Finished project: Colette 1028 - Moneta dress

I finished my dress over a week ago, but now I finally have photos of my Colette Moneta dress!

Colette Moneta

I took the day off from work yesterday, and we took a family trip up to the Tulip Festival in Skagit County. I'd like to thank my husband for these lovely shots!

I was doing a total Mom-on-the-go thing with this dress yesterday; I think that Stacy and Clinton would have been proud. (Note that I paired the dress with leggings and boots because the weather was actually quite cool and overcast when we left the house--not even the forecast from Weather Underground had predicted what beautiful spring weather the afternoon would bring.)

As has been the case with all of the Monetas that we've seen so far, this is a very wearable dress that appears to be flattering on all figure types.  For sizing, I sewed a 2X, which is squarely where my bust, waist, and hip measurements all fall on the size chart for this pattern. That's even a 2X at the neckline/shoulder, and you can see that the shoulder seam sits right where it's supposed to. (Normally, I would have started with an XL and graded out to a 2X at the armscye on a pattern like this, but to be completely honest, I just flat-out forgot to do that. Doesn't matter since the smaller size through the neck/shoulders wasn't needed anyway.) I compared the bodice to my TNT t-shirt and was a little nervous about the negative ease at the bust and waist and added a little (in the form of cutting a larger seam allowance) to the side seams there, so this dress is probably really about a 2.25X at those measurements, but I don't think I really needed to do that addition, upon seeing the finished dress.

I also scooped out the neckline area (lowering it by ~1.5") and did a self fabric band style of binding, rather than hemming the neckline. I was nervous about the original neckline giving me a uniboob effect, since high necklines are not usually a friend of the large busted.

The only other change I made was to add about an inch of length over the bust. I did this by taking the bodice front pattern piece, marking 1" below the CF of the bottom of the piece, then blending the curve from the pattern piece bottom. If this is confusing, I can post a picture of the pattern piece if anyone is interested.

Colette Moneta - closer shot

(At my elbow is my always-with-me-on-outings HotPatterns Mommy Tote.)

For fabric, I used ~2.5 yards of a poly lycra jersey from Gorgeous Fabrics that I've had in my stash for a few years. I remember when Ann originally posted this fabric, I had to have it, but I made myself wait until it was on sale, and then it sat in my stash, forgotten. I very recently rediscovered it when I was unpacking a tub of fabric from our move and decided that it needed to become a Moneta. I love polka dots, and I love that the subdued neutral colors of these dots lets me wear them without feeling like I'm wearing something too twee.

Apologies for not getting a decent back view--in the only one we took, I'm wearing my jacket:

Colette Moneta rear view

I will definitely be making more of these dresses. I whipped this one out in a few hours, and as others have mentioned, this is a very easy, instant-gratification type of pattern. I definitely want to make at least one solid-colored version and would love another one in a cotton jersey print, but I haven't chosen any fabric for additional versions yet.

I know that this is a really basic dress, but I'm really happy with it, and sometimes you need that type of project. I also think that it's great that Colette included such detailed instructions for knit newbies AND also expanded their size range to include plus sizes. No more grading up or grading-up-via-FBA for many of us!