Chevron jersey dress (Vogue 8728)

Chevron jersey dress (Vogue 8728) Chevron jersey dress (Vogue 8728)

Vogue 8728
Vogue 8728

On to my next dress! The fabric came from the same store as the orange dress, but it is a much more casual jersey with chevron pattern. There was two choices, I had a hard time choosing between the grey lines and this lilac and light blue chevron, but finally settled with this one. I think I’ve made the right choice!

The pattern is Vogue 8728 from Vogue Vintage Model line, a reissue of “The Greta Eberhardt Collection” pattern circa 1946. What is great about this pattern is that it can be made in both knit or woven fabric. From the pattern envelope: “Misses’ dress and belt: Dress has shoulder pads and side snap or zipper closing.” Of course this is not an adequate description of the pattern. The dress has front gathered yoke with all in one sleeve, a couple of back darts, and gathered skirt.

I wanted to make the dress in size 6 but unfortunately the smallest size stops at 8 so I had to do some improvisation. These were not  proper pattern grading technique, but I suppose it would work since the dress is made of knit fabric and not very fitted.

  • Removed 2.5 cm from each pattern pieces at the center front of skirt, center back of skirt, and center front of yoke.
  • Removed 1 cm from each pattern pieces at the center front  of lower bodice and the center back of bodice.
  • Shortened the lower bodice by 3 cm.
  • Shortened the hem considerably.
  • Lowered the shoulders about 1 cm on each side since I have no intention of using shoulder pads.

The pattern instruction is great if you want to learn some vintage sewing technique. Some of them seemed quite unusual, like turning in the seam allowance of the lower bodice and topstitching them on the yoke gathers or attaching extension to the side of bodice for sewing snaps. I disregarded them all and went to the quick road: overlocker! Most of the seams were sewed using overlocker, except for the topstitching around the upper edge of lower bodice and neckline.

Instead of bias binding as the instruction suggested, I used regular T-shirt neckline finishing technique. A strip of folded fabric is attached to the neckline using overlocker, then topstitched down. Also, the stretchy fabric allowed me to skip using zipper. Just like my previous dress, I sewed a pair of store-bought bra strap holders to the inside of the dress’ shoulders. No more bra straps peeking out of the wide neckline!

As you can see in the finished dress, my clumsy alterations changed the shape of the yoke which is now shaped like a V instead of a shallow U. Next time I should correct the top of lower bodice shape. But I suppose other parts of the dress looked quite okay. I love how the chevron lines creating shapes on different parts of the dress. The dress is now one of the most comfortable dress that I own!

Chevron jersey dress (Vogue 8728) Chevron jersey dress (Vogue 8728)

Chevron jersey dress (Vogue 8728) Chevron jersey dress (Vogue 8728)

Pattern is Vogue 8728 size 8, altered to fit.

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