The Macaron

It's finally finished!

Ta-dah! Sneaky front pockets
Actually I finished this a week ago but only got the chance to wear it today and take some photos. I could have just posted a photo of the dress on the hanger but it looks pretty average and shapeless without a body to pad it out.

As a precursor to the post I'd like to say that the photos in this post don't do justice to the dress - mainly because every crease and wrinkle shows up in these photos due to my (poor) material choice - and these aren't anywhere near as obvious in real life.

Material
I used a black cotton-and-something blend with a slight sheen to it for the contrast to complement the black and white patterned mid-to-heavy weight cotton/lycra (I suspect it must be something like this since it has a fair amount of stretch if you tug at it) that I had picked for the body of the dress. I also used a black 16" invisible zip to finish.


Pattern (Colette Patterns: Macaron dress)
I did the right thing this time and made a muslin to make sure that I got the sizing right on this, and as per standard opinion, the Colette sizing was pretty much bang on.

The pattern was overall very straightforward, but when it came to the sleeves I ended up ignoring the instructions - they were confusing and the diagram confused me more than anything.

I was pretty excited with some aspects of the pattern as it marked 2 'firsts' for me - an invisible zip and a blind hem.

Not bad for a first attempt at the invisible zip
Both techniques were achievable after a bit of practice but it took me a bit of time to work out that I could actually put in the invisible zip without a special foot for my machine, contrary to popular opinion. This video definitely helped.

I don't know that the blind hem was the most suitable finish for the dress but I suspect that the stiffness of my fabric has something to do with this opinion.


Would I do it again?
I definitely want to make this again, using different materials. The photos below give you an idea of how the dress hangs and I'm slightly disappointed with how creased the dress is after 15 minutes of wear. The fake sweetheart neckline also doesn't hang very well. I thought that the heaviness of the material would mean that it would sit well on the bust but instead it seems to have resulted in some creasing.


Enough creasing there??

The sweetheart seam could sit a little better - and the creasing! *AUGH*
So yes, the creasing is bothering me to no end, which is really quite frustrating seeing as I spent a fair amount of time on the dress making sure that I had fnished all my seams well and taking a lot of time to practice with the blind hemming and the zip. I think next time I'll look to do this in lighter cotton materials next time - maybe in summer brights since we're now in the last month of winter *hurrah*!

Once again...

I'm up at some ridiculous hour on a work night due to obsessive sewing. Admittedly I tend to get obsessive about certain things and it cuts into my sleep time (like the time I had to read all the books in the Harry Potter series and only went to sleep when the birds were chirping outside due to a slightly paralytic fear that I would fall asleep at my desk at work) and sewing is no different.

Still working on the Macaron but it's nearly there - just a zip and a hem and hopefully that is it.

OK it's nearly 3:30am and here I am blogging about my bad habits instead of actually trying to rectify it by getting some shut eye! Not long before the dreaded alarm rings.


I'm still not sure why I keep doing this to myself...

The Macaron Trial

It actually looks better on than it does on the dummy (and once again the poor lighting doesn't help but I tend to get things done at night when there are less distractions and I am more awake) but you get the drift. I'm actually really happy that I won't have to make any drastic changes to the fit.


The finished trial with one sleeve tucked in (you'll see the reason for this soon)
I was umming and ahhing about a couple of things:

1) Sleeves or no sleeves?
I was set on the sleeves but I saw Antoinette's version and quite liked it.

I decided to be a smarty-pants and see for myself what mine would look like both ways. After a bit of copying and flipping of my original picture, this is what I got.


Sleeves vs Sleeveless
Seeing as I'm not a massive fan of bias binding since I seem to be useless at it, I'm going to go with the original sleeve design. Also, it's winter over here and the thought of no sleeves at the moment gives me goosebumps!

2) Middle band or not?
Antoinette decided to remove her middle band - or rather she left it there but didn't use a contrast fabric. Gertie's version on the other hand went with no contrast but has what looks like a thin ribbon around the waist. Then when I look at Kathie's dress where she kept the contrast and added piping, I am TORN.

Once again, copy/flip gave me a better idea of my options.


Original pattern / No band / Slimmer band or ribbon
I think no band is the safest but as my contrast band will be in black, I might be doing myself a disservice since black is always slimming ;)


Black for the top and contrast band against the black-patterned white cotton
I think I'll have to cut the band in both materials and decide as I go - it shouldn't be a problem since I always buy extra fabric to allow for mistakes!

This week...

...is all about getting a whole lot of things done - I've taken a week off between jobs to sort out some personal admin and I guess prep for a new job I'm starting next Monday (hurrah for me!) but to ease into it all I've taken a couple of days to just get back into things sewing-wise.

This does not of course mean that any of my mending is going to be done - no time for such things when I could be having fun buying materials for my stash:

Especially loving the 3 Minny Muu prints from Lecian at the top
and making a start on my trial Macaron dress so I can plan out the real thing properly.
Halfway done - excuse the shoddy lighting and my half naked dummy
I just need to remember at some stage that I have other priorities... :)

Waiting for the mail...

I ordered the Macaron dress pattern from Colette Patterns via Pink Chalk Fabrics a few days ago. I don't actually have time in the next few weeks to make it up but I'm still impatiently twiddling my thumbs awaiting its arrival.


It wasn't the cheapest pattern to buy but I fell in love with it and can't wait to see the pretty pattern book that people have been raving on about - you can see an example of one of the books here.

I'm loving all the different colour combinations people have used for this - I suspect I might spend my Xmas break making at least one of them *rubs hands in anticipation*