If you sew, here's some sage advice from the 1949 Singer Sewing Manuel!

[Ms. Toad]

92. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever use Vogue.

Ever single time I have used Vogue, there has been a mistake in the pattern which made it impossible to assemble. The most recent was my daughter's prom dress - I had sworn off Vogue after the previous disaster (which had me sewing - ironically - a vest). Following the directions resulted in a vest which could not be turned right side out after assembly, so I had to rip it out and use my topological skills to figure out how they intended me to assemble it.

Against my better judgment, I allowed my daughter to pick a Vogue pattern. This time I started the dress way in advance. I read the directions through twice - slowly - to see if I could find the "easter egg" which has been in every previous Vogue pattern I have used. Couldn't find it. I ran into several defective zippers (not Vogue's fault). Then, once I got a zipper which was not defective, I continued my assembly and found it. It was subtle. They had identified the inside of a piece facing out for assembly - when they intended it to be the outside facing out. It was designed for sheer fabrics, so sewing it and ripping it out damaged the fabric. I was pissed enough that I wrote them and pointed out their error, after I was all done. Even though the pattern had been released two years earlier, and they had identified the error almost immediately, they had not sent out replacement directions (or a warning sheet to slip into the patterns already printed, or a note to print in future pattern books) to prevent the kind of damage I did before I realized the subtle error.