Vogue 8904 Marcy Tilton designed LBD

Vogue 8904 LBD

You know when you have been eating really rich food for some time, and then all you fancy is a bowl of very simple soup? Well, that’s a little how I felt after sewing all those colourful clothes for my holiday, I craved sewing something in a more soothing colour. Also, I realised that I actually don’t have a go to LBD.

I bought this Marcy Tilton Vogue 8904 pattern in the last 5 day sale that Vogue had (shipped from America). Here’s the line drawings:

vogue 8904 line drawings

As you can see, it would lend itself very well to colour blocking, and I had already seen some great versions of this dress (including some brilliant striped renditions).

This dress really is wonderfully simple to sew….it’s a pull on dress so no zips, and the sleeves are set in flat before sewing up the side seams. BUT the pattern is designed with around 2 inches of negative ease in it….it is designed to be quite a close fitting dress. So if you know you won’t be comfortable in a close fitting knit dress you either have to cut a larger size, or add additional seam allowances so you can fit whilst sewing. Taking flat pattern measurements and comparing them to your own measurements is crucial to getting the right fit. I would really recommend reading Marcy’s own blog and also Communing with Fabric’s blog (she did a great striped version) to understand the whole fitting thing.

Vogue 8904 LBD

The dress is constructed by sewing a series of “shingles” on top of an underlying base dress. Here’s the first of my layers pinned on to my base dress:

Vogue 8904: bottom shingle pinned on to base dress

Some sewists have chosen not to sew the bottom most shingle on to their base dress. I decided to do this because the pattern has you leaving the cut edges unfinished, and I decided to cut the bottom most shingle using my selvedge as the finished edge. I also cut my sleeves using the selvedge to finish them.

Vogue 8904 LBD

Here’s a close up of the side seam to show the shingles meeting:

Vogue 8904: close up of side seam where shingles meet

What about my fabric? Well, I purchased this fabric from an amazing new ebay seller that I found. They have an ebay shop which has a fabulous selection of knit fabrics….expect to see me sewing more items with other knits that I purchased from this seller! In case anyone wants to visit their shop it is called Click Fabric, and you can click on the link to visit it. The fabric I used is this one, and there is still stock left. It sells for £4.99 a metre and I used around 3 metres to make this dress….a complete bargain I say. Be warned: it is a double layered stretch fabric (which has just under the recommended stretch allowance for this pattern I would say), which means the dress has got several layers in it (perhaps not what I will be wondering round in during the current heat wave we are having), but it is a beautiful quality fabric with a great texture and is very flattering. There is also this great sage green colour which I think would look amazing sewn up in this dress.

Vogue 8904 LBD

Vogue 8904 LBD

Pattern Review

Pattern Description:

Close-fitting, pullover dress has self neck binding, tiers, and raw edge finish. A: sleeves. B: self armhole binding

Pattern Sizing:

6 – 22

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?

Yes

Were the instructions easy to follow?

Yes

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?

Love the finished dress! Love the shape it gives you. Very flattering with the shingles. Nothing to dislike really.

Fabric Used:

Ribbed textured jacquard stretch jersey fabric.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:

According to the flat pattern measurements the back waist measurement was about 2.5 inches to long for me, so I shortened accordingly. This meant I had to redraw the placement lines on the back piece to match those on the front. I still have some slight gathering in the mid shingle piece (which I did not alter). If I sew this again I would want to adjust this. I added about 3 inches to the length.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?

Yes I might sew this again. I have seen some great summery versions of this dress, but it would also work very well for winter. Yes, I would recommend to others.

Conclusion:

This dress makes me want too…embrace my curves more 🙂

Vogue 8904 LBD