Colette Moneta Dresses

Hello guys, today I'm bringing you some double Moneta action in the form of blue Moneta and blue zigzag Moneta (I might start naming the clothes I make - the names are not as inventive as Roisin AKA Dolly Clackett's makes, granted, but it's better to have names for them right?) Do you name your makes? 

Blue Zigzag Moneta

I sewed up my first Colette Moneta dress (pictured below) so long ago I can hardly remember making it. I think it was in January?! Anyway, it was a test one in this lightweight blue jersey (I can't remember where I bought it from or for how much, but it was either Hinckley or Leicester market). I cut out a medium size and graded to large at the waist. It mostly fit, gaping a bit around the shoulders and at the bodice side seams. I 'fixed' this somewhat by turning the dress inside out, putting it on and pinning out the excess around the shoulders and sides. I then sewed the adjustments straight away. It was fiddly, but at least the dress gets a bit more wear now!

Blue Moneta

The gathering with the see-through elastic took me a few attempts to get right. Even then it's a bit more gathered in some places than in others. The twin needle also created a bit of tunnelling, as you can see from the picture. I've had a suggestion from Anne from BelleMegan and Vintage Belle about how to deal with this; by changing the bobbin tension. I never even knew that you could adjust bobbin tension (these's no mention of it in my machine handbook and I'd not come across it before in my searches for a fix to the problem; but then I googled 'bobbin tension' and realised that there is a lot of information about it and it's just a tiny screw on the bobbin case itself that holds the key to this magic here! I've not yet tried it out, but will give it a go on my next knit project. Thank you for the tip Anne. 

I wanted to make the second version of this dress quite quickly after the first. This time without sleeves and with some flat pattern adjustments to improve the fit.

I followed Devon from Miss Make's tutorial on how to fix armhole gape. I think that the adjustment worked well. I could take a little more off the side seams maybe on my next version.

I forgot to amend the pattern piece with a forward shoulder adjustment...it was only after making the dress and trying it on that I realised - doh! Never mind, the next one will be better.

It took some time for me to cut this dress out, as I did try to pattern match where I could, but it was hard for me to work out where the collar would sit exactly in relation to the bodice pieces, so that's a little off. It doesn't bother me though. The bodice into the skirt is matched quite well in the centre & I like how the zigzag runs the length of the dress.

One thing I dislike about this particular dress is that I lined it with the same main fabric (it says lightweight on the pattern). I'd not got a suitable lining fabric in my stash & didn't want to wait two whole days for the shop to open! It's far too thick! The blue zigzag fabric, a ponte, was from my local shop in Hinckley - The Sewing Cafe. I have a few knit items in the planning for Autumn, which it most definitely feels like now (these photo's were taken in the middle of August, it wasn't especially warm, but it was a lovely sunny day). 

I do really like this dress and it's been worn a lot during the springtime usually with a thin cardigan. I have some fabric picked out for another sleeveless version. And I have bought some fabric to line it with this time too! It will also be collarless - I get annoyed by the collar at the back. With the lower neckline it just becomes very bulky under a cardi (although, again that might be the choice of lining fabric...!). I may also lower the neckline on the front bodice as I think that this will be a bit more flattering on me.

If you haven't tried this pattern yet and are thinking about sewing a knit, I thoroughly recommend it. The instructions, as you'd expect from Colette, are clear and there is a sewalong to help too. There are plenty of inspirational Moneta's out there too. I particularly like Naomi's. You can find her dresses on her IG feed this one she has swapped out the gathered skirt for a circle skirt instead - lovely. 

Happy sewing x