Saturday 1 November 2014

Colette Moneta

Didn't I say in one of my last posts that my life started to settle after having started a new job and moved into a new flat? I guess I was wrong. Life has taken another excited turn. I got engaged :) You can imagine that I'm the happiest woman ever! 

It also means that I'm having not much time at the weekends (to sew, haha) as I'm trying to find out what you actually need to do to get married. Apart from that there is also the questions if I should sew my own wedding dress? I think as a seam stress I can only answer with YES. I haven't decided on a pattern yet. Luckily there is no need to rush as we are planning to get married earliest next summer. 

But now let's move on to my most recent creation, the Colette Moneta which is a jersey dress.


Fabric: 1.5 meters of lacy jersey. I bought the jersey in Walthamstow market (London) and fell in love with the lace pattern. Unfortunately the quality of the jersey is not very good. You can actually feel that it is low quality polyester. It keeps reminding me of very cheap bath towels. That's why I plunged ahead with this fabric to cut a Moneta before sewing a muslin.


Construction: The assembly was straight forward. I thing it took me longest to assemble and attach the collar (which also was because there was some handstitching involved, see below). The skirt is gathered with an elastic which scared me a bit. Ever since I tried to insert elastic into a leggings waistband 4 years ago (which failed), I'm a bit anxious about elastic. However, you can see that it turned out well. Despite me stretching the clear elastic to the max. Luckily it shrinked back after giving it a good steam.



Fit: I think the overall fit is quite good (as I would expect from a jersey garment), however there are still some fitting issues. I need a square shoulder adjustment. You can't tell from the fit of the bodice on my shoulders, but the collar gave me very obvious signs. It didn't want to stay flat. The edges of the collar were pulled up towards the shoulders causing the collar to roll upwards on the outside. You can't see it in these photos, because I've tagged the collar down with several hand stitches hoping the neckline doesn't need to stretch too much when putting on the dress. So far all stitches are intact.






I attached a little ceramic button at the back and tagged it to the bodice to keep the collar down (you can see the collar pulling on the left), which I think looks really cute.


I've added the pockets that come with pattern, but I'm not sure I will do so again. It's handy to have pockets, but I didn't want them to exaggerate my hips. Thus I used a thin white jersey. But the jersey is peaking out and when wearing the dress I have to check every so often that the pockets stay hidden.


One more thing to change are the shoulders/sleeves, which is totally my fault. The sleeves are too big on me and I have to take them in. When tracing the pattern I made a broad shoulder adjustment by tracing a bigger size above the notches at the sleeves and bodice pattern. I guess I don't need this adjustment for the Moneta and will change it back next time.


One final photo showing you that this dress goes really well with my wardrobe, although I have to admit that's a bit cold for me already to wear three-quarter sleeved garments and cardigans.

Will I make it again? You can expect to see more Monetas on the blog, hopefully soon. I would like to sew the versions with all the different collars and I think there are 6 in total. I'm not calling this a personal challenge, because I'm not having time for any commitments at the moment. So we will see.

19 comments:

  1. Congratulations! I am getting married in five weeks, and am making my dress. It's a lot of fun. My main piece of wedding advice is to relax and enjoy.

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    1. Thanks Kaitlyn, the exact same words of advice have been given to me by my fiancé. :) just the thought to organize everything and finding a date where both our families can make it stressed me already. And I'm really impressed that you organized your wedding so quickly that gives me hope that I can do it as well :)

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  2. Gorgeous dress Daniela, but more to the point, CONGRATULATIONS! That is such exciting news, I'm so happy for you!! And I'm excited to hear about it as your plans for making your dress progress! SO EXCITING!!! :D :D :D

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    1. Thank you Kelly! I'm studying already magazines for wedding dress ideas, but will probably go to the shops soon to try some one to be sure my chosen style will suit me :)

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  3. It looks lovely - you'd never guess it was low quality fabric. The button detail is inspired! Congratulations on your engagement - I'm hoping you'll blog progress on the wedding dress ideas and the actual making of it.

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    1. Thank you Clarinda. I actually saw a moneta dress with a button closure on the Colette Flickr group and when my collar kept standing up, remembered the button. And yes I will be blogging my wedding dress progress, luckily my fiancé is not reading my blog :)

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  4. Congratulations on your engagement!! Your dress is lovely! I hope you will wear it lots in spite of not loving the feel of the fabric.

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    1. Thanks Gail! I have worn the dress three times so far and actually it feels fine on the skin - as long as I don't touch it with my hands :P the only problem now that it's a bit chilly already to wear it. I could dress it up with a cardi, but my feet would be freezing in such shoes. And I think boots will look silly with it.

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  5. Congratulations!! I can absolutely see why you fell in love with the fabric, it looks gorgeous on you. Shame the quality wasn't quite what you wanted. I love how it looks with you Miette!! :-D

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    1. Thank you Louise. I hope when spring is coming I can wear it loads with my Miette :) when I bought it I knew already that the quality is not great, but then it was so pretty I just couldn't resist. And that's although I keep telling myself "only buy fabric that feels nice" ahem next time.

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  6. Internets ate my comment :( I hope this doesn't come through twice!

    Congrats on the engagement!! How exciting for you. I'm sure you wedding dress will be amazing :D
    This one looks great on you and I love the back neckline. I think Colette patterns are made for you ;-)

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  7. Congratulations Ela!! That is awesome news. Your wedding dress will be beautiful I'm sure, I can't wait to see the journey of you making it. As for this dress, I think it is lovely despite the quality of the jersey. I really like the lace effect. Enjoy being engaged!

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  8. This dress look gorgeous :-) nad i love what you did with the collar... oh and congratulations :-D

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  9. Your Moneta looks lovely - I really like the cute little button you used to stitch down the back of the collar. You might know that the quality of the fabric isn't great but you really can't tell by looking at it. But more importantly, congratulations on your engagement! I'm sure if you decide to make your wedding dress it'll be beautiful!

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  10. Congratulations on getting engaged! Your dress looks great, I love the overlap on your dress collar.

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  11. Firstly congratulations!!!

    Secondly, this dress is spectacular! Amazing work, it's truly gorgeous.

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  12. Congratulations on your engagement! :D
    The dress is really cute and suits you very well!

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  13. Congratulations on your engagement! That's lovely news! I'm looking forward to your wedding dress progress.
    The Moneta is lovely and goes really well with the cardigan.

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