Is it me?

Hi there! Hope things are going well for you?

Sorry it’s been a little quiet here, I’ve been spending my free time attempting to sort out and log my fabric stash rather than sewing it blogging.  This stemmed from a sneaking suspicion that I might have bought a little more fabric than I thought and I might just have forgotten about a few things.

That has proven to be rather accurate.  I am probably 2/3 of the way through my fabric log and I’m rather shocked and a tiny but ashamed of myself. There is just so much fabric!!

I’m working through the mountain by snapping each piece, logging the length and width and then recording it, both in Evernote and on The Foldline, using the new projects feature. It’s proving time consuming but I should hopefully then have a searchable list wherever I am. Which should stop me buying more fabric!!

Anyway, I still have a little backlog of unblogged makes so I wanted to quickly share.

I’ve long been an admirer of the many versions of the Colette Moneta dress floating around the blogosphere. In particular, @abinorton has made a large number of enviable versions she rightly shows off on Instagram.

Eventually there was a sale and I bought the PDF.

I decided to make the short sleeved, round necked version.  The pattern envelope calls for around 4m of fabric which is obviously an investment for an untried pattern.  However, Fabworks came to the rescue with some lovely lightweight jersey at £4/m.

Turns out you only need around 2m for this version. I’ve cut Hey June Monkeybar Skirts out for both girls with the remnants and still need to find a home for over 1m!

The pattern itself was a very quick sew, even first time out.  I sewed it on my sewing machine using a ballpoint needle and lightening bolt stitch. I stabilised the shoulder seams with clear elastic and quite enjoyed doing the gathered waist using more clear elastic. I even finished seams with my over locker (which was frankly terrifying going around the pockets!!)

The dress then sat on Gertrude for some time with me feeling unusually ambiguous about it.  I eventually got around to hemming it, again on the machine.

Then I tried it on and it dawned on me that I don’t wear jersey dresses!  And it felt decidedly strange on.

I do think it’s me rather than the dress.  It just feels rather flimsy and exposed when you’re used to a little more structure around the midriff!

But a little encouragement on Instagram (and judicious use of accessories) has me more convinced that it’s OK and there is already fabric in the stash for version 2.  

A big selling point is the sheer speed of it: I reckon that second time around, this could be done in around 2 hours once cut out which is a BIG temptation!

I don’t think this is going to form a huge part of my future wardrobe, but in the right weight and print I think it’s a really useful and oh so comfy addition to my wardrobe, even if only for working at home/school run mummy days! And that can’t be a bad thing!

Becca x