Sarai Mitnick is the owner of Colette Patterns and has a knack for combining vintage style with modern ease. Her instructions are very clear and she often has online tutorials for specific sewing techniques. The most recent release, Laurel, is a 60’s inspired shift dress and Sarai included a separate downloadable booklet with nine additional variations.
In honor of Laurel’s release Colette Patterns is hosting a contest with some pretty awesome prizes. I plan to enter both of my Laurel creations in the hopes of snagging something wonderful.
Courtesy of Colette Patterns
Courtesy of Colette Patterns
My first dress is a wool plaid winter version with long sleeves. I closely followed version three including the ruffled sleeves. The only significant changes were to add front darts from just below the bust to the waist and to add a grey flannel hem. The darts are to make it less boxy since my ample booty requires a lot of fabric and the color block style hem was because the dress ended up being too short for my 40 something legs and I didn’t have enough of the original fabric. I had bought the fabric from Mena of Sew Weekly back in the 2011 and only had two yards. I think the grey along the sleeves and hem actually made the dress more interesting don’t ya think?
The second version is made of some very light weight seersucker I picked up from Joann’s. I liked the color block addition so much that I decided to incorporate it into this dress also. Since it gets so hot and humid in South Carolina, I chose to make this version sleeveless. I followed Lauren’s tutorial for binding the armholes with bias tape and I used my handmade bias tape for the neckline using the tutorial from the Laurel pattern. For a novice sewist like me, I really like the way both these turned out and I definitely see more Laurels in my future!
