Vogue 8543: The Pattern from Hell

My daughter was home this week on Fall break, and asked for a nice pencil skirt. She had a specific fabric in mind, but not a pattern. So we went to JoAnns and looked through the various books, and she spotted Vogue 8543.


We both really liked the lines of the pattern, and I figured it would be easier to just use the pattern, rather than try to suss out the curved seams in Pattern Editor.

So, I'm cutting out the pattern, and... Hmm. Piece 13 should be for the skirt.


But look at the pattern piece itself:


It clearly says "Middle Back (Jacket)".

I should have known I was in for trouble. Let's look at the instructions, shall we?


In my mind, the illustration and the text should agree. Here, the text says to press the seams toward the middle side back. Yet the illustration shows the seam pressed... which way? Part of it is towards the middle side back, but most of it is towards the side back piece. This isn't the only place the seam orientation is contradictory: pretty much every seam has the same disagreement. I ended up having to re-press pretty much all the pleats because I was going by the pictures and not the text. Grr.


Don't they have spell check at Vogue?? What is a "slirt"?? A novice might think it's a new sewing term.

The skirt doesn't even have a facing; the top front piece is interfaced and the lining is meant to go right up to the top edge of the waistline. I added a waistband out of necessity... because when I cut out and prepared the lining, it turned out to be a full INCH narrower than the finished skirt, and I did cut the same size and sewed correctly. So I ended up not bothering to line it at all.

The one saving grace is that it actually did turn out quite nicely.


A closer view of the front:


All the seams were edgestitched with charcoal grey embroidery thread. It's a very subtle touch.

Back view:

(I'm jealous of her ability to wear heels like that... My feet won't allow it)


It's a very flattering style on her, and I plan to spend the time figuring out how to replicate it with PatternMaster, because I think it would look great in a denim with gold edgestitching. But there's no way on earth I'm going to touch this pattern again.


Yep, it's hard to believe that's my little girl.

Comments

  1. Very frustrating indeed! Perhaps you should send the quality assurance team at Vogue a link to your blog page and ask them to comment.

    Your daughter looks amazing in her new skirt.

    Christiana
    sewamusing.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. That might be the skirt pattern from hell but your daughter looks absolutely heavenly in the final product!

    ReplyDelete
  3. You did a great job, despite the faulty pattern. It looks wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh, Welmoed, that is just gorgeous! Nicely done!

    SherryV

    ReplyDelete
  5. The "slirt" fits the lovely model beautifully! And you should definitely send your complaints to Vogue with the blog.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Regardless of your pattern woes, the skirt turned out wonderful; and, your daughter looks beautiful in it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks for the heads up, I have this pattern and planned on either my Christmas or Easter suit with it. Think it will be Easter. LOL

    ReplyDelete
  8. That's a fabulous skirt, despite the ridiculous pattern! I hate when I'm doing a special construction that requires me to actually follow the instructions, and it's worse when the instructions are so poor. :( Thank heavens you knew what you were doing!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Your daughter looks lovely. Oh to be able to not only wear the heels, but to wear a skirt with shaping like that!!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Great post, the skirt came out great!

    ReplyDelete
  11. thanks for linking this on my blog - I've become one of your followers so I don't miss out any more gems of your wisdom. You're not going to review the jacket sometime soon are you? LOL

    The skirt is gorgeous, but I think I will give it a try and be prepared for tears of frustration

    ReplyDelete
  12. She looks very Grace Kelly, especially in the last pic! The silk blouse and the fabric you picked for the skirt are lovely and flattering. Nice job. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Did you put the pattern into pattern master? that pattern is no longer available from vogue, and I'd be interested.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, I didn't. It would take a lot of work in Pattern Editor to get the curves to line up properly, and by the time I was done with sewing it I was so fed up with it I didn't even want to think about it anymore.

      Delete
  14. Hi! Did you have any problems joining the side back skirt piece at the curve- there seems to be so much extra! Did you shir/ruch this into place- I'm having a lot of difficulty. Any advice greatly appreciated!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't remember there being an issue with having to ease in extra fabric. One problem that might crop up is that the fabric can "grow" due to all the bias edges that come with the curved pieces, and that can lead to mismatching.

      Delete

Post a Comment

I would love to hear your thoughts... Please share!