Vogue 1250 – the kickstart dress

Well, the unthinkable has happened. I finished a dress in two hours. Total! No, really! I didn’t think it was possible either. I mentioned on Friday that I decided that the best way to kick my butt back into sewing gear would be to tackle a super easy project with a close deadline. And so it was that on Thursday night I took a half hour to cut out Vogue 1250 (all three pieces of it), on Friday morning I sewed for a little over an hour and got it all together, and on Saturday, before leaving for our anniversary trip, I hemmed the bottom and sleeves in another half hour or so. Into my suitcase it went!

We snagged this picture on the patio of the B and B we were staying at (great views!) before heading out to dinner at the most amazing restaurant – if you find yourself in Paso Robles ever, check out Artisan; it’s every bit as good as everyone says… just like this pattern!

I don’t have a lot to add to what others have said about this pattern – I really did make it with no modifications. (My full review is here). I cut a size 10 on top, grading to a 12 starting around the waist so the size transition would be complete before the dart craziness at the hip. Though my cutting was not the most precise ever, so nothing lined up quite perfectly, it still went together easily and fit just right with no adjustments. I used a twin needle to finish the hem and the sleeves, but I still used the binding for the back neck (although rather than fold it I just cut it in half lengthwise and left the inside edge raw). I made the front “facing” a bit deeper by cutting it at the size line for the 14.

The fabric came from my crazy fabric store, and was just about a yard, so I suppose this dress cost me 99 cents (not counting the pattern or the thread, of course… all right, but $6.50 is still pretty good). I like the dress, but more importantly it made me excited to sew more! It was great to be back at the machine after more than three weeks of not touching it.

So what’s next? I picked up a slew of new summer patterns last week at Jo Ann, which made me excited to jump into summer sewing even though we won’t have real summer weather here for months (if at all – our summers here are dismal and foggy). But I think next I really need to FINISH MY MINORU, and also I have a couple RTW knock-off tops I want to make, to enter in various contests in the next few weeks. Thanks, kickstart dress, for inspiring me!

Advertisement