I’m a fan of Pattern Fantastique designs and enjoyed making their Calyx Smock last year. Having seen some great Vali tops and dresses out there, I finally gave that pattern a try last summer. Those dramatic Pre-Raphaelite sleeves really got me!
The Vali is far outside my style comfort zone but I was eager to make something with our Snowdrift handloom cotton, and I knew they would work well together. As customers had told me, the fabric is sheer but not too sheer, and very comfortable to wear. It’s been great for spring and fall, and even better during summer heat waves.
The Snowdrift cotton fabric is quite soft but tends to unravel a bit. Seam finishes are a must. Because it’s also slightly translucent, I decided to make a few changes to the construction, including French seams and a fully faced yoke. This got me into some trouble further down the road but everything turned out okay in the end.
Vali gets its style from a very full body and sleeves gathered to a shaped front-and-back yoke. The pattern calls for several small facings around the various seams of a single-layer yoke. I chose to make the yoke as a double layer instead. The idea was to completely enclose all the seams, eliminating the need for all those facings. They would have showed through on this fabric.
To do this, I prepared two full front/back yoke sections and sewed them together around the entire neckline, pivoting at the corners of the front slash. Then I edgestitched the whole neckline to finish it off neatly. That helps keep this slightly springy fabric flat around the neck edge. In the next two photos you can see what a difference this makes.
A little sewing note: You might be tempted to trim the seam allowances on these enclosed corners. With a fabric like this which might ravel, don’t do it! That could weaken the seam allowances. Instead, try the nifty trick we mentioned here to turn the seam allowances over your fingertips and make a flat, square corner.
Sometimes I’m not good at envisioning how a change I make might impact the rest of a garment's construction. In this case, I wasn't sure how best to fully enclose the sleeves and body seams in the double-layer yoke. For part of it I used the burrito method, and in the end I had to turn some of the inside yoke hems under and stitch by hand. Then I edgestitched those seams from the outside, as I had done around the neckline.
The second big change I made was to use French seams for the rest of the garment — side seams and sleeves. Unfortunately, it seems that I've lost of bit of my sewing knack after hardly sewing in the last few years and I didn't plan ahead quite far enough!
What happened? To allow for French seams, I needed to add 1/4 inch to the 3/8 inch seam allowances given on the pattern. Some of the pattern pieces are unusually shaped, however, and I accidentally overlooked the short underarm seams when cutting out. I didn’t realize that they didn't get the additional width until I was ready to sew them and things didn’t match up. Once I figured out what had happened, I stitched the seams with the original 3/8 allowances, then bound them with narrow bias strips. Not perfect, but good enough.
Other construction notes: This pattern has a lot of gathers! I stitched 3 rows of gathering stitches as suggested in the directions, then pulled the fabric up completely and stroked the gathers. This is an heirloom sewing technique that helps align all those tiny gathers so they lay nicely. Just run the eye of a large needle across the rows of gathers to even things out.
Below, this is how it looks before stroking the gathers:
And this is after. The effect is rather magical.
The Vali has some interesting details. The instructions suggested hemming the top before stitching the side seams. This resulted in a sharp point and a super-clean finish where the curved hems meet the side seam. That's a good technique to remember. And I love the shoulder darts in the yoke. It's an underutilized detail which makes for a great fit.
My only other modification was to enlarge the neckline, as usual. I don’t like high round necks, so I stitched the neckline with a 1/2 inch seam allowance instead of the 3/8 inch called for. This makes more of a difference than one might expect, and now it’s just right.
All in all, the Vali is another cool pattern from Pattern Fantastique. Though my construction changes caused some trouble, it was an interesting project that wouldn't normally be too difficult. Most importantly, I really love it! I’ve been wearing it a lot, trying it in different ways — flowing, tucked, belted. Someday I’ll make the dress version, too.
I was also happy to learn that our Snowdrift fabric was a pleasure to work with and to wear. No wonder it's been a best-seller for so long!
Shop Snowdrift handloom cotton fabric.