Sewing FO: Vogue patterns v1313

This dress is from Vogue patterns V1313 and I absolutely love it. My print fabric is a textured cotton/poly knit and the black contrast is a smooth poly/rayon knit with small flocking dots. Both were purchased from Jo-Ann. I omitted a couple of details in the pattern. I didn't bother with the fleece interfacing and the quilting stitches on the shoulder pieces. I also skipped the front pockets because my fabric is a very soft knit and I didn't think I could sew those pockets perfectly so as not to ruin the smooth line of the lower front section.

The pattern says it is a semi-fitted dress, but it is sized larger than I expected. It's a little more difficult to alter because of the lack of side seams. In order to narrow in the sides, I had to rip out the side panels, cut back the front and back sections, and then sew it back together. I couldn't just sew wider seams because that would make the side panels too narrow. It's just as well that I didn't do the pockets because if I had, I would have given up entirely because of the difficulty of alterations. In addition to narrowing the front and back pieces, I cut them in more at the waist line to give a little more shape to the dress. I also added a small vertical dart at the top of each side panel. The alterations took a bit of work but I love the end result. \

The pattern calls for a 16" separating zipper but I used an 18" one. I think 16" is just a bit too short. Mine is a bit long but I only have about an inch of the zipper bottom extending below and that's fine. I thought about using a metal zipper but they just seem way too heavy so I went with plastic.

I really admire bloggers who get fully dressed and styled to show off their outfits. I managed to don black hosiery for this, but that's about all I could muster. My photos never show my feet because I'm probably wearing slippers!

FO: Pleated Elliptical Cardigan

I just finished the Pleated Elliptical Cardigan. My yarn is Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool. It's knit at a looser gauge than the recommended gauge for the yarn to give the sweater a really nice drape. The sweater is a bed jacket style, with a modern curved hem. It's quite long in the back -- I could have made it an inch shorter all around and it would have been fine. The fit is really loose and I didn't like it when I first tried it on, but then I discovered what wonders a shawl pin can do.

I didn't really make any size modifications but I decided to eliminate the front pleats at the last minute and just gather the stitches. I thought that the front pleats might poke out too much at the bust line for my particular body type. The gathers aren't really visible, but the fronts have a smooth drape as a result. I kept the back pleat. I used a crochet hook and added a row of slip stitches around the back and shoulders neckline to keep it tighter and prevent stretching. The sweater has an interesting saddle shoulder construction but I'm hoping the shoulders won't stretch too much with wear because there's no sturdy seam to keep everything held in place. Overall, I'm pleased with how this turned out.