Miz Mozelle Dress - the details

I found the post at Flossie Teacakes about her experiences making Miz Mozelle very useful. She pointed out that on her, the keyhole turned out too large so I made mine smaller right from the start.
For my fellow sewists, here are some details from my first version, in case anyone finds them useful in making their own.

1. If you have wide fabric, you can probably get away with considerably less than the pattern specifies. My fabric was 150cm wide and I easily cut the whole thing out of 2 metres, whereas I bought 2.7 metres (3 yards) as specified. Check out the pattern pieces before you buy your fabric. I could fit a skirt front or back, plus a bodice front or back, across one width of the fabric.

2. The bias tape requirements are quite small so it could be worth making your own if you fancy something pretty. I can imagine a plain navy dress with Liberty bias trim, for example. Mmmmm....

I find using a zipper foot helps me sew the bias tape on accurately

3. The pattern specifies single fold bias and double fold bias. Now - after a bit of Googling and confusion - I have discovered that double fold is really the same thing, just folded in half again. And all the pre-made bias I've ever seen is only single fold. So all you really need for this pattern is half inch single fold bias tape (or quarter inch double fold, essentially the same thing), and two metres or yards of it would be more than enough.

4. I found the attachment of the collar hard to visualise. The collar is sewn onto the right side of the bodice and then bias tape is used to cover the join and make the seam turn towards the inside. Here's a (dark) picture of how it ends up, which is rather clever and neat:

Using contrast-coloured bias tape led to difficulty with coordinating thread colours and I ended up with a bit of pink stitching going across the keyhole bias.

the button is a sweet pearlescent glass one I got in a bunch of old buttons from eBay

In this case it would have been preferable to stop just short of the keyhole bias and 'invisibly' hand-stitch the very ends of the collar bias down.

5. The pattern specifies 'cord' for the button loop but I made a narrow self-fabric tube, as you see above, which works quite well. It would probably look good made from the bias, too.

6. I cut a size 12 bodice and 14 skirt, according to my measurements. I think a straight 12 would have been fine.

7. The skirt is gathered slightly to join onto the bodice. The difference in size is so minimal however that I am thinking of cutting the top and bottom as one piece next time:

this is a 12 bodice and 14 skirt - the size difference would obviously be even less with 12/12

8. There is elastic at the waist, in a casing made with the seam allowance of the skirt/bodice join. I zigzagged the pieces together then overlocked/serged the s/a before sewing down, for a clean inside finish. 1/4 inch elastic was specified but I only had 1/2 inch, which was a squeeze, but it fit!

bodice/skirt seam at bottom, seam allowance serged, pressed upwards and sewed down to make casing for elastic

And for my next Miz Mozelle....
I think shirring at the waist would suit this pattern really well. If I cut the bodice and skirt pieces together there'd be no waist seam and I could shirr up and down as far as I wanted. That would probably work really well with a lawn or voile as well as jersey.

This pattern is so simple and sweet, and came together in one afternoon and evening - including the dreaded tracing off the pattern. The hardest part for me was finding a decent fabric!

this rather bright choice was 'the best I could find' at Spotlight and although nothing special, was still $15/m! 100% cotton, soft and a nice weight but the quality of the printing is horrible.

I still find shopping for knit fabrics quite confusing and frustrating. I prefer natural fibres (narrows the selection massively). I don't want 'baby' prints. Most of the plains I find look and feel, I don't know, cheap and nasty. Or too 'ordinary' plain for something like this dress. Maybe I just don't have the eye for them yet. Or perhaps I need to head back to the dyepot! Any tips on selection and sources?

- Jane x