Sew Brunswick

This is one bad ass Laurel. Laurel is supposed to be sweet and feminine but this one ain't! Jaywalk fabric, black knit, exposed zippers and a touch of red. A match made in heaven.

As soon as I saw this competition announced I knew I was going to make a shift dress. Starting with the Laurel pattern, I performed a series of alterations to achieve the look I was after. I did my standard sway back adjustment, removing the excess from the back neckline in the process. After these alterations, I folded out the bust dart all the way across, raised the back neckline and placed the back pattern piece on the fold. I simply omitted the waist darts. I traced off the desired yoke piece and added seam allowances. Voila! It worked a treat.

I gained inspiration from Pinterest for this make. The Tessuti stripes board was a winner. You can see my particular inspiration pics below. These pictures are all from the Tessuti board.

I was repeatedly drawn to a few key features. I wanted contrast sleeves, coloured binding on the neckline, a loose fit, patch pockets and an exposed zipper. I got all of them except the patch pockets. I want those to be black and if I put them on I was concerned about going over the 20% allowance for non-Jaywalk fabric. So I can add them later if I want. We'll see!

I decided on red binding for the neckline. It would have been much easier to use black but I do thrive on a challenge. You can see a tiny sliver of the red binding in the above pictures. Below are the inside garment pictures. Pretty, isn't she??

The exposed zipper is purely decorative. I left the centre seam in the back yoke and stitched it together before stitching the zipper over the top. The seam provided the zip with some stability.

Project Details
Pattern: Colette Laurel dress, size 14
Fabric: Black/natural viscose/elastane jersey knit "Jaywalk" and black dot com jersey from Tessuti Fabrics
Alterations: Sway back adjustment, removed 3cm from back neckline, folded out bust darts, omitted centre back seam, omitted back waist darts, raised back neckline 1cm.

A good shift dress is trans-seasonal and I will be wearing my Jaywalk Shift with boots and tights for the next few months. It works well both ways.