Colette Dahlia

Before I go any further I have to say that the wrinkle on my fabric from my seat belt is driving me CRAZY. 

This is the newest pattern from Colette Patterns.  I was working on my jeans when the pattern was released but I have a Colette addiction so I had to suspend work on the jeans to make this dress.

 

 

I am normally not a big fan of color blocking because it feels modern and I'm not drawn to modern looks.  I got the idea of making the bodice of the dress in a different fabric and couldn't let it go.  I made it in a non-modern print so the dress doesn't feel too modern to me.  I chose a Liberty print (another addiction) called the Margaret Annie.  I originally ordered the tan wool flannel for my Albion coat but it was too boring for that.  I didn't think I would ever use it but I like it for this dress.

My original plan was to make the bodice and sleeves from the Liberty print but I obviously just stuck with the bodice front and back.  I made all the bias tape out of the Liberty print and even went to the trouble of sewing it to the hem. I like hand sewing.

I underlined the Liberty in plain muslin.  For some reason I thought I didn't need to underline the wool flannel because it wouldn't be itchy.  It's not terrible but it would be better with an underlining.

I actually went to the trouble of measuring the pattern pieces against my own measurements.  Crazy concept, right?! My muslin fit without any adjustments (go figure).  The bust and sleeves are a 2 and I graded out to a 4 for the waist and skirt. 

The neckline fit seems to be a common issue.  There is gathering at the center of the neckline but my issue came at the shoulder.  Do you see how it sticks up? 

I thought it might just be an issue with my muslin fabric when I did my test garment.  I didn't sew the bias binding on my muslin and I also thought that might help it lay down.  It didn't.  On my actual garment I tried to fix it by gathering the shoulder a bit.  That ended up looking cheap.  Then I thought maybe a pleat might work but that looked weird and resulted in pulling along the shoulders and chest. On my third try, I added gathers on the Liberty fabric closer to the shoulders.  Also a no-go.  Gathers along the back didn't work either. I was way too lazy to sew on new sleeves, but I wonder if a solution to the problem might be to slash out a wedge at the center of the raglan sleeve which would make the sleeve more narrow.  Has anyone tried this? There is a sewalong going on right now.  I haven't read the posts but I hope the answer isn't in the sewalong and I just didn't read it!

Back to the jeans!