licorice dress in coral & navy dots!

I have had a huge crush on the combination of coral and navy ever since I saw what Kelsey has been up to over at lovely and enough.  Isn’t it just the best, freshest, unexpected color combination?  Of course, Kelsey is so super talented that everything she makes is stunning.  So, when the lovely Michael Miller people asked me if I wanted to work with some of their newest fabric lines, I gravitated to these great coral and navy dots.  Like I mentioned, navy is not my normal go-to but I’m really digging it these days.

The pattern is the Licorice Dress from the Colette Sewing Handbook (affiliate link) by Sarai Mitnick.  I’ve had this book for a long time but hadn’t used it until now and it’s partly because many of the patterns are for dressier clothing than I usually wear.  By ‘dressier’ I mean clothing that doesn’t allow me to just rub really hard and make the booger smear go away.  Standards are not high over here.

The Licorice Dress is a great pattern and the book is really helpful because it is chock full of great techniques alongside each project.  It’s intended to teach as you sew.  Sarai is really one of the sewing experts out there.  It’s clear she isn’t winging it…she knows what she’s talking about.  The results of her expertise are obvious in the results.

My only comment about this dress & Collette patterns in general is that they are a better fit for the bigger-busted out there.  I know! I know! This is an unfair complaint considering most of the patterns out there fit best on the b-cups among us (unite!).  But, I will be doing a small bust adjustment next time I make this dress and a little part of me feels sad about the ‘small bust’ part of that adjustment.

The dress also has an invisible zipper (ignore those unclipped threads!).  Every time I put in an invisible zipper two things happen.  First, I have to re-learn how to put it in and get a headache from the effort.  Second, I’m blown away by the beauty and simplicity of the invisible zipper. This seems contradictory but it happens every time.  Can’t quite explain it.

The front of the dress has this lovely pleated collar.  Would also be a super cute peter pan collar but I like it as a swoop, it’s an easy but beautiful detail.  As is true of many Colette Patterns, there’s lots of potential for adapting this dress.  It’s a versatile pattern.  I can’t wait to wear mine!

The fabric, like I said, is Michael Miller from their TaDots line.  It was described as ‘hi-density cotton’, which made me nervous that it would be too thick but it turns out that it means it’s got a bit of a smooth hand and slight drape.  Not as much as something like Liberty but closer to the feel of Liberty fabric than regular quilting cotton.  It drapes a little bit more than quilting cotton and that makes it more clothing-appropriate and softer.

This is pretty obvious but just in case it isn’t, I was given this fabric to use in anyway I wanted without any compensation.  My opinion about it is totally my own, of course.