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Sewing | Vintage | Pierre Balmain Vogue Paris Originals’ Dress 2526

This pattern was on my lust list for quite some time before I finally bit the bullet just before Christmas.  I just love how the style marries Mondrian colouring with tailored lines.  Of course, I am a sucker for this type of polished styling as well – it’s just so easy to look like you’ve made more of an effort than is in fact reality when wearing this type of thing.
When I ordered the beige knit for my Lola dress from Minerva, I also ordered a selection of knits to make up a toile. 
The pattern called for the entire dress to be underlined which I have never come across with a knit dress before.  I just used plain, bemberg non-static lining.  Might at first seem unnecessary for a toile, but I wanted to make sure it fitted without any stretch, and assumed the lining would help in that department.
With three different colours, cutting this out was a bit of a task.  Having not sewn this pattern before, I cut the material out with an extra 1.5 cm at the side seams of each piece.  In the end, I took 3 cm seams at the front/side front princess seams and 2 cm seams at centre back and back/side back princess seams, so I was glad of the extra width.  That did mean that I couldn’t cut out the full length of the pieces though; which meant losing the 7.5 cm ear-marked for the hem.
Everything came together so nicely.  Like all vintage patterns, the instructions are pretty sparse and assume a certain level of prior knowledge, but with a dress like this, there was no bother.  My machine refused to topstitch the material nicely (tension was all over the place) so I’ve lost that nice detail, which is a bit of a shame, but not really a problem given this was just a test for fit/style.
Putting in the earrings
Doing up the brass zips on the sleeves
Playing with the excess ease... grrr, still some tweaking to do on the fit then.
There were a few fitting issues - too much excess in the bodice (feels a bit like I've got fabric bingo wings and waist flaps - nice image Rachel!).  Also the neckline sits up too high on my neck (despite it not being too tight, weird) leaving me with fabric forming over-developed trapezius muscles above my collarbone.  Not what i'm going for really!
I think this would be really nice in a wool, and might very well keep pondering that for a while! 
One thing I'll need to keep in mind is that the invisible zip needs to go through all three colours.  I used a white one here and it wasn't easy to insert and nor was it 100% successful! 
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Comments

  1. Anonymous19 March 2015 at 09:55

    I like where this dress is going! Worth persevering. And this looks like a wearable muslin almost?

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    1. the craftytraveller20 March 2015 at 14:05

      Me too! :) I think it probably could be, if I just change the neckline a bit (make it lower). Easy!

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  2. monkeysocks19 March 2015 at 19:13

    It's super cute! I think it looks like it's maybe too tight across the shoulders(pos just at the front-its harder to see it's sit in the rear shot) which is leading to it riding up at the neckline? The zip looks pretty good for a three tone crazy long invisible-kudos!if its freaking you out you could try a shorter underarm one whochbwould be less visible andstick a keyhole.and button at the neckline?

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    1. the craftytraveller20 March 2015 at 14:19

      It mightn’t be clear in the photos, but there is quite a lot of ease in this so I don’t think that tightness across the shoulders is causing it. I think it’s more that the neckline is too high on me and possibly too tight (although I can fit my hand in so maybe not?) and that is pulling things out of kilter. The zip will be fine, I’ll just need to make sure it is sufficiently close as even half a millimetre out would show quite badly (depending on what colours I use in the end). Thanks for taking the time to offer suggestions.

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  3. Unknown22 March 2015 at 20:35

    For a rough draft, this looks impressive. Ease in funny places is always annoying - I find when this happens I have to take a break from sewing the garment and come back with a fresh perspective.

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  4. the craftytraveller24 March 2015 at 19:10

    Wise words Annie; a bit of distance would be good!

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  5. Carolyn26 March 2015 at 05:22

    I think it's looking really good! I really liked the original colour scheme and it works beautifully for you :)

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    1. the craftytraveller26 March 2015 at 19:37

      Thanks Carolyn. A few tweaks and I think we'll be there :)

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