Sweet as a Macaron

Sifting through my stash recently, I came across a piece of navy wool that I bought in a vintage store in London at Christmas. My initial and the more obvious choice for it would be to make a skirt. However, there was quite a lot of it but not enough to make two skirts; I hate waste so decided a dress would be my preferred course of action. Time to crack open my Macaron pattern which had been lying dormant in my possession for six months.

Believe me when I tell you that I have previously spent a LOT of time considering different fabric combinations for this pattern. But when it came to actually making my version, there was only one natural choice for the contrast. I bought the red Eiffel Tower and birds printed fabric from Goldhawk Road in London yonks ago, and initially made it into a circle skirt. Having done so, I quickly remembered that I don’t really like circle skirts, and it was definitely not something I would at that point actually wear. To add insult to injury, I had made it at a time when my weight was fluctuating a lot and it rapidly became too small anyhow. I’m very pleased I had the foresight to bring it to bcn from UK so I could deploy its soft sateen texture and mental print for this dress.

I know that there is a massive Pro-Pockets lobby within the online sewing community but I must admit, I’m not a fan of the in-seam variety. I rarely use them and feel they add unnecessary bulk over areas that generally I would prefer to be as bulk-free as possible, so I omitted the pockets on this dress. I also lengthened the hem about 5cms. I’m not sure the navy wool was the best choice for this dress, as it was difficult to press. It’s thickness and bulk creates a more exaggerated tulip shape to the skirt making it look quite party dress than I would have desired, but I’ve actually come to like that part of it. Also, because the wool has something of a scratchy school uniform quality, I had to line the dress from the top of the bustier down. With some creative cutting (read: ignoring the grainline when necessary) I was able to squeeze the lining pieces out of the remainder of the spotty lining I used for my blue Jenny skirt, so that’s that busted anyhow. I had to hand-stitch the lining it around the bustier line and zip opening, which took forever!

Overall the makeup of the dress went well. However I did end up with a strange excess of fabric in the back bodice where the main fabric meets the contrast, so I unpicked that seam, repositioned it and had to ease the pieces back together to deal with the issue. One other criticism I’d make is that the usually very detailed and informative instructions fell a bit flat about how to insert the concealed zip into the side seam, which I know is not a hassle if you have the internet to hand to find a how-to, but I don’t think patterns should assume the sewer does. Personally, I didn’t want to stop my flow to find a how-to, so winged it and was pretty pleased with the result.

I was still finishing the hand-stitching at the eleventh hour before I had to get ready to go out on our date. Me and my boy have been living together for over a year, but we like to keep things special by going on dates now and then. The date also gave me the excuse to attempt pin curls! Previously I’d been put off trying them as I don’t have any of the products or even a rat tail comb that the how-to’s advise you to use, but I decided to give it a whirl anyway and put five in around the front. My hair is pretty wavy anyway, so I didn’t bother at with the rest of it. Overall I think it gave a 50’s film starlet look!