Vogue 8020: The Pickle Dress

I started this dress several months ago after reading a review about the pattern over on patternreview.com.  I had the pattern in my stash but never intended to make it since the pictures made it seem a bit fancy but highroad's version of the dress used a pretty cotton floral print and I thought it looked super smart.  Then I found the perfect fabric and I knew this dress had to be made.

Keepsake Calico Fabric "Floral Orange"

The naming of the dress didn't happen until last week but the problems leading up to the name started right off the bat.  The pattern called for more fabric than I had so I did some funny little adjustments.  I managed to cut out a few pieces backwards so the print didn't match up.  Small issues that I really just glossed over so anxious to get to stitching.

The bodice went together really well.  The skirt went together really well.  Then.... trying to put the two together was awful!  First pinning together ended up with way too much skirt and not enough bodice so I pulled out the princess seams in the bodice and shortened the seam allowance to "make it bigger".  Pinned everything back together and now I had WAY TOO MUCH bodice.  Busted out the seam ripper, again, and put the 5/8" seam allowance back into most of the bodice seams.  Still too much.  Put the 5/8" seam allowance back into all of the bodice seams and then undid all of the pleats in the skirt.  

At this point, I just wanted to finish the dress.  I pinned the edges together and then started forcing the pleats to match up to the bodice.  End result is that the bodice and the skirt matched up darn near perfectly even if some of the pleats were different sizes and the seams didn't match up.  Have I mentioned at this point I really didn't care anymore?

I had top and bottom pinned together and tucked into my little red basket along with my lunch (meatloaf and green beans!).  When I pulled the dress out at work to show my co-workers, I discovered my green beans had leaked and soaked the dress.  I let it dry out, then stitched the two pieces together at home and washed it.  I suppose the dress should have been called the "Green Bean" dress but my tired mind decided that it was pickles and behold... the Pickle Dress was born.

I haven't finished the dress.  I thought I had finished the zipper but when I went to remove the basting two nights ago, it turned out that my bobbin thread had ended and half of the zipper wasn't stitched in.  I fixed that tonight and now only have some hand-stitching, seam finishing and the hem to do.  Once I'm finished, I'll write a proper review but until then....


The pattern, I'm doing View D: