A Tale of Two Dresses

My spate of selfish sewing has continued - with two more dresses.

First - a Colette Chantilly. I fell in love with this pattern months ago after seeing the gorgeous one Millie made. Pattern duly ordered, fabric chosen and bought - and then procrastination. However, it had been my plan to make it for my 40th birthday, and with the date approaching, I finally did it.






I really enjoyed making this - I found it came together easily, and am pleased with the end result. The fabric (AMH Loulouthi Clippings in Sherry voile) worked well with the pattern, and the busy print helps hide the flaws (& there are many).



However - it's too big :-( I made a 14, as I went with my bust measurement - but I really really should have made a 12, which is my normal size. I can take in the darts at the back, but am not looking forward to doing it...

Second up - a Washi dress. This one was a love at first sight pattern too - and I bought it as soon as it was released - as a PDF....and while it got printed, I couldn't bring myself to tape it together. So when Rae announced a paper version, I decided to get it. I found an Aus stockist - Sew Squirrel, & I traced it off the day it arrived - I love paper patterns!

I was worried that it would look like a tent on me - I have big boobs & relatively small hips - but I needn't have - it really does seem to flatter a wide range of body shapes.

My second concern with this pattern was the shirring - I've not had much success with it in the past. My first solution didn't work (sewing rows of thin elastic across the back, a la The Museum Tunic), so I ended up using some ribbon to making a casing









This worked really well - but I only did 4 rows of elastic instead of six - which is fine, but I should have started from the bottom shirring mark and gone up - the bottom of my elastic does not match the bottom of the front bodice.

The only other thing worth noting - the pattern pieces have the pockets attached, and as Rae points out in the directions, most fabric won't be wide enough to accommodate this (particularly the bigger sizes). She includes a stand alone pocket piece for this situation - but I ended up just cutting the pocket bag a teensy bit smaller, kept the selvedge, and used a smaller seam allowance on that section.


Again, I love the finished dress and have the second one planned already - although it may have to wait a week or so, as I'm feeling the need to make the kids some things for Christmas...