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.



Sorry for the random Polyvore post

My apologies for the Polyvore posts. I was trying to enter the Colette Patterns Knitcation contest. I am a novice at Polyvore and all of a sudden things started posting on the blog! 

Moneta #3

One of the things I love about sewing is the ability to make an outfit for yourself out of anything you want.  If you want to go into the kid section for some knit fabric with ladybugs on it, then go for it just like I did.

This is my second to last Moneta for the season.  After the next one I'm making myself stop for awhile but then when fall and winter are approaching it's game on.

The ladybug fabric is from www.fabricworm.com and it's by Birch.  I love it even though it's not very drapey.  I like nice drapey jersey for this dress.  This fabric would be more suitable for a top that doesn't need drape but it still works here.

 

The orange fabric is from Sarah's in Lawrence KS.  It's a great quality fabric but it's a little on the thick side.  So is the ladybug fabric.  I was supposed to interface the Peter Pan collar but I didn't because 1) I didn't have any interfacing and I was feeling too lazy to run to the store and 2) I was worried that with the thickness of the fabric it would be a big bulky collar if I added interfacing.  I should have interfaced it because it waves a bit.  I'll know for next time. 

 

 

 

This is as close to the back of the dress as we're going to see today.  I just used the front piece out of the envelope for the back and then forgot to take a picture of it.

 

 

You can see how the hem waves a little bit.  I wasn't planning on that but I like it.  I used a twin needle for hemming and the wave gives it a little bit of extra personality.

 

 

I bought this label from www.sewaholicpatterns.com.  I love it! 

 

 







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.

 







 





Colette Moneta #2

Oh look.  Another Moneta. I don't see my love affair with this pattern coming to an end at any point in the near future.  It's easy to make and easier to wear which makes it the best in my book! Eventually maybe I'll get to the point where I only provide pictures with no text because I'll run out of things to say about it.

 

My oldest son has taken over as lead photographer for my sewing projects which is hilarious because he's such a jock.  He picked this location and told me where to stand so pretty much all I had to do was show up.  I'm happy because arranging photographs can be challenging when you are in them.  The above picture is my attempt at following the instruction to "look sassy."  Looking sassy is really hard.

 

 

I bought this fabric at Hancock's when I was in there for elastic.  It was sitting on the clearance rack for $3.50 a yard so I thought I wouldn't be losing much if it didn't work out.  It feels like tshirt material so when I'm wearing it's like wearing pajamas.

 



 

The flaps at the back look a little funny because the material tends to curl a little bit.  I can't see it so I'm not going to worry about it.  I chose to do a rolled hem instead of serging and turning under.  I actually did serge it first but it was rolling so much I decided to be lazy and just do the rolled hem.  I like it.  Rolled hems are a lot easier when you know how to do them.

 

I wonder how many of these I can make this summer.......

Me-Made-May '14 Round-up

My challenge was to wear two handmade garments per week in addition to making three pieces that I can wear in my everyday life.  I think I got the job done on the first part but I only made one garment for everyday wear.  That Sewaholic Cambie dress ate up the majority of my sewing time this month. I opted to get photos where I wore the item so that I could show myself how easy it is to wear things I've made.  That sometimes involved having strangers take my photo which was only awkward for a few minutes. Here's my round-up!

Day 1: Sewaholic Minoru at the Bernina store.

 

 

Day 2: Colette Sorbetto at the antique store:

 

 

 

Day 2 (evening): Sewaholic Hollyburn for a night out.  I love this skirt and I want to make more.

 

 

 

Day 6: Colette Sorbetto again at the library:

 

 

Day 8: Colette Sorbetto (unblogged) at Billy Vanilly in Lawrence, KS which makes the most wonderful cupcakes in the universe (and I don't even like cake!)

 

 

 

Day 10: Colette Sorbetto again, only this time I'm snacking on frog leg tacos at a food truck festival.

 

 

 

Day 14: Sewaholic Minoru again at the supermarket.  Yes I push two carts and yes that's the easiest way to do it.  If they're together in the car cart they're throwing punches by Aisle 3. 

 

 

 

Day 17: Sewaholic Cambie at a wedding. 

 

 

Somewhere around this time I wore this dress to church but even I won't ask someone to take a picture of me there.

 

 

 

Day 25: Hollyburn again to my oldest son's basketball tournament.

 

 

 

Day 26: Colette Hawthorn on a trip to the fruit stand and park with my kids.







 

 

Day 30: Colette Moneta on a run to the paint department at Home Depot. My almost 3 year old took this and I was pretty impressed by his accuracy.

 

 

 A couple of things while writing this: 1) Apparently I only sew Colette and Sewaholic patterns and 2) I need to make more tops.  Or maybe if I just make a million Monetas I'll be alright.  

















Colette Moneta

 

 

I love, love, love the Moneta from Colette Patterns! I purchased both the Moneta and Mabel (which I will not be making as a mini skirt in case you're wondering) plus The Colette Guide to Sewing Knits during the pre-sale which meant I didn't know what patterns I was buying.  So risky but turned out so well! It's a great every-day dress for my lifestyle.  I look more put together than shorts and a shirt but I'm still super comfortable which was the point of my RTW fast.

 

I used a Liberty of London Dufour jersey knit called Gleason from www.fabric.com but it's gone now.  Those Liberty prints are so pricey but so worth it.  It almost feels a little silky and sews up very well.  A standard adjustment for me is lengthening the bodice by an inch because I have a long torso and adding length to the skirt because I generally try to avoid the awkward maneuvering you have to do in a shorter skirt with kids and living life in general.  I did both of those adjustments but the bodice turned out too long and I serged inches off the skirt to get it to hit me at the knee. I don't feel uncomfortable in it but I will take away that inch in the bodice next time.

 

 

I went with the standard collar even though the pattern comes with 5 free downloadable collar variations.  I've never sewn sleeves by reaching between the bodice and lining before.  I liked the finish and will do that again.

 

I didn't realize until too late that the belt is way too big.  That's why I'm holding it with my finger in previous pictures.  It does allow you to see the gathering at the waistline in this picture though:

 

 

The dress is extremely easy to sew but gathering the skirt with the elastic did give me a second of trouble.  It went smoothly after I got the hang of it.  I had to stitch it down every few inches to keep things stable while I stretched the elastic.  Stretching the elastic while trying to keep it at the edge of the fabric for long stretches was too hard. 

 



 

I think I've found a wardrobe staple! It makes me laugh that I used to think knits were super hard.  This is my second knit garment and I'm in love.