Thanks everyone for the nice comments about Vogue 1087! I said I was going to sew something simpler next, and my plan is to make this Burda dress. It’s from the September 2010 issue.

I already made the matching skirt in neoprene. It was a success, so I thought I’d try to make the dress as well. This attempt is going to be a muslin (possibly wearable, possibly not) because I’m not sure of the fit. The pattern is petite and I’m quite the opposite! However the neoprene I’m using is a really old piece that’s been sitting in my stash so long it’s developed permanent creases, so no loss if it doesn’t work out. And if it does work out, I have a better piece I could use to make it again.

Neoprene is a a pain in the neck to sew but it is amazingly easy to cut out. You flop it down on the floor and it lays nice and flat straight away. It doesn’t seem to be possible to distort the grain because it’s so elastic it pulls straight back into shape again. And best of all, you can just chalk round your pattern pieces on the wrong side and then cut out the chalk outlines.

It couldn’t be much easier.

You can see the creasing in the picture from where I folded the fabric for storage, not knowing any better at the time. Luckily I was able to avoid the worst of it when cutting my pieces out. And yes, it really is that shade of red. But that’s what I’m going to use as the wrong side; the other side is black.

I suspect the sewing isn’t going to be quite as simple as the cutting out.