Marcy Tilton Dress: Vogue 8876

 Dancing with Jinzenji

This past Spring, Marcy Tilton came out with a really interesting dress for Vogue and I was dying to try it. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to make it. But what really made it intriguing for me was the fabric that is was shown in on the pattern cover and in Marcy's 'blog.

The Japanese cotton fabric was designed by the famed artisan quilter Yoshiko Jinzenji who is inspired by white with minimalist bits of color in many of the quilts she designs. Happily, I was able to find it online in primary colors on white instead of black on white as was used in the Vogue pattern photoshoot:

 

It's an unusual fabric in that each stripe is different along the length of the fabric. There are no repeats. That is, there is one row of blue dots, one row of green dots, one row of red dashes, one row of yellow squiggles, etc. That made placing the pattern a real challenge to get any sort of symmetry. It also used up a ton of fabric. Edited to add: I used nearly all of the 5.5 yards (43 inches wide) that I purchased for the dress.

My version of the dress turned out like this:

   

The Japanese cotton was so translucent that the print on the seam allowances showed through to the right side, so I underlined the dress with cotton batiste. The underlining allowed me to catchstitch all of the seam allowances, which is always a sewing pleasure:

 

I also chose to line the dress with white ambiance. The wide hem band is self-faced, so I ended the lining hem just past the hem band seam.

The front zipper was shortened and inserted by hand. 

Fabric: 

Dress: Japanese 100% Cotton by Yoshiko Jinzenji from www.sewmodernonline.com

Lining: Ambiance from Waechter's Fabrics, Asheville, NC

Underlining: Cotton batiste from Waechter's Fabrics 

Ribbon:

1/4 inch poly white dot on red grosgrain ribbon from fabric.com

The dress would have been much quicker to sew if the fabric had not been so translucent, since I probably would have made it without underlining or lining. It's lovely fabric, but thin.

Pattern: Vogue 8876, View B

My overall impressions of the dress pattern is that it runs huge. I used a Size 8 throughout with the following changes;

1. Narrowed the shoulders  

2. Took in the waist even more than shown on the pattern, and it still fits pretty loosely through the waist.

 One of the prettiest features of this dress is the cupped hemline which dips slightly in the back. It's a very feminine look. 

I haven't had the chance to wear this dress yet, but am looking forward to wearing it at least once before the weather gets too cool for sleeveless dresses.