Colette Parfait

In the past several months I've had several makes that were tragically bad, and so to being the summer sewing season I picked something I know I like and can make successfully: The Colette Parfait dress.  This was one of the first patterns I ever made and I've always loved it.  

I added piping to the gathered pockets:

The fabric is Liberty of London and it's sheer, so I omitted the facings and added a lining.  I didn't understand how to do that when I first started, so I'm going to describe it here in case anybody needs it:  It's overwhelming when you're first starting out, but it's actually really easy. 

1. When sewing the Liberty of London fabric, I only used one front midriff piece and one back midriff piece.  I put them front sides together with the bodice and skirt, and after stitching the seam I serged the seam allowance.

2. The invisible zipper is sewn to the shell fabric. 

3.  I used a simple white cotton for the lining.  I put it together exactly like I did the shell fabric, with no facings and only one front and back midriff piece.  I also cut the skirt pieces one inch shorter than the shell fabric so they don't poke out of the hem.

4. With right sides together and the edges serged, I places the lining fabric on top of the invisible zipper and sewed right down the zipper on top of the lining fabric.

5. Switching to a regular foot, I pinned the top of the shell and lining together and stitched right across the top. You'll also notice that I put my gathers right in the middle of the bodice instead of under each cup.  I like it better that way. 

6. I then flipped it right side out, pressed the seam, and topstitched it.  I know an invisible zipper is supposed to be invisible, but I always find that the fabric gets caught in the zipper even if I press it.  I sew a straight topstitch along the zipper to keep everything tucked in where it's supposed to be.  

Happy sewing!

 

Colette Parfait #2

 

This is my second Colette Parfait (see the first one here) of the season and my favorite of the two.  I used this Liberty of London fabric as a lining for my Colette Albion.  I loved it so much I wanted to make a dress out of it.  It disappeared from the www.fabric.com website for a little bit but once it reappeared I snatched it up. 

 

I underlined my last Parfait with muslin but I chose a white batiste for this one. I found it at a big box store and was pleasantly surprised by how much I like it.  And the price!

 

 



I think I'm going to make a winter version of this dress in a red wool crepe and wear it over a shirt.  I hadn't thought about it as a winter dress until I read the packaging.  I think the pockets are darling but you can't really see them in the busy prints I've chosen.  Maybe I'll find some way to bedazzle them in a solid color fabric.

I like the back of the dress a lot.

 

I'm pleasantly surprised by how often I've been wearing the dresses I've made this summer. I feel like my productivity rate is the highest it's ever been.  That must have something to do with the fact that I'm making more than one version of each pattern and therefore don't have to fool around with fitting issues.



Colette Parfait

 

If you squint a little the print on this dress isn't so loud.  I ordered this Liberty of London print from www.fabric.com many moons ago.  It wasn't exactly what I pictured, and by that I mean I didn't like it at all when I opened the box.  I kept it and recently decided to use it to revisit the Colette Patterns Parfait dress as a wearable muslin of sorts.  I liked it online because the flowers look like my all-time favorite dahlias, but in person the little squiggles in the background just don't do it for me.

 

The Parfait dress is the first pattern I feel in love with from Colette Patterns.  There are just so many things about it that are adorable to me: the gathered pocket, the gathered bust, the sundress style back, the empire waist.  I made my first version in the infancy of my sewing career and the SBA made it extremely challenging for me.  I don't even remember how many muslins I did.  When I pulled out the pattern pieces I traced back then, there were various sizes so apparently I did a whole lot of guessing.  The dress isn't lined, so for this version I underlined it in muslin I had lying around.  I didn't bother to do any pattern matching and I'm not bothered by that at all.  Life is too short to pattern match on a pattern with a lot of seams and a crazy print.

 

You have to look really hard to find the pockets. Hint: look for the button:

 

 

 

The back keeps you sort of cool in the sweltering heat of the midwest summer.

 

 

The only part I'm not crazy about is the facing.  I had to catchstitch it to the underlining so it would stay in place.  It didn't take long and I think it's a must-do on this dress or else your facing will be all over the place. 

 

The only thing I changed about the instructions is I installed the invisible zipper at the top of the side seam instead of sewing the front and back together for about an inch and then installing the zipper under that per the instructions.  I don't even know how I would get the dress on if I did that.

 

A close up of the print and the front bodice:

 

 

I'm glad I sewed this up even if the print is a little obnoxious because I want to make another version in a sweet print and I want to make sure I get that right.  I did wear this dress to the park today, though, so maybe I'll get some wear out of it.