Colette Rue Dress–Sewing Bee Round 3

Okay, I did finish my Rue dress. It's kind of a mess. The bodice is cute in theory but obviously didn't work for me. I used size 2 (I think? I'm trying to think of it like pushing out a baby - once it's over, you forget) and added three inches to the bodice for my torso. Admittedly, I do have a long torso. I usually add an inch to Jalie, Burda, and KwikSew patterns. This is still higher than my natural waist. Maybe adding another inch would have helped? In these pictures, it looks fine. Well, it looks okay. I do, do, do super love the fabrics and colors together.






Here it doesn't even look bad. And I love the little belt I made. I'm keeping that even if the rest of it is going to donation.





But this, siiiiiiiiigh. Look at those bodice wrinkles. It's like I've got the Eye of Sauron on my torso. Well, I guess only if The Eye had a horizontal slit and not a vertical one. It's really too bad too, because I love this fabric.





If I stand perfectly still, The Eye goes away. The sleeves are wonky and, ugggggggghhhhhhhhhhh, well . . .  I'm just not going to be surprised when I get "invited to not progress to Round 4 of the Sewing Bee." There are so many good versions of this dress at PatternReview.com. I think most people made many muslins and did quite a bit of pattern drafting. Those are not skill sets I have. Whatever.




The red is a thin, crinkly gauze.





I really love the belt.





The zipper is put in perfectly and the lining is great too. Oh well. I tried my hardest, right? I'll be curious to see what the next challenge is even though I won't be in it.

Colette Patterns - Macaron - Muslin

I'm not looking great but here's the muslin. I have some tweaks to work out I think. Overall, it fits well. I like the style and it makes it look like I have a bust. This is the size 0 which has these measurements: b:33", w:25", h:35". My hips are about an inch bigger and my bust is an inch smaller. I didn't put in the zipper; I just pinned it shut. In some of the photos you can see some weird fabric poking out from there. (Excuse the big honking wrinkles in the back skirt; it's a muslin.)

Fit problems- (1) I've been working on a sloper pattern with the help of my jacket instructor. She said I have a narrow chest but wide shoulders. I put the pattern on top of my fitting shell and decided to leave it alone except for moving the shoulders out an inch. That might have been a bit too much. But, can you imagine how tight it would have been across the shoulders without that extra 2"? (2) The waistband of the dress hits me at the bottom of my ribcage, not at my natural waist. This does make my legs look unnaturally long but is that the way it is supposed to fit? (3) It is tight, tight, tight at the midriff band. I think that if I added an inch or so to the bodice and moved the midriff band down it would solve problems (2) and (3). Right now it's at the ribcage and not at my narrowest part. (4) This dress is unhemmed. I will add an inch or two to the bottom since this is as short as I want this dress. (5) This dress is designed for a C cup. I will do a tiny SBA tuck to get rid of any extra bust space. I was surprised that it wasn't super big on top.

Pattern problems (maybe): (1) See how the top of the back bodice is all wrinkly? I really had to ease it into the bodice bottom piece. It seems to be extra wide. The khaki fabric is a stretch twill and I had to stretch it to fit the white. I'll take a tuck out of the white piece in the back and leave the khaki piece alone.

How do you like it? eta: I made the pictures bigger so you can see the details. Also, like the new red shoes? My husband, I love that guy.

ETA: I was getting a lot of SPAM on this post so I locked the comments. Feel free to comment about this dress on later or previous posts. :)

Claire Shaeffer and Other News . . .

I rushed home on Friday because I was scheduled to have a class with Claire Shaeffer today. There was a presentation on Saturday and there was a class Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, I was only able to go to the Sunday morning class. My husband is gone right now and I had a hard, hard, hard time finding childcare. MIL is out of town, nanny could only do a morning gig, husband's gone, other sitters have summer jobs, neighbor boy is out of town, etc. I really wish I could have done a full day with her today. I learned so much in the four hours I was there. I made a turned tube that is about a 1/16" of an inch wide. Really, people, it can be done. That's the tube below. She had us do one with a charmeuse. When I came home, I did it with a spare piece of duppioni. I wouldn't have believed it either. I won't share the Shaeffer secrets but I do highly recommend this book. This technique is in this book as well as the Couture Sewing Techniques book. I got an older version of the shortcut book at a garage sale for $2.00.

Besides doing the amazing tube turning we also did several hemming techniques. I plan to use the interfaced version on my silk dress so you'll get to see that one in action. We also learned the basic catchstitch and blind hem stitch. Basic stitches but it is nice when someone is walking around saying, "Too loose, too tight, too far apart, etc." We were running late during the class so I didn't get to see the bound buttonholes technique. My nanny had to be to work by 12:30 and the class ended at 12:00. I was out of there by 12:02 so I could make it home in time for her to get to work. Claire said she was teaching that next. Sigh. I would have really liked to see that. As a person, she is very nice with a dry sense of humor. She's a great teacher too and lets you work at your own pace. As we finished something, we would go up to her and she would show us the next technique in small groups. I just wish I had more time with her. Oh well, hopefully there is a next time.

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I have this pattern cut out in muslin so I can test the fit. This is a new pattern company called Colette Patterns. They have four dresses and one skirt for their spring line-up. The sizing seems like it was vanity sized quite a bit. I know I'm a smaller person but I'm a size 0, the bottom of the size range. There are lots of people smaller than me. I should have that sewn up in a day or two.

Next, I have this dress cut out in a hand-painted silk crepe. Well, I think it's a crepe. It's one of those fabrics my husband brought back from Houston. He just knows fiber content, not weave. It's a heavier-weight drapey fabric. It's really pretty. Hopefully I'll have that done in a day or two too.

The longer motif will go on the back skirt and the shorter one will be on the front skirt.