The I feel pretty Hazel

I may just have a new love and a TNT summer dress pattern.  When I first made this Hazel pattern by Colette I didn't love it.  Don't get me wrong I just liked it.  The fit was a little bit funky and I didn't think the skirt was full enough, issues fixed recently during Project CPR.

However when this fabric arrived in my hot little hands all the way from fabric.com following my Black Friday p, I knew that instead of a top as originally planned, the fabric was calling out to be a sundress and Hazel #2 was born.

This time around the fit is much better, perhaps due to this being a plain cotton as opposed to a seersucker which has more give.

I like that I have kind of ignored the V shaped seams and just treated them like darts, there is no clever pattern placement to make a feature of the shaping, as with a striped fabric.

This time I cut the back at a size six and the front a ten which has prevented the gaping under the arms I ended up with last time.

As before I changed the skirt to having inverted box pleats front and back as I really don't feel the skirt has enough fullness to gather it with a successful result.  Last time I tried that it stuck out weirdly, and from a search on the interwebs, many have had the same problem.  The box pleats give a cleaner line and are more flattering, plus much, much faster that gathering.

The back closure is a lapped zipper, these are my zippers of  choice right now.  BTW check out the happy accidental pattern match below the waist!  Could not have been better if I planned it!!

I really pushed the boundaries of fabric frugality with this one.  As I said at the start, I bought this fabric to make a top, this mean I had what I thought was 1.5m.  I knew that my last Hazel I got out of 1.6m, so I thought if necessary I could make it a little shorter.  However, I forgot that the fabric is from the US and therefore not metrically measured, which meant I had 1.5 yards (1.4m) - eek! 

Challenge accepted, I decided to forge ahead and make it work.  Consequently, my pockets, facings and understraps are a different fabric (a plain cotton batiste in cream), but who would know!! 

On a side note, if you are wondering what is going on in the background, they are kite surfers. It was a perfect day for it as you can possibly tell by my windswept look!

If you are wondering about the polka dot dress I blogged about as being on my sewing table recently, well this is not going as well as hoped and the fit is in need of some work.  I have put it aside for the moment and have been working on some more pressing projects that I will share soon.

What are you all working on at the moment? Is anyone taking part in Jungle January held by Pretty Grievances?  I am still on the fence as I can't seem to find a fabric that would suit me. I love animal print on everyone else, but I just feel it's not me.  Perhaps I'll make some Pjs as I really want to join in the fun.