After five years of sewing, I finally sewed my first ever Big 4 pattern: Vogue 1558! It’s a Misses’ Raglan Sleeve, waist-pleated dress. The pattern was a christmas gift from my lovely sister. Isn’t it the best when you get sewing-related gifts?

I’ve had my eye out for the right fabric to sew this pattern ever since seeing these gorgeous versions by Allie Jackson, Jess and Mary. My fabric dilemma was the following. As many people have pointed out, the fabric used on the cover envelope doesn’t do the pattern any justice. The print is so busy that you don’t even notice the gorgeous pleating. All three versions that inspired me had gone with a solid colour which really shows the lovely pleating. But, I still kind of just love prints…

So when I came across this merino and polyproylene blend from The Fabric Store, I knew it was perfect. At least visually. It was solid enough to show off the pleats but printed enough to satisfy my instinct for prints.

Online Fabric Shopping Dilemmas

This was, however, one of those rare purchases were some of the challenges of online shopping came to the fore.

How do you fabric shop?

Online or in person?

I do both. I especially shop in person if I am travelling. One of my favourite ways to explore a new city is to track down its fabric stores. But, these days, I would say that 80% of my fabric purchases are online.

Most of the time, it goes well. I’m familiar enough with fabrics to  usually know what I am getting. Plus I’ve narrowed my pool of online stores down to those with whom I feel confident with the quality of their fabric. By the way, if you are searching for a great primer on all things fabric, including tips for purchasing online, I can’t recommend highly enough episode 27, “Fabrics 101”, of the Love to Sew Podcast. I am by no means a fabric  newbie, but I learned sooooo much from Helen and Caroline in this one!

So, getting back to this gorgeous fabric. I could see online that it was soooo beautiful, but I didn’t really know what a merino and polyproylene blend would feel like. How heavy would it be? Would it drape? Would it hold pleats?

So I did the most important thing in these situations, I contacted The Fabric Store to ask for more information. I asked whether it might work for vogue 1558.

They kindly got back to me, even though it was Friday evening, but the person who could properly answer my question wouldn’t be around until Monday (perfectly reasonable) but, also, they just wanted to let me know that there was only 4 metres of the fabric left!

At which point I panicked. Nothing like a good fabric pressure-buy panic.

I decided that, based on its description as being a sport knit fabric, it probably wouldn’t work for vogue 1558. But I bought 2 metres of it anyway because, well, just look at it.

When it arrived, it’s definitely thicker than vogue 1558 had in mind, but it was still definitely workable.

But now my 2 metres wasn’t enough, since this pattern has totally ginormous sleeves!! So I was unhappily forced to use a contrasting fabric for sleeve. This is the same crepe scuba I used in my Zadie dress. Now, a contrast sleeve in a raglan is always quite a striking look, but I would have preferred floral all over.

But, oh well, you win some, you lose some.

How do you deal with those situations with online shopping where you are just not sure?

The Fabric Store suggested, perfectly sensibly, that I order a sample. But, let me be honest here. Even though every fabric store suggests this, I have never done it. If I am already ordering something from a store, I might order some samples of other fabrics that interest me in the future at the same time. But I have never found a fabric online that I liked and then ordered a sample, before purchasing. It just takes too long.

I buy online, just like I use PDF patterns, because my sewing habit necessitates a certain sense of instant gratification. The process of slowly waiting for a sample to arrive and then ordering the fabric later, just doesn’t fit in with the way I approach my sewing. Plus, this option was rendered moot in these circumstances by the fact that there was only 4 metres left. By the time my sample would have left New Zealand on the way to Europe, the fabric would have been sold out anyway.

So I definitely prefer to take the occasional risk in fabric buying, rather than wait for samples. How do you do it?

It’s relatively rare that the fabric doesn’t work for the project I had in mind. And even if this happens, it will work for something else, right?

OK, enough about the sometimes challenges of online fabric shopping. Let’s get to the dress!

Big 4 vs Indie Patterns

As an indie pattern aficionado, this was my first ever time sewing a Big 4 pattern. As I have stated elsewhere, it’s not necessarily that I am against the Big 4. It’s just that I learned to sew through indies and, sticking to indies only, I already have a sewing queue that’s more than 12 months long. If I open the door to the world of big 4 patterns too, I feel I would become totally overwhelmed by a hobby which is supposed to be fun.

By the way, what’s your sewing queue time? How long would it take you to sew through everything you currently want to make?

Ease-y does it

First, and most obvious in terms of differences, is that ease is waaaaay different.

I already knew this, but I was amazed by how different it really was. The body measurement chart had me between a 14-16. I decided to sew a 12. The final dress then has about an additional 2 inches taken in around the waist. Frankly, I should have still taken it in another inch. I just didn’t do so because that would have required re-doing my pleats and I just couldn’t face that!

So the ease level in vogue 1558 is just nutso if you are a child of indie patterns like myself!!!

And the ease issue is made so much harder by the fact that there are no finished garment measurements. No, I lie. There is a finished garment measurement provided, that being the width of the dress at the hem line. Now I’m sorry, but isn’t that basically the most useless finished garment measurement you could imagine????

So my issue is that, although I was expecting a lot of ease, I really had no way of knowing how much to expect. I relied on this useful blog post which explained that the amount of ease differed depending on how the pattern is described. My Vogue 1558, being described as “close fitting” should include around 0-2 inches of ease. Which was useful as a guideline but, let’s face it, there’s a big difference between 0 inches and 2 inches in sewing!

And I must say, I just don’t understand this use of excessive ease. Sure, you’re never going to end up with a garment that is too small for you sewing with this amount of ease. But, a garment which is crazily big for you is just as useless as a garment that is too small. And taking it in, isn’t always possible or worth the effort, depending on the pattern. I have definitely been in the situation where an initial oversized garment just looked so bad on me, that I decided it wasn’t worth the effort to try to modify and improve the fit.

Plus, even if you want to include a lot of ease, just include a finished garment measurement chart so your customers can make an informed decision. I have to say that this lack of finished garment measurements is almost a deal breaker for me, insofar as my interest in exploring Big 4 patterns more closely is concerned. I just don’t have time to be guessing with sizes. And seriously, if I had made the size 16 that the body measurement suggested to me, it would have been totally ridiculous.

Big 4 style

What else was different about finally sewing with the big 4?

Not a whole lot really.

The instructions were OK, although I didn’t really follow them closely. Of course, if you are new to sewing and you need to really learn how to sew the garment in question, these instructions won’t cut it but I didn’t find the instructions as horrible as I had been expecting.

The instructions for Vogue 1558 used some techniques which I had never heard of before such as “double-stitching” all seams. This isn’t widely used in the indie pattern world.
I also felt that there were less attempts made to ensure that the end garment was well-stabilised, compared to the construction methods in indie patterns. I am used to indie patterns using elastic to stabilise waistbands and shoulders in knits, whereas none of this was suggested. In addition, I also decided to add some knit interfacing around the zipper and at the neckline. It just seemed more secure that way.

The main thing though, that struck me as a bit different about this pattern, is that, well frankly, having sewn it, I have no idea why Vogue 1558 is a knit pattern, rather than a woven pattern. And I am wondering if this is a more general Big 4 tendency. You see, one time, I decided to explore buying some big 4 patterns. I spent ages on the Vogue website picking some out. In the end, the shipping cost added up and I never actually made the purchase. But while I was going through, picking and choosing, I was often surprised, when I looked at the fabric requirements, to see that a dress used a knit fabric. When to me, the cut and styling of the pattern tended to lend itself more to woven fabrics.

Does anyone know whether this is actually a thing. Do the big 4 tend to gravitate towards using knits? Perhaps because they are more forgiving in times of sizing (just like all that crazy ease)? Or perhaps their audience prioritises comfort?

In my opinion, this pattern, vogue 1558, would look out of this world in rayon. In a knit it works but it is really rather heavy. At the centre front, you have to attach layers of pleats at the bodice, to layers of pleats at the skirt. There were times I was literally sewing though 7-8 layers of fabric to attach the pleated sections. It broke my overlocker needle. It was ridiculously thick. I am also worried about whether the waist seam, with all its layers of pleating, will hold of well over time. But if you replaced knit fabric with some nice fine rayon or silk, I think Vogue 1558 would be out of this world…

Still, I don’t mean to complain too much. I actually really like this dress.

Vogue 1558: My modifications

As to my specific version, I made a few slight modifications, apart from tweaking the size. Vogue 1558 calls for the sleeve to be finished with elastic at the cuff.

Umm, no.

Just no.

Even on the pattern envelope, this just looks soooo cheap.

So I replaced the elastic with a cuff and then, to get my enormous sleeve down to size, I inserted a deep pleat down the outside edge of each sleeve. I really like it this way. I have to admit that the sleeves were initially the one thing I didn’t like about the pattern. My original aim was to replace the sleeves with a more skin-tight one. But when I saw the craze-shaped sleeve pattern piece I lost confidence in my ability to do this.

But I do love my cuffed and pleated alternative.

I also added pockets. And shortened the overall length by 14 cm – it felt a little less “Little House on The Prairie” this way. Next time around, I would also shorten the bodice too. It is a little too long, especially since it is likely to sag over time.

Overall this is a super pretty dress. It is sooo comfy to wear. I feel like it is a dress which just screams springtime and new beginnings. I happily wore it for a chocolate pig out on Easter Sunday! And I think that the print on this fabric is just a perfect companion to the pleats and design lines of Vogue 1558. So I am very happy with it, but it hasn’t left me desperately wanting to explore the Big 4 world. It is nice to have learnt a bit more about sewing big 4 in the future, which could help me for the day when I do suddenly see a big 4 pattern that I need to have. But for now, I remain steadfastly happy as a die hard indie pattern fan…

ADDENDUM (8 April 2018): After publication of this post a number of readers very usefully pointed out in the comments that Vogue patterns mark their finished garment measurements on the pattern pieces themselves. I totally hadn’t noticed this! So if you’re a big 4 newbie like me, you can find the finished garment measurements on the pieces – looking something like this:

Thanks so much sewcialists for filling in the gaps in my knowledge! This should make sewing Vogue patterns much easier in future. Hopefully, therefore, no more whinging about ease for me! (Although I still think it wouldn’t hurt to just put this info into a table!!)

 

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