The Vampires Wife inspired dress (version 3) - sugar skulls and roses

So here is version 3 of The Vampires Wife inspired dresses. Or as it is so far. I decided to show you this depsite my problems with it.

Its based on TVW Birthday dress. I did the double elbow frills here and a single hem like the Birthday dress. All have rolled hems.

I am not too keen to be honest on the double sleeve frills and will probably not repeat unless its a very thin fabric ( which this actually is). maybe the sleeve frills are just a bit too long?

I did not pattern match at the waist so added a thin red satin ribbon which covers this and defines the waist. This dress does feel very 1980s. I had just under 2m of this so pattern matching was not possible. I have very little left over.


This is a 100% cotton. Its a very thin fabric - I managed to slightly rip the neck whilst fitting the bodice during construction - my own fault for not top-stitching round the neck - so its got a slightly lower neck than the first two versions to hide this. Having said that I think its a better size for the neck so thats one to remember.




It will be a perfect fabric if we get a hot summer though.

The fabric should be OK for work because it looks at first glance like its floral.

In fact it has sugar skulls as well and hearts and anchors. I like it.

I am not at all a fan of floral dresses which of course nearly all of the The Vampires Wife range are. I did use floral fabric for version one of my dresses inspired by this look but that was because I have a whole roll of floral cotton light weight curtain fabric which seemed a good choice - being a dress weight cotton - since this would allow me to make multiple variations as muslins in the same fabric to get the first dress to work.

As it turned out I did not need to make multiple versions because miracle of miracles the blocks I made actually fitted me - or nearly. I did need to adjust the top of the shoulders where the sleeve joins - not sure of the correct terminology for this bit of the pattern. Anyway I think probably the fabric I used for this dress is actually more authentically The Vampires Wife style than my previous two versions.




The sleeves have a slightly different block (see below)


After my analysis of the TVW sleeves in this post https://brackencrafts.blogspot.com/2019/04/update-on-vampires-wife-sleeves.html

I slightly altered my sleeve block to add more fabric down the centre of the sleeve at the top:







So below is my original sleeve from version 2 - the blue dress

My original puffed sleeve block

Version two sleeve was gathered. I realised later that the proper TVW dress has pleats at the sleeve head not gathers. I also read that it has shoulder pads - 1980s style!

I am not going to add shoulder pads to my dresses. I also think it has more volume mid sleeve as well so decided to attempt this.

To make my sleeve fuller I cut down the centre line of the original puffed sleeve block but I left the hem edge still intact and uncut then and spread the rest out to add some more space in the middle, drew the top line in and made the sleeve block below:

New fuller sleeve block with extra space in centre of sleeve

This is not a very good photo but all I took of this sleeve during doing this. I added seam allowance as you can see when cutting.

So I went ahead and cut this sleeve for version 3. Then though I found this version of The Vampires Wife dress the other day - see below orange dress. Its different in that the sleeve frills have a contrast lining. Easy to do of course assuming the lining fabric is not too thick because I had some problems trying to gather two layers of cotton fabric for my first version of The Vampires Wife inspired dress.This time I gathered each separately and then sewed on separately.

This picture of the orange dress is interesting in the fact the sleeves seem quite narrow, like my own version 2 pattern which I used to make the blue dress, but my third version I have added a little extra fabric to the centre of the sleeve block by slashing down.

I am now wondering if I needed to do this at all. But then its not about making an exact copy of The Vampires Wife dress but a similar style which fits me and makes me feel comfortable and keeps the essence of that look so I suppose really that does not matter.

AND I am learning how altering a pattern effects the end result here so its all very interesting!

Version 3

I realised that version 3 is bigger - wider across the bodice which makes it more boxy. I also think the sleeve/ shoulder heads are too far out on my arms. Or not properly on my shoulders. These sleeves are pleated not gathered at the shoulder but even then its just not right and does not fit which is a shame since this is the more expensive fabric. I already took the shoulder in by about 1cm - making it harder to unpick!

Unfortunately this dress is entirely overlocked inside as well!

I am not keen on the shape at all if I have no belt. Its just not as fitted as it should be. Though I think the version the model wears above is too tight. Its not stretch fabric and I need to be able to move.
But having said that this version of mine is too big for me.

Its not a simple job to take it in. It will need to be deconstructed and remade but possibly better to attempt this than leaving as it is.

I am now considering taking the sleeves off and resewing the bodice side seams but keeping the skirt width almost the same because the bodice darts do line up as intended with the side seams as here. I have not taken a photo of the skirt and side seams but will add one later. It all lines up anyway.

It is definitely not as fitted as I would like. Or as fitted as the first two dresses. I do not want to end up with a tight skirt again though and have to let it out as the blue dress.

But probably it would be worth me taking the extra time to make this version right, as I did with the blue dress. I now love my blue dress despite a few imperfections.

However as already stated this fabric is pretty thin ( unlike the blue dress fabric) and not very strong so maybe in some aspects it is best left alone.
What a dilemma!

I will be risking wrecking it if I start to take this apart. 

Without doing so tho I probably will not feel I want to wear this so I should make the attempt to put it right and the fabric is much liked and has been hoarded for over a year waiting for something worth making.

Something for me to ponder on I suppose. 

I am also not at all sure about those fuller sleeves. I cannot change them of course for this dress, but may not repeat them.

Should I make yet another version of this dress and go back to the version 2 sleeves?

I do prefer this length of skirt so that is a plus.

I was not going to make a fourth dress but may have to just to get it right one time.

Ah this is a project all right!

UPDATE: I have now taken this dress to pieces and am going to remake it. I just could not live with an ill fitting dress when made of such lovely fabric. See later for more on this particular project.

Bracken