Maddie brought Vogue #1337 with her to class as her first project.
One student years ago said after they came up the stairs, walked down the industrial hallway, and then into the workrooms “It is like the bat cave, but for sewing!”. So we loved right off the bat that the Vogue pattern catalogue describes #1337 as a “misses’ batwing dress”. So appropriate for a first project.
Let’s go.
Maddie had chosen an alligator print purple knit for this in a medium-lighter weight 2 way stretch, but it could easily be worked up in anything from a jersey to an interlock to a lightweight fleece depending on the look you want. We’ve had students use this pattern a couple of times since in medium weight athletic cotton, bamboo jersey, as well as a semi-sheer jersey and it has always come out great.
The pattern itself is actually much easier than it looks. The interesting shape of the garment relies a lot on the simple cut of the knit and how it drapes rather than on complicated pieces. The most difficult part of this for the beginner is probably going to be the bound neckline; the rest of it is fairly straightforward.
Maddie falls pretty squarely in a pattern size 10, so the fitting went off without a hitch and the knit was easy enough to work with. The only thing that may be said to a beginner using this pattern is that knits with a lot of slink and drape may be a bit of a challenge and you may want to think about using something with just a bit more resilience/stability.
(Our light/contrast balance is off a bit flattening her features out. Sorry.)
Maddie is short, so this looks great on her with the hem hitting about 3.5″ (8.8 cm) above the knee, but we’d mention that on an average or tall frame it is going to be a short skirt. If you are 5’5″ (165 cm) or taller, you may want to add between 2-6″ (~5-15 cm) to the pattern before you cut so that you don’t end up with a garment you can only wear with opaque tights.
You could also adapt this pattern for a medium to lightweight woven in charmeuse or something with a good slinky drape – you would just need to adapt the cuffs with perhaps a button closure and add a side or back zipper. It can’t be cut as-is in woven fabric.
You can find Vogue #1337 on the Vogue website here.
You can read what others think about Vogue #1337 on Patternreview.