A Simple Dress Review - Vogue 8665

I love making and wearing dresses, and when the weather is warm enough, it's so easy to just put one piece of clothing on...

I bought this pattern Vogue 8665 to create a comfortable day dress in a black jersey fabric. I made the longer length design. The pattern uses a lot of fabric, the first dress I made was from ponte fabric from Fabricland. I included the zipper at the back as the fabric was only moderately stretchy. 

I'm not entirely happy with the finished garment, the fabric is quite heavy and because there is a lot of it at the bottom, it tends to pull it down somewhat, which results in the the waist being pulled out, I need to wear a belt to try to stop this happening. I wanted a lighter, more 'fluid' looking dress and I think the ponte is too stiff and thick to create the look I'm after.

I did make another dress from this pattern in a lightweight, floral viscose, it certainly had the drape I was looking for. The fabric was very stretchy and I didn't need to include the zip. I used the overlocker to create a 'rolled hem', it was very quick to make. I did wear this version of the dress quite a lot, however I wasn't entirely happy with it either, even though it did fit much better that the ponte version.

This pattern is easy to make, I did make some adjustments to the seams so it fitted better around the torso, however this was very simple and quick to do. I'd also make it longer.

Trying the dress on and looking at it critically I think it would suit a body shape with narrow hips, that would benefit from adding volume onto this area - there is a lot of fabric below the waist and this adds bulk, it isn't really a design for my shape (small waist compared to hips). I think the line drawing shows the cut of the dress far more accurately than the croquis pictures on the front of the envelope. I've come to realise also that to create a dress with a tightly fitting waist, it is better to have a waist seam, with the top and bottom created separately.

If I make a dress from this pattern again, I'll adjust it to reduce the amount of fabric around the hip area so that the flare starts lower down. I'll choose a fine knit jersey fabric, and omit the zip.