Truffle Dress

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The 3rd project in the Colette Patterns Sewing Handbook is called the Truffle Dress. It’s a lovely little sleeveless dress with a simple scoop neck and a decorative ruffle panel on the skirt.

In hopes of getting a finished project that was a little less stiff, I decided to get away from poplin (or quilting cotton) for this project.  The project called for two types of fabrics, one for the shell and one for the lining. I chose an ivory cotton batiste for the lining to give the bodice a little more structure and I used a rayon challis to give more drape to the shell.  The fabric I chose for the shell was a great print called Van Gogh in Mosaic Red.  I picked mine up at a local fabric store, but you can also find it online at fabric.com. One of the things I love about this fabric is how large the print is. (The below photo shows a 1/2 yard for reference.)

van-gogh-rayon-challis-in-mosaic-red

Putting this dress together was a lot like doing the last one.  I started by prewashing my fabrics.  Even though The cotton was ivory and the rayon had a lot of color, I chose to prewash them together with a Shout Color Catcher.  The color catcher was great to keep the rayon challis from bleeding onto my ivory batiste. And I did want to wash the fabrics together because once they were made into a dress, they were going to be washed together all the time.

prewash fabrics

After I prewashed my fabrics, I made sure I had all my pattern pieces cut out and ironed well.  They get pretty big creases in them inside the little packet.

pattern paper

iron pattern pieces flat

Next I picked out what pieces I needed to cut from my muslin.  I only wanted to check the basic fit of the dress, which meant I only cut out the bodice and skirt pieces – no lining or decorative details for this process.

impromptu pattern weights

cutting muslin

I still don’t have any washers to use as pattern weights, so I’ve been using some ridiculously large vintage spools, and whatever else is lying about in my craft area to hold my patterns down while I cut.

ironing darts with tailor's ham

I marked all my muslin pieces and  sewed my darts, starting with the front bodice.  It was really glad to have the tailor’s ham that Matt got me for Christmas.  It made shaping the bodice a lot easier.

dressform

Once I had the darting finished, I added the pieces to my new dress form (thanks dad and Carolyn). It was also a nice addition to my sewing process.  I got the form adjusted to roughly what I needed and added an old bra to get the figure adjusted just right.

dress form adjustments

The dress form really was helpful in seeing the fit and making adjustments to my muslin.

first muslin on dress form

fitting adjustments

fitting from above

My first muslin wasn’t quite perfect.  I decided on an adjustment to make the shoulders fit better, and judging by the wrinkles I needed to play a little with the fitting.  However, my rayon had stretch to it, so I wasn’t worried about that.

zipper

zipper

The one addition I made to my muslin process this time was to add a zipper.  Thanks for the recommendation Sarah!  It really helped me to see how everything would lay and made it a lot easier to put on the dress form.  The one thing that was frustrating about putting the zipper in, is that I’m usually very bad at adding zippers, and this one went in perfectly.  It would figure right?

more random pattern weights for this project

bodice lining piece

Once I got the adjustments made I wanted, I started cutting out the dress in my fashion fabric.  I started with the lining, which being a batiste was easier to work with than the rayon challis for the shell.

cut skirt piece

front ruffle piece

pile of cut fabric

Cutting that rayon challis was painstaking at best with all the stretch in the fabric. However, as long as I was mindful of what I was doing, it went pretty well.

pieces on dressform

Once everything was cut, the next step was to put the dress together.  The process was very similar to the last dress I made, with a few additions. This one had an bodice lining, and a front accent that needed to be basted into place.

turning lining

Overall, I think this dress turned out great – even if my husband did decide to call me Suzy Homemaker. I’m not so sure about that.  Next thing you know, he’ll expect me to clean – when I’m obviously too busy sewing.

finished dress

I absolutely love the fabric and how the dress turned out, but next time I’ll pay a bit more attention to pattern placement and not have a big red streak dead center in the front of the dress.

Linking Up at:
The Train to Crazy - Make it Wear it Thursday

6 Comments

  1. Kristen on January 15, 2013 at 1:05 pm

    Oh, that is so adorable.

    Thanks for the replay on making it. Now I think I want to get that book, too, and make things for my minion.

    Smashing fabric, excellent zipper work.

    Two spools up! 😉

    • Andrea on January 19, 2013 at 5:00 pm

      Thanks Kristen! You should definitely get this book. It is amazing.

  2. justine on January 17, 2013 at 3:52 pm

    It’s so handy to have a dress from that is your size, isn’t it? Lovely dress!

    • Andrea on January 17, 2013 at 6:28 pm

      Yes, that dress form was a lifesaver.

  3. Andrea of The Train To Crazy on January 19, 2013 at 12:54 am

    Oh yay! That turned out so well!! Adorable.

    • Andrea on January 19, 2013 at 4:59 pm

      Thanks! I’m glad you stopped by!

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