Upmarket Myrtle

For my July Minerva Crafts bloggers network project I have made another Myrtle by Colette Patterns. I love my first version. It was a dream to sew and lovely to wear.

I really fancied making one in a heavier weight material, something a little more up market. I love a classic blue and white combination so when I came across this on the Minerva website, I knew I had found my fabric.

It is of superb quality. It feels like a heavy crepe and it behaved beautifully. My overlocker loved it without having to make any adjustments to the tensions which always throws me a bit. It is quite heavy and has a real expensive look about it. There’s probably a limit to what you could use this giant print for but I can see it would be perfect for a shirt dress or a flowy skirt.

The Myrtle pattern is meant for a knit fabric but there are alternative instructions for using a woven fabric. I just used my noggin to vary the instructions where necessary.
I increased my seam allowances to my usual 1.5cm and added 2 inches to the length. My previous dress had come up a little short making me use a very minimal hem allowance.
I cut a bias strip to finish off the rear neckline and arm holes as you would traditionally with a woven fabric and it worked a treat.
The instructions to add the 1 inch elastic to the waist look confusing but followed to the letter work perfectly.

And there we are. Perfect for a posh lunch, garden party or summer cocktails. I just wish I had any of those to attend!

I am going to have to go back and revisit the hem.

I hemmed it on my machine using that stitch that just catches a smidge of the fabric but it stands out a mile on the dark navy background. So I think I might revisit the navy sections and do those by hand. You can’t see it on these photos though so it’ll probably get left!

So I think I’ve pulled off an upmarket Myrtle. Do you agree?

Love, Lucie xx