Colette Macaron Dress

I finally finished my dress today!  This dress seemed like it had something against me and didn't want to be finished.  I made two muslins from the Colette Macaron pattern before I decided to cut into my Mood fabric.  My first muslin was too small, my second muslin was all over the place and I played around with that one a lot.  I finally got the fit the way that I wanted it on the muslin, but knew that I wanted to cut the dress a little larger through the waist.  I was so careful cutting it out, diligently pinning and using my tailors chalk because I wanted it to be perfect.  The other thing I wanted to do was use chiffon for the yoke and sleeves because I was inspired by this dress.  I read some tutorials on cutting and sewing chiffon to help prepare me for my new endeavor.

The cutting took forever and so did the marking of all the darts and pleats.  Next came the sewing.  I started on the bodice and it was really coming together nicely.  I was using a single layer of chiffon for the yoke and a double layer for the sleeves, as was written in the pattern.  I planned to use bias binding on the neckline instead of the facing that was in the pattern.  After I sewed the bodice, I tried it on for fit.  It was awful!  It was loose and droopy and the chiffon was more shear than I had hoped for.  I was so unhappy that the fit was so wrong especially because the sewing looked really good.  I ripped it all apart and tried to figure out what to do.  I thought about doing a double layer of chiffon for the yoke but was really uncertain and discouraged at that point.  I hadn't found any other fabrics in town that I had liked for the yoke so I decided to order some navy cotton voile on-line.  I thought it would be much easier to work with and should have the right amount of drape and shear-ness.  I wanted this dress to be done for Easter so I was going to put a rush on the fabric... only that wasn't an option.  I impatiently waited for my email confirmation only to find out that the fabric would be delivered after Easter.  I was bummed, but I had a back up dress that I really liked so that got me through the let down.  I then altered and sewed the bodice and skirt sans yoke and sleeves.

The fabric arrived yesterday while I was at a Bunco.  Phil texted me to let me know.  I was so excited to see it when I got home.  Much to my dismay, the navy was purplish and not what I was going for.  Again, I was at a stand still.  This morning, I got out the chiffon, ready to tackle it.  I had decided to go for the double layer of it for the yoke and sleeves.  Chiffon is difficult in single layers but to get it to behave one layer on top of the other, super hard!  I had already sewn together the bodice minus the yoke and sleeves, and the skirt.  I thought I didn't have many hours of sewing left.  Wrong!  Everything was so tedious because the chiffon was so fussy.  I finally got the bodice together fully and went to try it on and it fit really well.  I then pinned the skirt to the bodice, only to find that the seams didn't match up.  More ripping and reworking.  Next was the invisible zipper.  Since I don't do these very often, I always google a tutorial.  Even though I did this, I put one side of the zipper in backwards. More ripping.  I finally got it in right.  It's the best invisible zipper I've ever put in.  I went to try it on and was really pleased.  Upon taking it off to hem it, I ripped it.  Right under the arm.  NOT in the seam.  I was so mad at this point.  I got out the interfacing and zig zagged a repair and redid the zipper, this time reinforcing it.  Finally the hem.  I had trouble with this too, but it was minor.

I put it on at long last and was so happy with it.  Now I just need somewhere to wear it.  Here is a picture for now.  I plan on taking some more pictures later and putting them up on the blog.