When I did French lessons I really loved it when my teacher would say my name in her gorgeous accent and make me feel like a movie star. I would immediately imagine I was kicking it back at some rad chateaux with my Parisian fiance Pierre (bonus point for using a French word!) who would bring me a sassy Burgundy, a plate of fine cheese and a croquembouche cause those things are rad. But what would this dream Ar-marn-dah be wearing? Breton top? Beret? Pencil skirt? These kind of thoughts plagued me when I should have been conjugating verbs and may explain my complete lack of progress in French class. But thankfully, Deer & Doe has proven to be my French style guru and I am back with yet another Sureau.
Yup. No content with my muslin turned epic floral tuxedo I decided to have another bash at Sureau with a gorgeous cotton I picked up on my first visit to Tessuti Fabrics in Surry Hill last year. I had originally planned to make a top with this but realised I had bought waaaay too much fabric and I could squeeze out a dress instead. Thank you Past Amanda for being overly cautious with fabric purchasing.
This was another standard make. The only adjustments I made was to go sleeveless and pinch an inch out of the centre back at the top. I love it when patterns don’t require much adjustment! Less time spent adjusting patterns equals more time eating cake. Win!
What I liked about this pattern:
- It’s French. Oh la la! Now that I have made this once the instructions were easy to follow.
- My mad facing skills. Normally when I sew facings they resemble mutated dragon wings trying to wrestle their way out of a garment. They flap, bunch and fold and stick out at weird angles- you know, the norm. But this time I pressed like a boss, understitched like a mad thing, and prayed to the sewing gods that it would lie flat. Huzzah! For the first time ever I have sassily svelte facings. I may be forced to carry this frock round in my handbag to show it off.
- If I go another sleeveless version I will draft a sleeveless facing instead of hacking up the sleeved one that comes with the pattern. I mean, I like to think I sew on the edge but taking my shears to fabric when it is already attached to my frock was borderline terrifying. But Amanda, I hear you say, surely you could have unpicked the pieces and trimmed your facing to fit separately? Oh, gentle reader, I could have but in reality I was lazy and that was just too much effort. But lesson learned for next time and I won’t be repeating that mistake again.
- SLEEVES! It’s time I have a bash at a dress with sleeves. I’ve made sleeved tops in the past but for some reason I am developing a sleeve phobia. I need to get over this because we are steadily marching towards autumn and temperatures under 25 degrees. No more sleeveless! And yes, I have overused the word sleeve in this dot point. It’s starting to lose its meaning now. Sleeves. Sleeve. Sleeeeeeves.
Love the fit, and that fabric is lovely!
Looks fab and I LURVE the fabric. 🙂
great fit! And you rock that dress. I’ve ordered the pattern and can’t wait to sew it up but will have to have sleeves… it’s too unfairly cold her in England go sleeveless.
Merci, Miss Ellen! I’m super happy with the fit 😀
The fabric is super rad, Jacinta! It’s a Japanese cotton of awesome that makes everything super cool 😉
Ohhh! I can’t wait to see your version Shivani. It will be sure to be rad!
Love the fabric and the fit (and those are some serious biceps you are rocking!)
I’m busy sewing for next weekend too, I keep on changing my mind and nothing seems quite right yet!
Ohhh, so glad I am not the only one with outfit paralysis, Suzy! It’s going to be super fun!
What a lovely summery frock! So glad to hear you were successful with the facing: those things are not always easy to put in. I have one question, though: do you work out? Look at those toned arms!!! Flaunt ’em! Sleeveless dresses suit you, no doubt about that, but i’d be curious to see the Sureau with sleeves.
You look so pretty in it.. Love the summer feel.. Can you send me the sun please
Super fun dress! I have a sleeve phobia too – it has more to do with personal heating, however.
Can’t wait to see what you turn out for the meet up. g
omg your so funny! What is this brie that you speak of?? Am I missing out? I’ve seen it in stores but have never thought to try any. Maybe I should live a little, take a walk on the wild side. Anyways, I love your dress! Your going in to sleeve weather and I’m coming out sleeveless. Yay rah cuz me and sleeves don’t agrees.
C’est magnifique “Amande” – et j’aime beaucoup le tissue aussi. Tres rad indeed!
With arms like those who needs sleeves!
I love your photos babe, always looks so fun and sassy u photogenic thing you! Excellent dress, I love the fabric!
Thanks, Rox! I’m super happy with the facings- they are so flat and fancy. Almost like they got steamrollered! And yup, I do weights a few times a week. It makes me scarier on the derby track… BWAH HA HA!
I would so be sharing the sun if I could, Rach! Not long til your summer and I’ll be trying to beg some from you 😉
Sleeves can be our joint nemesis, G!
Gorgeous! I really want to try and deer and doe pattern. I want the dress with the peep hole in the back. I can’t remember what it is called. I did Italian when I was in school and the teacher always used to call me Katarina in her lovely Italian accent. It always sounded so much more exciting than Kathrine.
Shanni- you need to be getting your brie on STAT! Just make sure you get it out of your fridge a bit early so it warms up a bit. Mmmm cheese + sleeveless weather- your summer is going to be rad!
Have you had baked Camembert? If you stick in a few cloves of garlic and sprigs of rosemary or thyme before baking, it’s like a gooey, pongy heaven. Mmmmmmmmmmm…
Merci, Mlle Sabs! Yup, that’s the stretch of my French. 😉
Bwah ha ha! Thanks, Suzanne! They’re going to be cold little chicken wings come winter 🙁
crazy photos are my thang, Neeno! And how cute is the fabric? It was the first thing I grabbed at Tessuti!
Ohhh, that’s the Belladone dress, Kat! It’s super awesome 😀 Bellisima!
Eek! Now you have me flip-flopping: which to make first?!
Have you made Belladone? When will we see? 🙂
Re sleeves: do you set them in flat, or in the round? Flat is way, way easier (says she of oh-so-much sewing experience!) I boo-boo’d with Alma and forgot to set sleeves in flat before sewing up the side seams. So now I have done no sewing because I am avoiding setting in the sleeves in the round …
Also, re facing sleeveless dresses: don’t! Bind the armholes like facing instead (I link to lots of tutorials on my elephant dress post; Coletterie has a good one re their Sorbetto…)
Love the dress and the print!
-Oanh
ahahaha – hilarious. C’est fantastique! Love the dress 🙂 And your chuckle-inducing blog writing skills. It’s boring people like me that make fabulous people like you stand out, ya know.
See you reeaall soon! I’m like a pit bull dog being held back from mauling something/one in the lead up to this fabric shopping trip!
Ohhh, either is a winner Oanh!
I do my sleeves in the round- I actually hadn’t realised you could set them in flat so I’ll give this a bash next time. I just take my time with ones in the round and it is all good.
Thanks for the binding tips! I’ve used different binding techniques for different projects and quite liked the finish but for this one I wanted to try the dragon wings of doom. Totes slayed me that dragon! All I need now if some kind of rad chain mail… 😉
Merci, Ms Kettle! We can so be on point duty at said shopping trip. I’m totes ready to hip check peeps out of the way if required 😉
You are too funny, always put a smile on my face. Love the dress, you are totes rocking it 😉 Where did you get your Sureau from, is there an Oz supplier?
BTW – who needs sleeves, a good cardi will do the trick come cold weather
I went through Deer & Doe myself, Miss Lizzie! Though I went a bit cray-cray and got Airelle and Belladone at the same time. And cardis = rad solutions to most things!
Ahhh! I love this on you! It’s just so amazing! I have to admit, this was the one D&D pattern that didn’t appeal to me as much (I was having 90’s flashbacks thinking about myself wearing babydoll dresses in weird floral prints), but I’ve loved both of your versions so much that I’m tempted to snap this one up! Wait a minute, d*mn you! You’re jacking up my no-new-patterns fake rule that I’m totally not enforcing!!
Ooh, I’ve been eyeing up this pattern for a little while, your version is fab! Thanks for making me laugh so much, my cheeks are aching!
Love the dress, love the photoshoot!
Sabs, I have had deep fried bert but not baked. You give me grand ideas for this weekend, bless you!
OMG, this could have ended as a total floral dress with docs catastrophy! Thank goodness I hadn’t thought of that, Sonja, or it may never have happened… You can be the brains in this operation and I will be the cake and pie eater 😉
Thanks, Helen! I’m all about goofy photos around here!
Merci, Twisty 😀 Glad I can bring the chuckles!
Sleeves can definitely be daunting. It is not something that I often include in my sewing projects either… hopefully I can change this mindset too! The dress looks great and I will let you know if Pierre rocks up in Germany. There are a lot of Francophones over here:)
Love this on you! Congratulations on reaching Mad Queen of Facings status!
You are so on Pierre watch, Mahalia! I hear he likes a lady in sleeves so watch out 😉
One thanks you for your support of the royal facings, Lady Lizzy!
Hi, new follower:)
Love the dress, its gorg
Gorgeous! Mutated dragon wings…. lol! Won’t forget that one! 🙂
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Merci, Bec! Welcome to my little corner of crazy 😉
Total dragon wings, Carolyn! But not this time!
Tres belle, mon amie!! 🙂 I freaking hate facings… replace them with bias binding whenever possible, so I commend your mastery!! 🙂
Sleeves aren’t so bad!! 🙂 Try a pattern with raglan sleeves first; c’est tres facile! 😉
Looks great, I love the fabric!!
Kristina x
Merci, Symon! I can manage sleeves but… meh. Summer is totes for showing off the guns 😉
it most definitely is!!!! ^_^
Thanks, Kristina! The fabric is super rad- it makes me think of one of my bento vegetable cutters! (that’s so a good thing!)