Pink Paisley Dress with High-Low Skirt (Vogue 9343)

This post may contain affiliate links – this means I may receive a commission if you decide to make a purchase through links on this post, at no additional cost to you. Affiliate links will be marked with an asterisk (*).

It's been a wee while since I've had to play catch up on a make from last year I never got round to blogging, but that's exactly what I've got for you today.

I made this colourful number last summer, using 2m of gorgeous paisley cotton satin. This is the pink version of the fabric used for both my print suit and one of my Lamour dresses - it was originally intended to be used as a garishly clashing waistcoat for the suit, but I decided against it in the end, as I wasn't actually that keen on how the fabrics looked together (and I demonstrate that point in the photo below).

So I thought I'd make a dress instead. This fabric does lend itself to something fun and light and summery, so that's exactly what I went for. I absolutely loved the bodice of Vogue 9343* when I used it for my red satin dress - the plunging neckline and shoulder pleats speak to me on a deep and personal level, so I knew I needed to remake this. But never being satisfied to just leave patterns be, I decided to go my own way for the skirt, with a high-low, gathered version.

Now, as I'm blogging about a project I did just under a year ago, I'll level with you - I don't entirely remember how I went about this, and I definitely didn't take any photos of the process. My explanations are generally pretty useless on the best of days when I at least know what I mean, but this one...this one's based on vague recollections and assumptions based on what I'd do today. At an educated guess, I'd say I measured where I wanted the front and back to sit, and marked these measurements on each end of the remaining fabric. Then I drew a line connecting these two, added in seam and hem allowances (this has a CF and CB seam but no side seams) and cut out. As a general rule, you want your pre-gathered length to be about 3x your waist measurement, but I was just working with what I had so I don't think I was particularly fussed about the length of my fabric panels.

I then did the same with the lining - I was using some hot pink crepe* - and I attached the lining to the fashion fabric at the hem before gathering the waist seam. I gave everything a good iron and made sure all fabrics were sitting flat, then machine gathered the top edge of both the outer fabric and lining fabric together - i.e. they were being treated as one fabric at this stage. This made for an incredibly bulky seam, which requires a larger needle than previous stages if you want to avoid breakages. I also always increase the stitch length for bulky seams - I normally sew at 2.5, but increase to 3 or even 3.5 on thick seams, then go in a second time on a 2.5 or 3 - and sew much, much slower than usual.

It was then time to sew the skirt to the bodice. As with my previous rendition of this pattern, I added a lining to the top half - I explain how I did this in the other post - and this was crucial for avoiding an unslightly waist seam. I attached the skirt (all layers) to the outer bodice, then trimmed away excess bulk from the seam in layers, added an invisible zipper to the centre back seam, then handsewed the bodice lining down, covering the waist seam. And hey presto, you have a dress!

Overall, I'm so pleased with how this turned out and I really enjoy wearing it - the one advantage with blogging a year after making is that at least I can properly assess its wearability, and the result is that, yes, I do wear it. The only inconvenience it has is that the waist gathers are super bulky - if you want the volume in the skirt, you've got to deal with the bulk at the seam. I think my skirt panels ended up at least 4x the length of my waist measurement pre-gathering, so that is a lot of fabric to be cramming into a small area. This is absolutely fine if you have a belt to cover up the seam, but this means it isn't a dress I could ever wear without one. Which again is fine, but slightly annoying when you currently one have one belt that goes with it.

I think that's all I've got to say about this dress. Thanks so much for reading and be sure to check in later for more newness!

And as a bonus for getting to the end of this post, here's a GIF of me swishing around. Gotta love a swishy skirt.