Colette Macaron

Well I'm actually glad October is over.  My cold/flue/whatever ended up lasting 3 weeks and I even took a week off work, not like me at all.  Thank you so much for your kind wishes, sadly Meg has not returned and I fear the worst.  All of this is to explain my absence from my blog.  But I'm back now and feeling much better and I've got lots of makes to tell you about over the next weeks.

First the Colette Macaron.  I really love this dress and I do think it is a great pattern.  I had some duck egg blue Brussels linen left from my New Look 6095 dress and I just thought it would be great contrasting with some lace.  I cut my usual size 14 grading to a 12 at the waist and taking 1" out of the bodice length.    I also changed the sleeve shape to follow the scallop of the lace.

I found some fantastic advice in one of my  books and managed to produce a really neat curve.  You reduce your stitch size (in my case from 2.2 to 1.1) and then just trim your seam back without clipping.  This stopped that lumpy effect you can get from clipping.

There was some great seam matching.

... and the invisble zip went in quite well (though spot the mistake, it's on the wrong side!)

 

 

I love how the lace looks with the linen.  I love the sweetheart neckline.

 

 

 

 

So is this dress a great success? ...... nooo .... because its a bit tight.  Yes I did make a quick muslin, but the final dress is just a little bit straightjacketty around the bust and upper arms ... damn ... cause I really do want to wear it.    I am finally beginning to understand that I need to make a full-bust adjustment on most patterns even though I'm only a C cup, as I keep making the same mistake and ending up with dresses which I can get on but which don't feel comfortable.  I might be able to wear for a couple of hours, while I'm sitting up straight!

 

We had a fantastic treat this week, Dan, Gemma and I went to see Paolo Nutini in Manchester

 

 

What a fantastic concert , I'd certainly recommend seeing Paolo, he sounds as good as on his records and really gives everything.  I'd definitely see him again.