Collette Oolong Pattern: Velvet With Godets

Pattern Used:

Fabric Used:

Purple velvet from an estate sale.

Time taken to make: 

Probably about eight years(oops, I mean hours) since I took the bodice apart after it was remade and redraped and cut the bodice. 

So I went a little nuts over this pattern. Third time is the charm I guess! Obviously I have a thing for bias cut dresses. I also love that you can slip it over your head. This velvet purple fabric was found at an estate sale. I bought piles of fabric for ten dollars and this velvet was in the pile so I guess it averages out to maybe a dollar? Good thing because I made the mistake of ironing the velvet with a towel over it and not using a velvet scrap. Remember to only iron velvet if you put another piece of velvet between your iron. Now my poor velvet has a weird towel texture all over it! Looking on the bright side, it does make it look more vintage.

I wanted this dress to have a thirties look for my upcoming fashion show. To give it more thirties flare, I added godets to the bottom of the skirt and added some gathers to the sleeves as well. The godets are small and not that visible in the photos.

There were some major fit problems with this Collette pattern and I had to take the bodice apart from the skirt and remove about an inch and a half from the back and I also raised the line of the front bodice.

Godets are little triangles that are sewn into a seam to create fullness and swing.

Simplicity 3877. An example of a pattern with godets.

You can easily create your own godets by cutting triangles and sewing them into a seam.