Licorice Dress, part 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.

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!

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.

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?

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!

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...