The Good Wife Update

After publishing this post on how much I loved Alicia Florrick's dress, I am finally at the point where I'm constructing my version using Vogue 8305, which is out of print.

I bought the black ponte knit to make this dress from JoAnn Fabrics in January 2012, but didn't get around to cutting out the pattern pieces until March of this year, with construction beginning last week.  Eh...what can I say?  I had stuff to do.

So far, the only modification I made was adding a strip of interfacing along the center back seem to give the dress support for its zipper.  The width of the interfacing strip was not important as my intention was to fully line this dress.

After sewing in the invisible zipper, I didn't care for the "gap" which appeared when stress was placed upon either side of the zippered seam, so I ran a second line of stitching closer to both sets of teeth along the zipper tape.  Here's a view of how the center back looks with the invisible zipper in place.  So now, when I actually wear the dress, I won't worry about the zipper showing.

I did notice a little pucker after I closed up the center back seam right below the bottom zipper stop.

I so dislike ripping out stitches, so I first tried pressing the center seam open and flat to see if it improved the appearance.  This seamed to do the trick.  Unless you knew exactly where the pucker was located, you wouldn't notice it.

As I stated, my intention was to line this dress.  Well, I kinda lost my initiative over the weekend.  I was all ready to tackle the logistics of lining the dress and was even anxious to do work on it Saturday...the same day I had the carpet and upholstery cleaned in my house.  Well, with everything still being damp and supplies "up off the floor", I couldn't really do anything other than wait.  By the time Sunday came, I lost the initiative to tackle the lining.  With that said, here's a view of the dress front, wrong side, with side seams pinned in place...

...and close up of the neckline.  This pattern doesn't call for interfacing of the dress front or back facings, which quite frankly surprised me being it's a Vogue pattern.  I wrangled with myself on whether I should interface them anyway, so much so that I submitted the question to the members of several sewing groups I follow on Facebook.  While I have decided to not interface these pieces, I have a feeling I may regret this decision.  I'll have a better feel once the dress is completed and I see how the neckline behaves when worn.

Here's the dress back view, wrong side.  You can see the interfacing strips peaking out from behind the seam allowance.  Again, this wasn't going to be an issue provided the dress was lined.  Eh...

And, here is the dress front view, right side.  The side seams are still pinned in place, so of course it doesn't quite look the way it would when worn, but so far, so good.

I hope to permanently stitch the side seams this evening and test the fit before moving on to the sleeves.

Be blessed!

Aisha