experiments in dressmaking - Hazel

Over the last couple of weekends I made the Colette Hazel Dress. Twice!

The one made of plains was really just a test before I made the dress using the Liberty fabric I bought six months ago (yup, I finally did something with it). I'd never made a dress from a pattern before but the instructions were fairly easy to follow (apart from when I cut out the triangle which was actually the guideline for the darts, oops). Saying that though, I found it a really hard slog, particularly towards the end when I had to attach the straps and the facing.

It was at the "adding the straps" part on the first dress that I realised it was waaaaaay too big for me. I'd measured myself twice before cutting out the pattern size best suited to fit me but for some reason I was left with a good 4 or 5 inches of extra material at the back. So what did I do? I improvised - by hacking off quite a lot of fabric (damned if I was going to let the dress win and remain unfinished, an albatross of my shoddy skills in dressmaking). After much pinning, trying on dress, re-pinning, trying on dress - I managed to cobble something together. The back is nowhere near as neat as the front but whatcha gonna do eh? It's got a zip (albeit visible) that works.

For the second dress I made some adjustments to deal with the extra fabric problem but it's still a little too roomy around the bust area. However, the floral one does have an invisible zip! You win some you loose some. My thought is that hopefully by my third attempt I'll actually get all the elements right - practice makes perfect and all that jazz.

So yeah, they're nowhere near perfect but I can wear them and as soon as it gets a little warmer I intend to :)