Colette Crepe Dress

Why do all my crafting blog posts start off with “I started this a few years ago” or “I bought this some time ago”?   I suppose it’s a good thing that I’m now getting through all my projects!   This project for Handmade Monday is a relatively new one but one which has taken longer than planned.

When I was younger, I made a lot of clothes.   Skirts, dresses, waistcoats, tops, trousers all came off of my sewing machine.   4 episodes of the Great British Sewing Bee later and I’m back in the chair.

I’ve been admiring Colette patterns for a while so I chose a particularly gorgeous looking one and started shopping for fabric.

I am a fan of the lovely Kath at Sew La La and would buy bolts of fabric from her if I could sneak it in past the husband.   This dress needed something pretty so going to the home of pretty fabric was all the excuse I needed.

 

As you can see, I may have strayed off the brief and also bought some fabric for a skirt, and some fat quarters and binding which I’m sure will come in handy for something one day!

The pattern was a bit of a disappointment.   Although the instructions were shown in a book which is much better than the standard huge piece of paper, the tissue pattern itself was a pain.   This photo is a close up of the numbers.   I know my eyesight isn’t 100%, but the numbers are really poorly printed.

 

And which line do I cut along exactly?

 

 

Nevertheless, I managed to cut the fabric and worked out the new cutting layout as I was using a directional patterned fabric.

 

I made sure I measured myself according to the US size charts, but even then I found my top, middle and bottom were 3 different sizes.   Without a dressmaking dummy, it was difficult to try and fit the pattern to my weird size and I ended up having to adjust the shoulders by 2″ which has meant the rest of it isn’t perfect.   With the addition of a husband who has a knee phobia, getting a hemline pinned was impossible.   Therefore enter Felicity.

This shot is before I fattened her up to my size and lent her some underwear to increase her bust to the size of a woman in her 40’s who has fed two babies.   Felicity is still rather perky, but with a bit of padding, I’ll sort her out.   Hopefully if my diet and exercise gets back on track, I’ll be gradually winding in her size before too long.

And here it is.   Hemmed and pressed.   Hopefully I’ll look as good as Felicity does in it.

I’ve got two more dresses and a skirt, plus lots of Craftyguidelet clothes to make now.   I’m really excited to get back into dressmaking again.   The bug has bitten.

Linking to the Handmade Monday blog where you can see what other talented crafters have been getting up to.   And if you’ve found my blog through Handmade Monday, why not click the Bloglovin’ button on the right to follow my blog and see what else I get up to.