Rainbow lined Colette Crepe

This sat around for awhile and I read about it online quite a bit before I got annoyed with the pile of fabric and dove in.  I wasn't sure what to expect - both with the vertical striping and with the pattern itself.  I didn't make any effort at stripe-matching.  I also didn't know whether my silk lining would be solid enough to function as facings.  I played with the idea of ironing on the facing pieces to the top and armholes of the dress but then decided that was too much effort. It was my first Colette pattern and I have read a lot about people having fit troubles so I wasn't anticipating a perfect dress on the first go round.  On the other hand, my Vogue wrap dress just feels too big and I do not love having it open all the way up to the waist every time the wind blows.  So I thought the back wrap might be a nice change.

I cut a size 4 which matched my dimensions exactly. I do not like facings so I decided to line this dress with some lime green silk.  Also, I treated the silk with gelatin so it would behave (an example of how to do that is here, and this certainly made it less shifty.  That's currently my favourite method for dealing with lightweight silk.  Less shifty does not = zero shifty, so it was still a bit off, but I just made some little folds along the shoulder and that was taken care of.  The shoulders are funny shaped anyway!

 I followed this tutorial for the order to sew with a full lining.  What it neglects to point out is that the wrap belt also has to be done and attached prior to sewing the lining onto the bodice, but I remembered that from my Vogue wrap so it wasn't a problem.  Sewing a wrap dress is easy and the Vogue dress with lining had super instructions, so this time around felt a little bit like deja vu even though I was adding the lining myself.  I sewed it in by hand at the waist, and I have to say, this dress is gorgeous inside.  I did notice that my needle make little lines in the silk - even when I switched to a microtex needle.  I don't know what that's a sign of. 

As for fit...meh.  I don't actually like the loss of control that I get with the wrap in the back.  And I think wrap dresses just feel like too much fabric or something.  The bust of Colette patterns is bigger than in the big 4, and in this case it's too big for me.  The dress is cute and I really like the one piece sleeves.  It's possible that I would make it again, but I'm not totally sure.