Pattern Review - Hawthorn Dress By Colette Patterns

This isn't me!

I should really start this with the caveat that while I am a sewer, and I have made several items of clothing for myself over the years, I am not in any way a dressmaker.  My success when making clothes seem to hinge on luck rather than skill, and sometimes it can show...

I chose this lovely yarn dyed cotton from Lecien to make it with, which made me have a panic halfway through that it was cheap looking in an eighties stone washed denim kinda way.  I didn't like it from the halfway point right up until the final try on - making me constantly question myself as to why I was bothering to continue to make it.  I'm glad I persevered.  I added a red stripe trim to it too, which I loved in the shop but again panicked about during making.  I'm glad I added it though - it was a headache to do, but it was worth it - the blue needed a little something.

This dress was also made in a rush a weekend before going on holiday, with my boyfriend Phil and his mum asking me every few minutes "Have you finished yet?" (Nope, still on the same hem as when you asked me last...).   So there was not a little stress, and so under these circumstances I am very happy with the result of this dress.  Would I be happy if I'd made it under different circumstances? Yes, I would.  And why? This is one lovely dress, and one I can see myself making over and over.

The first thing to make sure you do is get the right size - for us over here this side of the pond we need to do a little calculating to make sure the size is right.  I like it though - it makes me feel like I'm a few sizes smaller than I actually am! 

The hardest bit to make was the collar section, getting everything to line up.  This is where being a perfect sewer would really help - which I am not, so lining it up right took a few tries.   The rest of the dress was only a few pieces, so it came together really easily.  The hard bits were the challenges I gave myself - adding the red stripe trim, adding pockets (I'm sorry, I love a dress with pockets, and it was the only flaw in the pattern to my mind), and covering all those fiddly self-cover buttons.
I stitched the buttonholes in red to complement the red trim - my first properly successful buttonholes - and I needed Phil to help me figure out how to make the attachment on the sewing machine work, a fact I will probably never live down.
And here's the finished product:  The first, of hopefully many Hawthorns.  I love it's big swishy skirt: when you walk downstairs it billows up and makes me want to twirl.  What more can a girl ask for?

This one's me...