Laurel details

What I didn't tell you in my last post, in which I sneak peeked my in-progress Colette Laurel dress, is that it was already finished when I posted that! Oh, and that I was also already feverishly stitching up a second version.

I'm obsessed with trying out every possible version and variation of this dress that I can think up.

Version 1 - the linen mini with flappy pockets - (better photos of me wearing it to come in a future post)

I decided to use a grey linen I'd had in my fabric stash for a long time. I'd bought it back when I worked in an officey-office requiring business casual attire, and had planned to make a jacket out of it...but never did. I'm super hyped about that because I love this fabric for this dress. It's light and crisp and bouncy and soft and nice, all at the same time!

Disregard the lame, cluttered background.

The bias tape and pink loopy trim were both from my stash as well. I had just enough of the pink trim to use along the neckline, so that was nice! Overall, I really loved making this dress. Applying bias binding is super satisfying to me, and as I just mentioned, I'm in love with the linen fabric I used, too. I was even able to omit the back zipper, which literally made me giddy. The dress just slips on over my head easily - YES!

The aspect of making this dress that I did end up throwing a tiny temper tantrum about? The sleeves. I really just hate setting in sleeves. I was all pumped up to try this method I read about on KestrelMakes. When I actually attempted it, though, the gathering just wasn't happening. I un-picked and tried again with literally the same result. Ugh. I didn't want to lose my momentum and become discouraged, so I just went for my little cheat-pleats I've used on set-in sleeves before. Am I the only person out there who just can't bring herself to use gathering stitches and go the traditional route to set-in a regular sleeve?

The mediocre sleeve result is all balanced out by my fantastic pockets with bias bound flaps. They are in no way perfect, but they were so fun to make and I think they turned out pretty cute! I'm ready to add them to any and every project from now on - I'm hooked!

Wonky stitches but I don't even care! I'm in love with pockets.

In finishing up the dress, I chopped off quite a bit of the overall length, and have now ended up making it just slightly too mini to wear to work without tights. I think the shorter length is ok because the longer sleeve length helps balance out the look. I'll make sure my next version as at least a tiny bit longer than this one, though. :)

And, you heard (err... read) right: I'm already working on my second version of the Laurel dress. It's great for stash-busting and it works well with plain or busy fabrics. My next version will definitely be a bit more...vibrant. Here's a peek: