Colette Eclair

My Colette Eclair is done! Yay! 

Another pattern chosen by my man for my birthday!

I will show you a few close-up pictures because I won't show the dress on me before the wedding it is made for. My first idea was to make this a maxi-dress but maxi-dresses aren't really my thing. I love them, and I always try one on, but they're just not meant for me. Just like jumpsuits - oh, how I want a jump suit...

The dress came together like a dream! I made a muslin first out of a sheet that had been left here, made a few alterations that were easily transfered to the real dress.

The fabric is the most gorgeous silk-poly blend I have ever laid eyes upon. It's the Violet's fabric big sister, with (almost) the same background color and big bright pink birds flying around. Cutting this fabric wasn't really easy because it really shifted around all over the place. And this fabric had a lot less issues with threads running and leaving little white stripes all over the place!

The lining is a simple purple polyester fabric, to which I added black knit fusible interfacing and I used the sew-in boning for the first time, and I am sold! Way easier than making tunnels to pass the boning through. Won't be doing that again!

I did use a piece of sturdy cotton on each end of the boning to prevent the boning tearing through the fabric, or my skin - that happened to me once with my favourite dress ever, my wedding dress... By the end of the night I had scratch marks all over my belly...

 

 

To make the inside pretty again after sewing in the boning, I added a strap of ribbon I had lying around - I think I used it to put a bow on gifts - over the stitches of the boning. No-one will see it, but I will know it's there. I love that about self-made things, the details are not all on the outside, you can have a little secret on the inside too if you want.

Then there was the zipper - how I do not like putting in zippers. 

I once bought 100 zippers for 30€ from e-bay and they came in quite the rainbow of colors and an enormous variety of lengths. I chose an invisible pink zipper and put it in with my regular zipper-foot. I have one of those plastic feet for invisible zippers but I don't like using it and I have noticed that putting in an invisible zipper with my regular zipper-foot works just as well.

I had a bit of trouble lining everything up, so right where my armpit is, there is a very small irregularity, but no-one will notice as it is up my armpit and I don't expect someone taking an interest in that...

I think it would be best if the instructions for the Colette were the other way around when it comes to inserting the zipper. Next time (and there will be a next time, summer is around the corner after all) I will first close the side seam of the skirt, then put in the zipper and then sew the lining and the shell together. I think that will make closing the side seam easier... 

All that is left now is to sew the waistlines of lining and shell together - I will do that last minute so if I have to make changes to the dress I won't need to separate the pieces first - and the hems. I'm thinking about inserting fishing line in the hem(s) so that I get this nice curly effect.

Image from this page - I don't particularly like this dress but you get the idea...

When I first showed it to my husband he wasn't quite convinced that it was festive enough. Maybe because I was wearing leggings and sneakers. So I put my glitter-shoes on and that gave me his stamp of approval too. Yeay!

Only worn twice before, so still considered new shoes.

The wedding is July 5th, we are flying to Belgium on July 4th and are heading back home on the 7th. Very short trip, but it will be massive fun! Pictures of the dress in action will be posted fairly soon after that!

XOXO