Wren Dress – Colette

A review of Wren Dress - Colette

Reviewed by thepetitepassions on 1st April, 2016

I used this beautiful viscose fabric from The Splendid Stitch for £11.20 per metre. Once the fabric arrived I decided to look for a wrap dress because it draped so beautifully. The key feature that attracted me to the Wren was the faux wrap structure… and it does wear well (no gaping when moving about). I went for Version 2 of the dress with sleeves and a gathered skirt. This turned out to be a good move as I managed to finish it on the day I started it… which is a first for me as a beginner!
The instructions, labelling and notches on the pattern pieces are minimal, but it is clear how to construct the garment using the instruction booklet. There are not a lot of pieces so this is not a long process. The only thing I would think more carefully about next time would be the skirt pieces, and where they fall in the pattern as I think this could have been better planned by me when I was cutting.
This was the first time I used the stretch and sew technique – a little tricky at first but this is a fairly forgiving pattern. It was easy to make up for less well stretched/gathered areas when attaching the bodice to the skirt.
I didn’t make any fitting alterations this time as I wanted to see what the dress looked like in its intended form…I may change the waistline next time as it’s pretty high (and mine is usually 1cm higher than most patterns).
The finished dress looked better than I expected it to in many ways. The shoulder detail and front neckline are flattering, and the sleeves are also comfortable and well fitting. This dress is perfect for spring and summer and moves really well. I am not as keen on the back neckline (and this might be purely personal to my body shape – 5ft UK size 10) as I feel it makes the back and shoulders look broad. I would definitely recommend this to beginners.
For a more thorough review look on my blog at http://www.thepetitepassions.com/2016/04/wren-dress-by-colette-patterns.html#more