To go to my friends’ wedding last week, I wanted a summer dress that would be simple and comfortable, but still a bit fancy. I chose Deer&Doe’s Centaurée, which is the perfect pattern for this with its pieced bodice and double straps; plus, it’s not too tight at the waist, so I was able to indulge in eating cheese (I was only in France for a week after all!).
I’m still stashbusting, so I used a rayon fabric I bought some time ago in Ragtime Fabrics, Harrisonburg, VA (that’s where my boyfriend learned to sew!). No surprise in this choice, as the color is my favorite by far and I wear it all the time. It has a great name in French too, “bleu canard”, which means “duck blue” (which is a good fit with the feathers print!).
I had already made this pattern once as a tester, so I was confident about the fit, and this time I discovered the instructions which are very clear. My first version had contrasting fabric at the bodice and a hi-low skirt, for this one I used the normal skirt and only one fabric, and added piping to the bodice to make it a bit less casual.
As usual, I sewed it at the last minute, finishing it the night before I had to take my plane to France. For once, it was a good thing, as all the details I like about this dress come from silly 1am mistakes!
To apply the flat binding, I used Deer&Doe’s sewalong video. Except I didn’t watch the entire video, and I totally forgot to apply it to the center seam!
I was quite upset at first because with the large feathers pattern, the middle seam is really visible, but in the ended I liked the X shape and I really didn’t feel brave enough to unpick the seam and start again, so I left it like this.
As for the straps, if they ended up crossed, it’s because I didn’t take the time to stay stitch the neckline, and I ended up pulling too hard when applying the biais binding… After applying it, the neckline and armholes were gaping a lot, so I took inspiration from the ombre version of Deer&Doe and crossed the straps so they would pull more on the neckline, which works great.
I love the end result, as the X of the crossed straps echoes the X of the binding. Totally lucked out on this one!
Speaking of Deer&Doe, have you seen that the next pattern will be released on Wednesday? My test version will be coming very soon too!
Centaurée bleu canard
Centaurée from Deer&Doe
Size 38
Printed rayon
Beautiful dress! I’m with you on the color, it’s practically perfect. I’ve done last minute sewing before, but it’s usually a mess and I end up abandoning it and wearing something else. It’s nice to see that it actually can happen! 🙂
Thanks Nicole 🙂 I have to admit, it’s not always that things work out like this!
So pretty! That color is so great, and I love the piping on the bodice. Well done!
Thank you!
[…] cinch the waist slightly to avoid the “block” look. In a way, this dress reminds me of Centaurée, which is my favorite Deer&Doe pattern and which I love wearing in the summer when it’s […]
[…] looks just fine with flesh-colored underwear. You can see the difference between this version and my previous version of Centaurée, that I had made with the old pattern: the skirt of the new one is more flared, which I think is […]