Hawthorn Lou Dress

This seems to be the year of the pattern mash-up for me, as I have made a few and have some more planned.  As the title suggests, this is a combination of Colette Patterns Hawthorn dress bodice, and Tilly And The Buttons Lilou dress skirt.

 

The idea of a purple shirt dress has been lurking in the back of my mind for a very long time, and this fabric has been in my stash since last summer when I bought it from Dragonfly Fabrics.  It's Robert Kaufman Brussels Washer, and the colour is just called Purple.  It's a linen/rayon mix, and is lovely and light and drapey.

After the success of my last Hawthorn, I immediately cut this one out.  I used my sleeve block to draft the sleeves, and am pleased with the fit on them.  I have a slight issue with the armscye though.  On the front, there is a small pool of fabric about half way down.  I was wondering if I need to remove a little bit from the cross front of the bodice, or am I straying into the dark and dangerous realms of over-fitting?! 

 

Also on the back there is a little bit too much fabric at the bottom of the armscye.  I can fix this by taking a bit out of the side seam on the bodice back.  I can live with these on this dress though. 

 

One thing that I am disappointed with is the collar.  It looks ok from the front, but it's a bit of a dog's dinner at the back.  When I attached the collar, it absolutely refused to sit flat - even after I pressed the bejimminies out of it.  I ended up having to hand-stitch it down, and it's not a pretty sight.  Luckily my cardigan and/or hair will hide it!

Good grief!!  Just, good grief!

I had the same problem with the collar on my Megan dress, and put it down to the unruly fabric.  At first I thought that I should have used a heavier interfacing on the purple collar, but now I'm wondering if it was all in how I drafted it.  I drafted it using the method in Gertie's Book For Better Sewing.  This involves slightly overlapping the shoulder ends of the front and back bodice pieces before tracing the neckline.  From my Craftsy pattern drafting classes, I have learnt that my shoulders are shorter than average pattern drafting standards, and now I'm wondering if the overlap on the bodice shoulders was just too long for my short little shoulders.  This is a pretty convoluted and specific issue!  I did make a toile (and why don't they show up every issue?!), so I'm going to try out the armcye fixes on it, and also make a collar without the shoulder overlap to see how it looks.

But before anybody thinks that I hate this dress, I absolutely don't!  I love the swishy skirt, and am delighted with how the button placket, neckline, sleeves and bodice fit turned out.  The very best thing though is the zip.

There really is a zip in that seam!

Remember how I said that I got a bee in my bonnet about an invisible zip in a side seam with a pocket?  Well, I worked out how to do it.  I will do a separate post about it, because there is a lot to explain, but it totally works!  And also bonus sewing points to me for taking the trouble to make a proper unbuttoning placket and not a faux placket, because I discovered that I wouldn't be able to get the dress over my head with undoing the buttons!

 

So in celebration, here's a photo of Luke Spookling.  He has recently been convalescing on The Blanket after spending five nights in the vets because he had an infection.  He's normally not allowed to even look at The Blanket, but if I happen to dose off under it on the sofa, I can guarantee that when I wake up, he'll be lying on it.  So he got special permission to use it when he came home, because then I knew he would stay inside for longer.  But he's back to normal now and eating everything in sight.

Happy Easter!

Lynne