Dear Readers, in spite of thoughtful and diligent sewing by the seamstress, this is how some sewing projects are abandoned or thrown in the UFO pile. It hurts me to say this, but after many hours spent thinking through the making of Vogue 9005, then deciding to “just sew it”, I have to abandon the project.
But first, just as the pieces of Vogue 9005, View A were coming together for me, I came across a review by this nice young blogger named Jessica who actually made the same pattern and was beautifully successful! Wow, and I thought I was the only sewer in the world who had purchased Vogue 9005; here was someone who also likes View A.
As I progressed, however, there was something not quite right with the drape in the right shoulder area. In the picture below you can see the slack in the “draped” shoulder.
After spending hours and a sleepless night or two (yes, I take my sewing personally), after checking into everything to see if I had made an error, the conclusion is this: it’s a pattern error.
Specifically, the armhole of the front under-drape does not match the armhole of the front over-drape and the tank top (the three are sewn together as one, so they HAVE to match) – the under-drape which is the middle layer is much smaller. Therefore, THIS is what happened (above right). And no, I did not cut out the wrong size drape; I cut the pattern tissue in a straight L (16-18) size. The drape is one huge pattern piece and I followed L (large) all the way — I checked it many times.
This became a painful turn of events, because I really like the design of View A; it’s a summery tank top but with added interest, and I like that classic with a twist look. The other views are silly toga-like numbers – not for me.
Just as painful, I used a great fabric – a mint featherweight rayon jersey from Mood Fabrics in LA. Ideal for Texas summers, although it needs a camisole for modesty.
The lovely blogger who I mentioned above, apparently did not experience the same problem. She made it in a small size. It makes me think that this error may be in the ZZ (L-XL-XXL) pattern envelopes. I don’t profess to know how Vogue patterns are drafted or printed, so maybe I should reserve judgment – but I knows what I knows.
So until further notice, this beauty is going in the unfinished pile – not discarded. I will take it up later after taking a sewing breath; it may be better to draft my own drape, don’t you think? Except there is not enough of the same jersey for the drape; just enough to possibly redraw and replace the shoulder piece of the front under-drape. What would you do?
Vogue Patterns, tsk……..
Samina
Sew Everything Blog 
Hi Samina, I am sorry to read of your problems with your pattern. I have just started looking at a vintage pattern Style 2776 and I noticed in the instructions a reference to 17 buttons “as shown in the illustration on the envelope”. There are no buttons – the dress has a zip. This is a fairly obvious error in the pattern, which won’t cause me any grief, but it shows that errors do occur.
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Oh Samina, I’m so sorry this didn’t work out for you! I don’t have this pattern but I do love the look of view A. I hope you will work out a solution but I understand about the sewing breath….
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Have you tweeted @McCallPatternCo ? They should know there’s a mistake in their drafting.
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Have you tried unpinning the layers and just looking at where they end up? I’m sure you’ve already thought of that, you’re so experienced. I wonder if you could insert a large piece into that area, drape it yourself and maybe discover where the pattern error is. I know grading almost never takes into consideration that while some areas of the body grow with size increases, shoulders almost never do! I agree with Sarah, give McCalls a chance to help or make it right. They could at least buy you a new piece of fabric!
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a thought, although I’ve never had this problem. If you like the garment and it is still avail able buy the other size (on sale of course) and compare the pattern pieces…….Then being the talented lady you are, you can modify yours………….
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Ouch. This is way too pretty to abandon. Could you separate the layers around the armhole Maybe the top layer could not come from the shoulder but only the neck seam. Does the 2nd layer match? We are all confident you will figure it out.
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Hmm, not sure I can offer anything other than a good night sleep? Maybe a solution will come in a dream. It happens!
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I had the same thing on mine. I didn’t mention it, because I just eased the pieces together. It looks fine now, so I didn’t remember it until I saw your post! I also overlapped the front and back drapes at the armhole. I can’t tell if it’s a drafting error, or something to do with the drape, but it’s definitely an issue. I would see how you can make it fit, although it looks like the difference might be greater in your size.
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Thanks for your comments, everyone! I’ve just sent a direct message via Twitter to McCalls Patterns, and will let you know when I get a response. They’re such really, really nice people.
Jessica, the only other maker of this pattern (that I know of) has commented above as stitchywitch. Thank you Jessica! I’m relieved to know that you had the same issue, and it’s wonderful that you managed to ease the offending portion so that your top looks really great.
At this point I have put away the project. My plan is to re-draw the offending portion of the drape myself. The drape folds over itself twice (front and back) which means there are three layers of fabric in the right armhole; the middle layer of the front is the one which is too narrow and does not match the top drape layer and the tank top. See the photo of the pattern tissue above — you can see that one is much smaller than the other – and it should be exactly alike.
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The best course of action is to send us an email explaining the problem in as much detail as possible. In this case, consumerservices@voguepatterns.com. Laurie, our consumer rep, will look the pattern over carefully to see what’s going on and she will get back to you if needed. Hope this helps!
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Thank you so very much, McCallPatternCompany !! I will follow your instructions and email Laurie. I love this design, and still hope to finish it up.
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