Vogue 1302: Little Black Lace Dress

Vogue 1302

Kay Unger with lots of ruching

My pattern review is here.

With a wedding to attend, and no little black dress in my closet, I thought it would be a good project. I managed to have EVERYTHING on hand in my stash already: lace, charmeuse, lining, zipper, and thread! There was only 1 other review I could find on this pattern, and it warned of the multiple layers of fabrics being heavy to wear... so the lace and charmeuse made a lot of sense to me. In hindsight, I'm afraid that the nature of the lace is not ruching-friendly, and maybe I'd have had more luck getting the gathers to lay correctly if I'd used a chiffon?

As I started construction, I hand gathered the lace over the 4 side panels of the dress (2 front and 2 back) which didn't take nearly as long as I expected. As I approached the draped and gathered lace pieces of the bodice, I was careful to first attach the flat edges of lace to the under layer of charmeuse, which made the gathering and attachment of the remaining edges much less confusing. My new Baby Lock Imagine serger was absolutely amazing going from lace to charmeuse, over gathers and switching between single layers and multiple layers with gathering. It was the absolute best investment in the sewing room, next to my Baby Lock Jane straight stitch machine!

One it was all together, I did NOT like the way the lace was poofing across some of the gathers, but a little time spent distributing the ruching and pinning and hand-tacking made for a much better looking bodice.

 You can see how I placed the pattern so the hem would fall along the scallop edge of the lace. Other than taking it in a pinch in the waist at the side seams, I made no alterations (and from all the corners and angles, I'm not sure it would've been possible to anyway).

I'm very happy with the final product. It's a great addition to my closet for special occasions, and was actually very comfortable in weight considering the heat index yesterday was 100 degreees! I'd definitely recommend this pattern, just be sure to select appropriate fabrics and have the patience to work with lots and lots of gathering!

A little selfie at the table with my honey.