macaron pt. 5: finished!

to finish off my colette patterns macaron dress i merely had to slip stitch the lining in place around the top of the denim parts and down the zip.

i just love that my lining is red; it's so beautiful it's almost a shame that no one will ever see it! except for you lovely folks who visit my blog, that is.

after trying on the finished product i felt there was a little bit of strain at the bottom of the stitching on the pleats (i blame the flab-that-won't-go-away mommy tummy for this). to be perfectly honest i hadn't noticed that the pleats were actually tucks and were stitched down a ways. i hadn't muslined this part so it was a little snug. to fix it, i took out about 1" of stitching from the end of each tuck to ease up the strain here. it seems in better proportion on me so it all worked out. whew!

the one last thing i need to figure out is the fitting around my shoulders. my shoulders are slightly protruding and it feels like the actual armscythe needs to be moved toward the front just a wee bit. since i rarely make sleeved dresses (or sleeved anything...) i hadn't considered this in my fittings. but now wearing it, my arm movement is a little restricted. will have to remember this in the future. but, i love the sleeves so they are not coming out!

here's a quick rundown of the changes or alterations i made to the pattern:

• converted the darts to a princess seam: this is by far the biggest change i made. i think the princess seams really suit the style of dress and my fabric choice. being able to topstitch with topstitching thread for denim was a real treat. as scary as topstitching may seem, it's surprisingly easy and gives the garment a professional-looking finish.
• button and loop back closure: like i mentioned before, i have a hard time getting in and out of side zip dresses. i just haven't figured that maneuver out! so to give me a little extra room at the neckline, i added a seam down the back of the yoke piece and left an opening to be closed with a button. it's a nice little detail and if you're at all concerned with fitting the neckline over your head, this is an easy solution!
• sizing: i started with a 0 up at top and tapered out to a 4 from the waist down. i still had to pinch out some room at the under bust, about 1" total. since i'm pretty tiny here, the last thing i need is extra fabric flopping around!
• back neck dart: i didn't really talk about this, but i also removed some room from the back, about 1" vertically. i took the room out right next to the neck dart in order to make this dart smaller because it kind of stuck out giving me a hunch back. not cool.
• skirt tucks: after finishing the dress and trying it on, the tucks were a little strained at their ending point. to give some extra ease, i unpicked and shortened how far these were stitched down, taking about 1" of stitching out.

i am so very happy with how my dress turned out! it's such a darling design to begin with and once i found the perfect fabric i knew it would be amazing! i began this project with the highest of expectations and i certainly wasn't let down!

macaron pt. 1: pattern alterations
macaron pt. 2: fitting woes
macaron pt. 3: progress and a major WHAT??? moment...
macaron pt. 4: almost there...

—lisa g