Dress Up Party – Pattern Review – Colette Violet

This post is part of Dress Up Party. For contest rules, full details, and schedule, please click here!
Today’s post is from Erin of Miss Crayola Creepy.

Hello everyone! My name is Erin and I blog over at Miss Crayola Creepy. I’m a fan of kittens, Cary Grant, walking on the beach, sewing, reading, knitting, drinking Malibu mixed with Pog juice, leopard print, not washing my car, Colette Patterns, and Mad Men. Coincidentally, the shirt I made, the Colette Patterns Violet blouse paired with this Cotton and Steel print kind of has an early Betty Draper feel, don’t you think? Personally, I am more of a Megan myself, but before Megan I was Team Joan all the way. It’s fitting that as I type this it’s Sunday night, a few hours before the Mad Men finale, and I ended up with a casual Betty Draperish style blouse. I digress.

Let’s talk about the pattern, since this is what the whole Dress Up Party is about, yes? Violet is a loose fitting blouse that can be made with elbow length sleeves gathered with elastic or with short sleeves, like I have chosen to make. There are bust darts, buttons, a gathered yoke, and a cute peter pan collar. The pattern wasn’t a difficult one to sew, but it did take me a little bit of work to get the fit down, as is the issue with all patterns I make. I knew this going into it, which is why I made the decision to make a muslin. On muslin v.1 I sewed the pattern straight from the envelope without making any adjustments and ended up with a super baggy blouse. I assessed the situation, texted Rochelle some photos, and confirmed that I needed to go down a size and do a FBA for v.2. I also ended up taking in the shoulders an additional size since I have narrow shoulders and extending the bust dart an extra inch.

The finished product is not perfect when it comes to fit, I still have some tweaking to do. There is excess fabric around the bust (maybe I didn’t need that FBA?), but I do like not having those gaping buttons around the bust line which normally occurs for me with RTW shirts. Another flaw in my sewing skills is in the the front facing, which I forgot to extend after making the FBA. Whoops! I’m not going to focus on this as being a mistake, but instead think of it as a learning experience. Next time I’m going to remember to extend allllll the pieces 🙂

In the end I am happy with the finished the product. I have a blouse that was fun to sew (great directions as usual from Colette), will be comfortable on my skin (current mood: obsessed with Cotton and Steel, such a nice quality fabric), and will get a lot of wear over the next few months of summer.

Now I’m off to drink old fashioneds with my friends while we watch the Mad Men finale. Cheers to you guys for reading this, to Sara for hosting this party, and to Don Draper, the one who got me drinking old fashioneds.