The Late Night Sewist

Hi!

The fresh new pattern from Itch to Stitch, the Majorelle is here! I tested it and I am glad I went out of my comfort zone and tried the ruffled collar version.

Shop the pattern HERE.

The fabric may look like thin denim or lyocell, but it is actually a blend of viscose and poly, with great drape and feeling silky against the skin.

My dress is in size 6, blended to 8 at the hips and I added 1,5 cm to the length. The only detail that requires some patience and skill is the collar, especially if you choose to make the ruffle, but otherwise I think the dress goes together really quickly.

Initially I felt that the hand crocheted belt loops would be too much fuss, but when I finished them I realized they are exactly right for the fabric and look of the dress – so much more subtle than the sewn on belt loops.

But the only reason I managed to finish the dress at all is that I have a supportive husband and at least as supportive sewing friends.

Since the fabric looks like denim, I got stuck with the idea that it definitely needs pearl snaps and nothing else. I found the snaps in a shop in Tallinn through their website, but they require a hand press tool and dies to set them. The same shop only had some unreasonably pricy versions of hand presses available, so I ended up ordering one from Latvia instead. But I could not be sure about the shipping speed and had the deadline of the test approaching…

So one of my sewing buddies not only went, checked the snaps out for me and bought them, but also sent me her own hand press to make sure I could set them on time. My husband picked the press up on his way home from Tallinn and took it back the day after.

The shop that sold the snaps also provided the dies but they warned that the fit is not exactly perfect and I may not succeed with satisfactory results. When I test-set the snaps I saw that the die was just a tiny bit too small for the pearl part of the snaps and therefore it could easily move while pressing and not attach correctly through the fabric. I got a feeling that if there was something stabilizing the pearl cap from underneath, like a piece of sticky poster putty, it would work better. I didn’t have poster putty, but I had chewing gum and it worked perfectly! I set the snaps one by one without any issues!

You can of course choose to use buttons instead, but if you have a good hand press, it speeds the process up as you don’t have to sew the buttonholes and buttons.

This is my press with lots of snaps, buttons, grommets and necessary dies from a small Latvian shop Meistarei: https://meistarei.lv/ . They have a really good customer service as they sent me the links to tutorial videos that show how to use specifically the dies that I had ordered.

Until soon!