Pattern: Laurel Dress from Colette Patterns
Fabric: Michael Levine Loft
If you're interested, there are official Laurel Dress hack/variations you can download from Colette Patterns' website.
To say that I love Colette Patterns and love shopping at Michael Levine (Especially their Loft store, where they sell fabric BY THE POUND) is an understatement. Yes, I do love going pattern shopping at a local JoAnn store whenever they have those $1 sales, but I just really love the quality of the products made by indie designers, and I have a LOT of Colette Patterns sewing patterns as they were the first one that I discovered when I got into sewing.
My latest addition to my handmade clothing closet is this Laurel Dress, a simple shift dress that doesn't break up the wild print pattern of this fabric. Before cutting up the fabric, I looked at the fabric pattern carefully, to make sure that the bodice, sleeves, and the cuffs all show off the different part of the fabric. So the bodice was cut from the middle (fold) section of the fabric, sleeves are from the edges close to the selvedges, and the cuffs are from somewhere between the middle section and the edges.
I cut 4 of the cuffs pattern piece to line it, and made sure that I try 2 different parts of the fabric for the pair, and picked the one I thought best suited the sleeves print.
The finishing touch that I really like in this design is the neck binding. I thought about buying green bias tape, but felt that was too match-y. I had this 1/4" bias tape at home in black and used that instead, and I think it was a good choice.
Because the design doesn't have any darts or waist shaping, I can still fit into it (at Week 38 of the pregnancy!). This afternoon, my husband and I are going to a working rehearsal of American Ballet Theatre's Sleeping Beauty debut at Segerstrom Hall, and I will definitely be wearing this.
