The Two Tone Collar Dress

It's been a long absence! Feels lovely to be back. After my last post, I was without a laptop for three weeks, and then Christmas kicked in, and life became too busy to try and get into a regular blogging pattern. However, I have been getting a lot of sewing done, and over the next days I will have a lot of blog posts detailing all of my progress.

First up though, is my first completed dress! I was getting tired of having these unfinished dresses, so I decided to plunge in and sew the invisible zip by hand. It was easier than it sounded, and I made a very neat and lovely sample which i was extremely proud of. I decided to finish off the purple two tone dress, as it was the one I was least concerned with if the zip did not work out. It took a good few hours to sew in the zip, and I am mostly happy with it. I think it was quite hard as it was black thread on black fabric, and the thread kept on tangling. The waistline didn't line up either, but I decided it wasn't worth trying to fix it, as it was't going to be glaringly obvious, and it would take a lot to fix it. It's more of an everyday wear dress anyway. As you can see the zip pulls a bit at the waist. I'll need to keep an eye on that on the next dresses, as well as work off a lot of Christmas treats!

The collar was a lot of fun to make! I modified the pattern slightly, and lined the collar, as I thought it would look a lot neater than trying to hem the curved edges. I'm so glad I did it like this.

I finished the hem on New Years Eve, to wear the dress that night! I went out with my boyfriend to Sydney, and we had a great time watching the fireworks. Highlight of the night was just before the 9pm fireworks we were walking along the foreshore at Glebe, and passing a family with two little girls draped in tinsel. The youngest, probably about three, turned to me with wide eyes, exclaiming 'I like your dress!'

It's a great dress, so comfortable, and I've worn it once sine then as well.  Only thing I need to do is put in a hook and eye so the collar sits properly at the back. I'm so glad I made the collar. I didn't like it much on the pattern, nor on the few renditions I've been able to find on the internet, and only went with it, because the purple fabric was a remnant and didn't have enough for the bodice. It's a feature that looks best in a contrasting fabric, otherwise it just blends in too much.

So, I now have a completed garment made from scratch. Here's to many more of these before the return of university in March.