started to hurt working out the timeline of making, it really became clear how much.

Basically I was going to: Arrive in Paris on Thursday and fit a dress for the wedding on Friday... with potentially only a needle and thread at my disposal, a bunch of family catching-up, and likely 3hrs sleep… arrrrghhhh

In an attempt to tweak a small semblance of sanity out of this whole project, I decided to make a full version of the dress so I could get all the construction clear in my head.

This felt a little over planning for me, as I'd usually just mock up the bodice. Turned out it was Absolutely. The. Best. Decision. Ever!

Bonus for Ju was not one, but two dresses! On top of the other languishing WIP I finished up for her we started to refer to this as her trousseau haha!

 Ok onto the details…


The pattern


The winner was Vogue V1102, what a gem of a find this was! It hit all the boxes for shape we were looking for (once you look past the sweet cover art haha), and once I saw this amazing version by Jasika Nicole we were sold.

The fabric


I got all the fabric and notions from King Textiles. As this was going to be a wearable toile went for something in Ju’s wheelhouse with some lovely gingham that was a close enough weight.  I self lined and also used the recommended sew in interfacing (a first time and wow what a revelation… more on that later)



The making… Bodice Mock-up

I was pretty apprehensive about the fit, particularly the back shape. Ju does happen to be the magical unicorn that fits vogue patterns right out of the packet, but still. That back is so spectacular and really makes the dress, so I didn’t want to leave anything to chance. Particularly as her measurements were taken over skype by her fiancé while I barked orders.

I mocked up the bodice in both size 8 and 10 to send to Ju in Paris… about this time Canada Post announced their plan for a strike FML! As it was a difference of $80 with courier vs $8 with Canada Post, I popped it into the mail and crossed all my fingers and toes! Sweet relief a week or so later it turned up! Another round of fitting over skype and we committed to making it in size 8.


The Making... Full dress


Next up was the gingham; I basically made it completely to book, with a couple of tiny tweaks.

  • I changed up hand sewing the lining at the bodice to just machining it into the waist with the skirt and front – because this was only a toile after all!

  • Hilariously in a reversal of the above time saving trick I opted to hand-pick in the zip instead of machining – didn’t want to put in until I had fitted, and well then I only had a needle and thread to hand!

  • The skirt is huge, it didn’t fit even on a 150 wide fabric (about 3 inches short on one corner). One of the challenges with my final fabric was making the width work and I really needed an idea of the final length. So I just made it up with the chunk missing in the corner. Then once I worked out the length at the front I evened out the hem to remove 3 inches overall.

  • The pattern calls for sew-in interfacing in the bodice, something I’ve not used before, and in my searches online looks like a few people left it out. As I was worried about the back pulling I decided to trust in the pattern, assuming it must be there for a reason. And well heck that was a good call! That stuff is amazing! I’m a hater of the iron on version, and have been known to leave it out after many occurrences of issues caused by it pulling and shrinking. But this stuff is awesome, presses like a dream and creates the most pleasing clean lines. Definitely will be using this more in future projects!

  • The bodice is showing a bit gapey in the pics, this wasn't the case in the other version, not sure if we tied the bow too tight or if the additional weight on the other dress fixed it up...?

The rest of the making was really straight forward, I really like this pattern. The back is amazing! (This is basically the tag line for this project! not sorry) When I tacked it all together and tied up the bow for the first time… wow! Obviously many emotions were in the mix for this project anyway, but wow that was definitely a moment!



On the Sunday after the wedding the whole fam headed out of Paris to Monet’s Gardens for a picnic and wander. So in one of those "pinch me it can’t be real" moments… here are photos of a dress I made, in the garden that inspired the master, who founded the movement of art I adore! Sheez, this whole project is making my heart two sizes two big!




Showing off the skirt super quick before the next rush of tourists!
At this point we acquired an audience of middle aged southern american tourists who just "loved that dress" and finally cracked a smile out of self-concious Ju haha

The Bell's in their me-mades, mine and Ju's sewn by me, Mum's sewn by her.


Thanks for reading, the next instalment coming soon... I leave you with some more glorious lilies!

Hils x



Comments

  1. This came out so beautifully- what a great job you did- congratulations!

    ReplyDelete
  2. […] Ok, onto the Dress! To keep this slightly more succinct (let’s be honest… totally going to ramble!) I covered off the details of the planning and toiling here and here […]

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts