laurel dress as a fall jumper

I made a dress—a jumper actually—not because I particularly need one or have been dreaming of one, but because I stumbled, via the powers of the internet, on Colette’s new Laurel pattern and the whopping contest they’re putting on to go with the launch. So, fun contest came at the same time as my annual spring itch to sew garments, and the rest is history

The jumper is made from a really cute brown corduroy with a sweet little acorn pattern. I love this fabric, and whenever I say corduroy in my head I also say “cloth of kings”. It is very soft. I bought it at Joann’s years ago to make pants for my little girl, back when she was a little girl. I tried to make a tova top from it in January, but I didn’t have enough yardage. So really, the jumper felt like a solution. It was the garment I could make with this fabric, and yes, isn’t it nice that there’s a fall category in the contest? It all fit.

But does the dress fit? Yes, mostly. I made a muslin, and from that I thought I needed to shorten the waist. I did this for the jumper, but it’s not quite right. I probably needed to do a small bust adjustment instead, which I’ll do for the next one. This was my first Colette pattern. I hadn’t tried one before because I thought of them as patterns that look really cute on people with large busts. Laurel seemed more forgiving than the others in this way. The pattern instructions were good and the extra info on the Colette site was great. This is the best zipper and blind hem that I have ever done, thanks to those tutorials.

Will it get worn? I don’t know. It might be a little too sweet … acorn corduroy I bought for my 7-year-old and all.