Review: Vogue v8812, View A & B – A True Pin-up Dress

You can't beat the glamorous details of vintage dresses. I love the old-Hollywood charm of this dress and the amazing shape of the bust.  

Pattern: Vogue 8812; Dress Fabric: Polyester Crepe (Fabric Vision); Bolero Fabric: Synthetic (Fabric Vision); Shoes: Topshop. 

What to love about this pattern 

Wow this dress makes me feel like a pin-up! The shape is very flattering and shows off my waist. I adore the gathering in the bust of this dress. It's rare for a pattern to be accompanied by such a cute cover up! I really love the bolero pattern that comes with this dress, I'll probably use it more often than the dress pattern if I was honest. 

What I don't like about this pattern 

It was very difficult to adjust the fit in the bust. I had to add padding to the bra to help get the fit right; however, this turned out great for the look of the dress. Parts of this pattern seemed unnecessarily and confusing. For example, instead of doing normal princess seams, the pattern asks you to lay one piece on top of the other and top-stitch them together. I didn't see the point of this so I made normal seams. 

Changes that I made 

I used the normal princess seam as mentioned above and added bra padding. I tailored this dress quite a lot at the bust and a little at the waist. I took in the bodice at the side dart and adjusted the gathers on top. To tighten the back I also shifted the buttons over. I added a snap fastener next to the top button at the corner to help keep the bust in place and prevent the buttons from gaping. 

What I could have done better 

The seam down the back of the dress isn't as smooth and straight as I'd like it to be. I'm not also completely happy with the fit at the bust. The side gathers seam to bubble out, but this can mostly be resolved with ironing.

Difficulty 

I found parts of this pattern quite challenging, such as the hand-worked buttonholes and tailoring it down. This was actually my first attempt at hand-worked buttonholes and I think it went really well. Next time I might add interfacing to these types of buttonholes to give it structure because the fabric is thin and slippery.

The Verdict 

This pattern makes a gorgeous dress, but be wary of the fact that it is difficult to make adjustments. As much of a pain as it is, I recommend making a toile to help you adjust the bust. Size down if you are in between sizes, you can always give yourself more space by moving the buttonholes. 

• Instruction Clarity: 3/5. Several steps for this dress were unnecessarily complicated. I wonder if these were lifted from the original vintage instructions? 

• Fit: 2/5. This dress had a lot of fitting issues which were difficult to resolve due to the design of the dress. 
• Design Elegance: 5/5. This is a lovely vintage design which you can easily bring into the modern wardrobe. The combo of the dress and bolero creates an hourglass figure. 
• Final Product: 5/5. I love how this dress turned out, even if it was terrible to tailor. 
• Overall: 3.75/5. You'll need to be patient to make this pattern, but it's worth the effort. To be honest, I won't be repeating sewing the dress for a long time but I'll definitely be showing off what I made!