I fell in love with this original summer dress pattern. I made a collection, each more colorful than the last, to take on vacation. This model indeed allows all kinds of creativity thanks to its construction of the bodice in 6 pieces with integrated bust darts in the seams.
Deer and Doe offers it in 2 versions: version A with a short skirt, my favorite, and version B with an asymmetrical hem.
Centaurée is suitable only for woven fabrics.
For my part, I made them all in lightweight cotton because I wanted to wear them as sundresses.
The steps are simple and well detailed with images. The instruction booklet is really comprehensive (and also printed on recycled paper, thanks for nature!) as always with Deer and Doe. This dress is classified according to Deer and Doe’s classification as intermediate, which suits well.
The technical steps are:
- assembling the bodice which requires some precision to align properly
- applying the bias tape for constructing the straps
- making pretty gathers for the skirt
- assembling the zipper.
The dress is offered in sizes 34 to 46, that is for a bust measurement of 80 to 104cm, a waist measurement of 60 to 84cm, and a hip measurement of 86 to 110cm.
To make it, depending on the model choice and your creativity, you will need about 2m of fabric, 3m of bias tape, and a 40cm invisible zipper.
I had a lot of fun making them and used quite a few of my fabric scraps. Indeed, the only large pieces to cut are the front and back skirt. The other smaller pieces can be cut from scraps to make a colorful peppy dress or a tone-on-tone dress.
For more originality, it is also possible to customize it;
- by making "bands" of different fabrics at the bottom of the dress
- by choosing contrasting bias tape
- by topstitching with contrasting or metallic thread
- by adding piping on the bodice
- by making a rolled hem to finish the bottom of the dress.
