Blue Bleuet for Blue February

Yes, I know it's March, but this was made, worn and photographed in February.

A blue Bleuet from Deer and Doe, made for Blue February. How's that for a bit of alliteration? Not bad I thought :-)

Now I love this dress, yes I know I said that about my Daisy Anna and it possibly seems fickle, but I do, I love this dress.

I didn't have masses of fabric for this pattern, the fabric was originally bought for a blouse! I did however manage to be careful how I placed the pieces and actually the pattern does line up all the way round. I was even careful over the collar and bow. The sleeves were not quite so successful, I initally cut them both the same way! I ended up using what was left to cut out the sleeve again - the right way! The under collar is in two pieces! You can't see it!

This is called creative cutting - the sleeves aren't even in this image!

The remains of my cutting out!

As you can see there was very little left! I have to say, there's not really much to say which hasn't already been said by other numerous bloggers. I lengthened the waist length by about half an inch (a regular adjustment of mine), I also added a couple of inches to the hem. The cuffs on the sleeves are the right size for once. Often I find they are too tight for my arms. I didn't make these cuffs/bands any bigger and they fit perfectly.

I did find that the princess seam was not perfectly placed so had to adjust it so the main bust was slightly lower. This is a regular adjustment for me too.

One thing I didn't do was all the top stitching. I decided my fabric spoke for itself and so left off top stitching on the collar and cuffs. I actually did the cuffs differently. I attached the cuff on the flat, then stitched up the side seam on the sleeve before folding over and hand stitching the cuff in place on the underside.

I'd read in a couple of places that the placket wasn't the widest, so I also changed the way the placket was created. Since my fabric is quite bulky I just turned under about a quarter of an inch, then folded another inch and quarter. This actually gave me a winder placket to deal with and sew the buttonholes.

Parp, parp!

The details...

Fabric:  A stretch cotton from Arthur Toye in Palmerston North, bought July 2013 for about $40. There was 2m of 1.4m wide. It's navy blue with a kind of pale blue embossed pattern.

Notions:  Thread and buttons which came from Made on Marion here in Wellington.

Pattern:  Deer and Doe Bleuet
First worn:  At Staglands in the middle of February. I've worn it for work plenty of times since and get so many compliments!

Changes:  Lengthened the waist length by about half an inch, lengthened the dress length by about 2 inches. Slightly lowered the full bust in the princess seams. Stitched the sleeve cuffs and placket differently to the pattern.

Another one?  Mm, not sure really why I ask myself this question. I love this first bleuet I've made, but another one just may not work out as well.

Oh, you want to know where the photos were taken? Well with a pattern company called Deer and Doe, where else should we go, but Staglands! This wildlife park is in the north of the region and has birds, pigs, fish and of course deer. :-) The plan was for the WSBN to wear a Deer and Doe pattern. In the end only four of us turned up in a Deer and Doe pattern and all of us...

...made the same pattern. Yep, Jen, Kat, me and Mel, all turned up in the bleuet! We had a good day, there were five WSBN members with husbands and children in tow. We had a picnic and then toured the park. It was great fun, as well as being a hot sunny day!

We actually had one lady ask us about the pattern, she'd noticed that the dresses were all the same.

This photo taken by Mel's husband

It gave us a great place for group shots and it's always fun having photos with others, even giving us the chance to bomb individual pics...