Monday 26 October 2015

Moneta Dress - in Anna Maria Horner fabric

I've recently been inspired to sew garments again.  I think it's the influence of several things, including Cath's beautiful Bondi Top, and meeting Lizzy House and new kiwi / Canadian ex-pat Erin Charter, both of whom have amazing handmade wardrobes.

Anyway, I bought several yards of this lovely purple knit designed by Anna Maria Horner last year when I was sewing garments, and then never did anything with it.  Since it was a long weekend here, and I had Erin to help me, I pulled it out to make a dress using the Moneta pattern by Colette Patterns.  One of my lovely IG friends, Nancy, responded to my call for help and lent me her overlocker / serger for the weekend, which made things MUCH easier.

Purple Moneta Dress 

The Moneta is one of the most made and blogged indie patterns out there, so it was really helpful when I was deciding what to make to read everyone else's posts about it.  For the sake of being helpful to other people who might want to make it, I am 5'8" and in this version made a size small, but lengthened the bodice 1.5".  I didn't alter the skirt at all.

Purple Moneta Dress 

I had read Karyn's post which mentioned the issue with excess fabric under the arms.  I took the armpits in 1/2" but you can see there is still a bit of excess fabric there.  I didn't have this issue on the second version (which I will show in another post), so I suspect it might be partially caused by this fabric not having amazing recovery (it's 100% cotton which made it easy to sew with but it doesn't spring back into shape as easily as fabric with a nylon or other polyester type content).

Purple Moneta Dress 

You can see here that the neckline is lower on the back than on the front - pretty cute!  These photos were taken in slightly challenging light, hence all the sparkles (and I would like to blame my glowing white skin on the light as well but I suspect that is just me...).

Purple Moneta Dress

So, yeah, I'm pretty happy with this dress.  It will be a cute weekend outfit for me as the weather starts to warm up, and it's super comfy.  Colette describes the pattern as being for beginners, and generally I would agree with that - the only thing I found slightly tricky was attaching the top of the skirt to clear elastic, and hemming the neckline.  I'm sure it would have been quite a bit more work without an overlocker though.  If you are planning to make this dress, I would highly recommend reading the Colette Moneta sew-along and this post about using clear elastic.

When I share the other dress I made, I'll include a few more details on the tweaks to the pattern that I made which resulted in a better outcome for me, and the technique I used to get a much nicer result on the hems.  If you have any questions, shout out and I'll try and include the answers in that post!

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6 comments:

Ali Honey said...

I think It looks great on you. Maybe you are like me and have one shoulder slightly higher than the other. ( I always thought it was from carrying a heavy school suitcase ? ) But maybe it's like having one foot ever so slightly larger and one boob also slightly larger ?
I think you did well if you made 2 dresses in a long weekend.

PsychicSewerKathleen said...

I love the material you've used for this Moneta - you're so right that it has to be the MOST blogged about pattern this year. You've done a lovely job! Nice fit too :)

Camilla said...

It looks great Adrianne, well done! I think sewing clothes is challenging, even easy patterns can require tricky adjustments for me so I'm often put off trying, but you inspire me-again with great finish! Look forward to seeing the other one.

Wendy @ Wendysquiltsandmore said...

Well done Adrianne! It looks really good on you. The colour and style really suit you. It must feel good to get something finished over Labour Weekend.

Saucyakld@gmail.com said...

I know what the problem is underarm, no darts in the front so to cover the bust you must make it wider, do the darts and the extra underarm fabric is gone! Phew, and this from a non sewer, hahahaha

Lois said...

A beautiful colour on you - nice job. Nothing wrong with alabaster like skin either:))