Karen’s Colette Moneta dress!

Have you ever bought a sewing pattern with the intention of sewing it up straight away, to then procrastinating so that the pattern doesn’t see the light of day until a few years later? Well, that was the case with me and the Colette Moneta pattern.

I actually bought this when I hadn’t sewn many knit garments, so I think that was why I dilly dallied!

However, once I’d sewn it, I had found my most favourite jersey dress pattern. Unfortunately this pattern has now been discontinued and seamwork have also stopped selling it. However, there are a couple of alternatives that are very similar. You can download the Styla Gelana dress for free from the Little Lizard King website and Sew Over It also have the Nomi dress pattern.

I have sewn this dress numerous times now, but had never made it in a plain fabric and I felt there was a gap in my wardrobe for this dress, especially since I’d made a Tilly and the Buttons pearl cardigan that was too short to wear with high waisted bottoms.

As soon as I saw this gorgeous navy Punta fabric, I knew it would be a perfect match for the Moneta. It is a heavyweight jersey fabric with a four-way stretch that has lovely drape and great recovery.

The fabric was a dream to sew with and has worn and washed really well. This dress has already been in high rotation since I’ve made it.

This dress is very simple to make with very few pattern pieces, however, the most tricky part of this dress is adding the elastic to the waist!  It calls for clear elastic to be used to gather the skirt before attaching to the bottom of the bodice, but I have only ever had success with this once and this time I failed again.

Instead of retrying with the elastic I decided to gather the skirt as you would with a woven fabric, by sewing gathering stitches and pulling on the bobbin threads.  I then pinned the life out of it and sewed it to the bodice using a zigzag stitch. I was worried the stitches would pop with the stress of getting the dress on over my head, but it’s actually worked out really well and I have no issue with getting it on or off and the stitches have behaved.

I’ll definitely make this dress again and will have yet another try with the elastic waist, however, I will try another brand of clear elastic and if that doesn’t work, I will try normal elastic!

This dress comes in sizes XS to 3XL and I made a size small but used 5/8” seam allowance for the underarm and side seams. I also added 1” to the bodice length and this sits on my natural waist. I am 5ft 5” for reference.

The only change I made to the pattern was to add a neckband, as I prefer that than just a turned over neckline. To do this I measured the circumference of the neckline and times that by 70%, then added 10cm onto that figure. The width of the neckband pattern piece was 1.5”

The neckline of the dress is lower at the back than it is on the front and I actually wear this dress back to front as I prefer the lower neckline to be at the front! It makes no difference to how the sleeves sit on me.

I hope you like my dress and how I style it up. If you have this pattern and haven’t made it yet, I highly recommend it. Otherwise the alternative options I mentioned would be a good choice. I’m going to try out the Gelana very shortly.

Thanks for reading and happy sewing!

Karen @sew.little.time