centauree_apercu

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!).

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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.

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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!

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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.

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I love the end result, as the X of the crossed straps echoes the X of the binding. Totally lucked out on this one!

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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!

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Centaurée bleu canard
Centaurée from Deer&Doe
Size 38
Printed rayon