Vogue 8974 - My "Crayola Crayon" Challenge

Way back in December of last year, the creative leaders of my local sewing guild group gave each one of us members a challenge.  A box of crayons was passed around and we each had to blindly draw a crayon from the box.  Whatever color your crayon was, your challenge was to make something, anything - using that crayon color.  We were given 4 months to complete it and during the month of April, our item was to be completed and brought to the meeting that month for the big reveal.

Thankfully, the color I drew was Red, Rojo, Rouge - whatever you call it, it's RED!  Yeah!!  I love red.  As soon as I drew the color, I had the exact garment in mind to make.

This red and blue striped linen has been in my stash for a number of years - I'm pretty sure it came from a sewing garage sale from years past.  And, I had some matching blue in the stash too.  So, from these two fabrics, I made the Vintage Vogue pattern #8974.

For the buckle on the belt, I went to my local thrift store and found a buckle I liked and used just the buckle.  The holes in the self made fabric belt are made from metal eyelets, that wouldn't you know it, as soon as I attached them to the belt, they started to crack and the color was coming off.  So, I grabbed my red fingernail polish and gave them a quick color touch-up and who would be the wiser!

The straps on the dress are made from the same blue cotton as the belt.  The big blue buttons are sewn on using matching red thread.  Oh - and check out my pinstripe matching!

The straps criss-cross in the back and the top edge of the back is just above the strapless bra line.

The top of this dress gave me all kinds of fitting issues.  I cut out a size 12 thru the bust and tapered to a 14 at the waist and hips.  I ended up taking in the bustline a total of 3 inches to get it to fit properly. There was just way, way too much fabric for my not well endowed self.

I changed the snaps on the side of the dress to an invisible zipper.  The snaps were more fitting with the 1949 timeframe of the pattern, but who wants to mess with a bunch of snaps when you could have a zipper instead.

The bust darts start at the sides and gradually taper to the bustpoint. This gives the stripes on the sides an interesting angle I think.

There is an unlined jacket with the pattern too.  It will be nice as just a light cover up.  The jacket has 3/4 length sleeves with cuffs.  The front has a facing that is turned to the outside.

All in all this is a fairly successful garment and I should get alot of wear out of it this summer.  It was finally warm enough this weekend to take some pics outside.  

The dress, jacket and belt used up another 3.25 yards from the stash bringing my YTD total to: 22.5 yards.  Not to shabby!

Happy sewing everyone!

Star