Colette Laurel No 2

I think I'm still recovering from Ofsted, hence the lack of posting, though I have been sewing.  After loving my first Colette Laurel I have whipped up another.

I love this one too!  This time in a lighter viscose from Sew Over It (no longer available), which is a fabulous rich teal colour (not really showing in my gloomy light!).


I think this one is a bit of a mix between a 10 and an 8, and I think I pretty much have the fit as I like it.  I made the same changes as my first; narrowed the shoulders by 5/8" each, added a neck facing instead of the bias finish, cut the lowest neckline and just slightly (only about 3mm) lowered the darts.

I'm pretty pleased with pattern matching at the back!  Once again I didn't put a zip in as I can pull the dress on over my head.  Unfortunately I forgot that I could then cut the back on the fold hence lots of time spent pattern matching.

I probably like it better with a belt, but would wear it without.

The main difference I made this this time is with the shoulder placing.  In my last version the shoulder seams are too far back on my shoulder and this pulls the neck up.  This is the first time I've had this issue so I'm really not sure why this is.  So this time I added 1cm to the back shoulder and took 1cm from the front and this seems much better though I think another 1/2cm would be even better.  Again I've made my own version of the sleeve frill by gathering a 7" x 23" oblong of fabric for a fuller look.

Meanwhile in the rest of my life Dan is home for quite a few weeks and I'm loving it!  I've been on some great fabric buying trips with Gary (I must start to document these) and we have booked for the sewing weekender (are any of you going?) in Cambridge.  So there will be lots of sewing news to report.