Myrtles Mark 1 & 2

Two Myrtles

I think that these two dresses, my woven Myrtles from Colette Patterns, are probably the most favourite things of all of the things that I have made. A bold statement, I know! But, I just totally love how easy they are to make, how quickly they come together AND that I haven't had to make any adjustments to the pattern to make them fit. 

I made the grey version in Robert Kaufman cotton chambray way back in August just after the pattern was first released. I was immediately taken with the idea of the dress in woven, rather than knit, and picked up this fabric from Spool of Thread with my birthday money. 

I did a test version first, which was meant to be a wearable muslin. However, I had a bit of trouble understanding how to install the waistband to start, so there was lots of unpicking involved. And then I realised with horror that I had sewn the skirt in back to front so the seam was running down the middle at the front! Bummer. But I had a muslin that fitted and I was ready to cut into my lovely soft grey dot. 

Grey dot Myrtle

Like many other Myrtle makers on the web, in the end I sewed the channel for the elastic first and then threaded it through, rather than pinning it in and trying to sew round it whilst it was all bunched up. This just seemed a lot easier to me, much less stressful and therefore quicker in the long run. On this first version I also left off the pockets as I was going for instant gratification. 

My Myrtle featuring in a Viewbook!

This version made it into our Viewbook at work which is quite exciting (to me) as I'm wearing something I made and this will be seen all over the world! Look how much my hair has grown since this picture was taken at the beginning of October.

Recently I have been getting completely bogged down by fit adjustments and it has completely taken out a lot of the joy of sewing for me. Sad face. Part of the reason for this is that I just despise how long it takes me to make the changes, do the tests and then start again. But I know that it is better to spend more time fitting to have a more perfect garment then to just waste time and beautiful fabric on something that doesn't really fit. What's the point in that? So I am trying to take more time to make sure things fit and make more muslins. I am also spending more time mulling carefully about whether the garment will ever be able to fit me in the way that I want it to, before I spend ages making changes to a pattern. 

It was with the above in mind that I decided that I wanted to give my mind a rest and make another Myrtle with my gorgeous Hana rayon from the Cotton+Steel Frock collection last weekend. It is so soft and I love the colour. I was totally inspired by Jemjam's version from the Frock tour, and I also just wanted a quick win. 

Rayon Myrtle

This time round, I did include the pockets as I'm still a bit sad that I don't have them on the original version. However, I'm not sure they work with the thinner fabric as they add a bit of bulk at the waist where I don't really need it. I also used 1 cm wide elastic, rather than 1 inch, so the waist is narrower than my first version and that prescribed by the pattern. It's much better for the thinner belts that I have to wear with the dress. 

I can't decide which dress I like most - they are both quite different because of the different weight of the fabrics. I like that this makes them seem like different dresses and I think I will make more in the future, maybe even a knit version...