yay another one done!!
made with 100% lightweight cotton pin dot shirting from fabric.com; i also handmade the piping. the pattern is sized 0-18, i cut mine in a straight size 4 but ended up taking quite a bit in at the waist as i like my dresses to be pretty fitted.
as with all colette patterns, the instructions were very clear with pictures for every step. the only thing i noticed was that the order you sew everything together jumped around a lot. it wasn’t really cohesive, but everything did work out in the end so no complaints here!
i only made a few alterations to the pattern – i piped the waistline, underbust, and sleeve hem. the hem is hand catch-stitched down with some soft lace. oh, and i definitely read the instructions wrong & sewed the main pieces together as sandwich, as opposed to overlapping & topstitching. miraculously, everything matched up in the end and still fit.
sewing in all those buttonholes – 16 total! – really wasn’t too bad. of course, my machine makes beautiful one-step buttonholes, so mostly i was just sitting there impatiently waiting while the machine did all the work 🙂
some detail shots:
the piping doesn’t match up in this picture but i promise it does in real life
SO MANY COVERED BUTTONS
i bought a small lot of buttons etsy for a song, but forgot (or i guess decided i didn’t “need”) the tool to cover them. they *are* coverable without the tool, it’s just a huge pain in the azz. i sewed a running stitch around each fabric circle & pulled it tight over the button head, then pushed in the back of the button with the handle of a butter knife. my fingertips are STILL sore, but at least my buttons look good!
i trimmed all the facing with strips of bias binding. very neat! the rest of the dress is just serged & pressed open.
conclusion?
I LOVE THIS DRESS