FO: Colette Parfait

Long time, no post, huh?  I've been so busy the last several months.  There was a hockey game, a concert, a trip to South Florida, a few hikes, lots of cooking, and even a few finished dresses.  The first one I finished was the Colette Parfait I started back in November.  It took me long enough!  The thing that was holding me up was my buttonholer.  I have a really old sewing machine and it has a buttonholer attachment.  The way the fabric was going through the buttonhole process was causing the needles to catch the bobbin thread in the wrong position and bending my needles.  I ended up buying another buttonholer to finish the dress up.

I might have mentioned the modifications before, but here they are again.  I cut the 0 and left the length alone (CP are short I think, especially considering I'm 4'11").  I did a SBA and had to take 1.5" off the bodice pieces.  As a result, I had to redraft the facings to fit my new curves.  When I went to sew the bodice to the skirt, my pattern pieces were off about a half inch--the skirt was wider than the bodice.  I made this dress a second time (photos soon!) and had the same problem, so I don't think it was me.  To compensate, I am going to make a smaller seam allowance on the bodice pieces for my next version.  I could use a little extra room to take some pressure off the zipper anyway.  My buttons are all functional because I have giant shoulders and I wouldn't be able to get this on/off without them.  I'm beyond pleased with this dress and I will make this pattern again and again.  I'm trying to figure out how to add actual sleeves to make a wintery version. 

Here is some picspam:

Happy Monday and hopefully regular posting will resume.

~elle