Sweet-Twee Macaron

I know this isn’t Earth shattering news, but I absolutely adore Colette Patterns.Sarai designs such pretty, flattering, feminine designs. I always feel like a lady when I wear one of my Colette’s. I even got a compliment from a stranger as soon as I left the house today. That always feels good 🙂 This is Macaron, and I unfortunately let it languish in the pattern stash far too long. I decided to pull it out so that I could participate in this months Sew Collette, hosted by Erin, Rochelle, and Sarah.

I found both of these fabrics thrifting, so this pretty dress cost me only about $15 to make. Gotta love that! The blue floral is a very light and somewhat sheer cotton gauze, and the brighter blue is some sort of drapey linen blend. I have a bunch left of both fabrics, so you might see some more of them.

As far as making this , I finished this in a day. That’s not to imply that it was easy or came together quickly. I just got super focused and had a dressmaking marathon. I think I spent about 8-9 hours total on this (thank you Radio Lab and This American Life podcasts)! I found this dress to be quite challenging and every bit the intermediate rating that it has.

I had originally planned for some sheer silk chiffon for the upper bodice and magenta rayon twill for the body, but I’m glad I haven’t cut into those fabrics yet. I’m not sure if my skills are up to snuff to make a challenging dress out of challenging fabric.

I don’t know if other people have noticed this, but I had a few typos on my pattern. Most notably one of the midriff pieces, was missing the cutting line for the size 4 . I guestimated, but there was little bit of fudging the skirt to match the waistband. Other than that every thing went together well, if not quickly. It’s pretty tricky attaching the sweetheart, to the upper bodice. That alone took me an hour.

I love the shape of the sleeves on this dress. It’s a very subtle but pretty detail. It mimics the overall curviness of the rest of this dress. I’m pretty sure I’ll be adding these sleeves to other patterns in the future. This dress is so flattering and easy to wear. I really like this! The guts of this are serged and not super interesting. I also finished this with a super-crazy-long metal invisible zipper. I didn’t want to frack my scissors up cutting it down so the zipper goes all the way to the hem.

I’ve had it in my head for months to make a fall version of this dress with a cream colored cotton lace and mustard yellow wool. Since I haven’t found either of those fabrics, don’t expect to see that version anytime soon. I’m really itching to make it though, so hopefully I can find that fabric come October or November.

xx, Cynthia

P.S. I just saw that I’ve reached 100 followers (I’m at 103 actually) which is very exciting to me. I’m very thankful to have ya’ll to gush about our mutual hobby with. I’ve got a giveaway to say thank you planned. I just have to decide what I’m going to put together. It’ll be a nice goody-bag of supplies, patterns and fabric. Expect a post on that this weekend.