Friday, June 1, 2012

Licorice Dress, part 1

Licorice dress 1
Well, as usual, I'm a day late and a dollar short, as my mom would say. I finished this dress on Memorial Day, but then didn't have a chance to photograph it for a few days, so I missed the chance to be in the Licorice parade. Ah well.

Licorice Dress 4
Anyway, this is the final pattern from the Colette Sewing Handbook and the last bit of the Sew Colette sew-along. Sniff. When I first saw the book's patterns, I was really excited about this one. But as the time to make it drew near, I became ambivalent. That is, until I made the muslin. Because, holy crap!, this style looks really cute on me!

Licorice Dress 3
The dress took me a while because it's fully lined and I followed all of the instructions. I must've spent two hours on the collar alone, with all the trimming and grading and clipping of curves.... By the time I got to the sleeves I just wanted to be DONE, so I went with pre-made bias tape I had on hand. I'm not ashamed.

Licorice Dress 2
When I made the muslin, I tried it on with the Peony belt I had made and really liked the look, so I made another to wear with this dress. I really like the kind of pop the electric blue gives it; what do you think? Too much?

Licorice Dress sans belt
I pretty much just made my usual modifications to the pattern. The double-pointed darts are tricky, so I didn't want to mess around with them. I removed 1" from the bodice because I'm a shorty, did a sway-back adjustment, and extended the back darts both up and down for a smoother shape. I read over the finished garment measurements and decided there was enough ease built into the pattern that I could forego my usual FBA. Yessssssssss!

Licorice Dress hems
So, I like this dress. The sleeves are going to save me at a family function in a few weeks (cough, cough), so I'm happy about that. I think I could've gone a little more snug on the elastic, but I'd rather have the cuffs be too loose than too tight. Like Rochelle, I found this pattern to be a bit short. Instead of doing a normal hem, I used more of the pre-made bias bind, so I only took 1/4" off the length.

And that's that! I have another version of this dress coming up, and a reveal of what I did with the silk! So stay tuned...