Garment Sewing Month - The Peony Dress

Welcome to Garment Sewing Month! We have many exciting things happening this month that we can't wait to share with you. Here's a few things you don't want to forget...

* Weekly drawings! This week we are giving away a Peony pattern! Stop in the store, share a Facebook post of ours, or regram an Instagram photo to enter. Drawing will be held each Saturday at closing time.

* Get a 25% coupon when you show us your garment sewing this month! Show us in the shop, post it on our Facebook page or tag us on Instagram (#mtgarmentmonth)

* Check out our June calendar for lots of classes, including a FREE lecture on altering coming up on June 10th at 6pm.

Enough of the business stuff, we can't wait any longer to show you Connie's new dress! She just finished it up and it turned out beautifully. This is the Peony by Collette Patterns.

Connie has been dreaming of this dress for months! The fabric she chose is from Garden Party Tango and has been flying out the door since we got it in March. Colette describes the Peony as an 'elegant bateau neck sheath dress'. Connie found it, like all of Colette Patterns, to be a straightforward project. Read the pattern carefully, do just what it says and it will turn out great! The fitted look of the dress is achieved with a combination of bust darts, waist darts and back darts. While this may seem intimidating, these elements are very simple and can each be adjusted to get a perfect fit. (TIP - Sign up for our Garment Sew In with Jean if you need help making adjustments! We've got two sessions this month!)

Connie did make a few alterations to the dress. She wanted a fuller skirt on this dress so she added that by cutting out the front skirt pattern piece several sizes larger than the rest of her dress and using this same front skirt pattern for the back skirt piece. Then she gathered the skirt to fit into the bodice. All simple changes that helped make the dress work great for her.

Connie says, "I'm 5'1 1/2" on a good day so I had to shorten the bodice a good bit. For more normal sized people, the bodice pattern should work great. I took 2 inches off the bottom of the bodice. Then I brought the neckline down 1". That brought the pattern into proportion for my very short frame."

The pattern has two versions - one with short sleeves like Connie made and one with 3/4 lenth sleeves. There is also a belt included in the pattern that can add another element to the dress. The pattern calls for crisp, medium weight fabrics, which makes the possibilities endless! Beautiful in a print, this dress would also be amazing in a solid or shot cotton.

There are a ton of amazing things we want to share with you this month so keep checking back in this space for more sewing inspiration, pattern and book reviews!

Happy Sewing!