A birthday/wedding Hawthorne

It's officially been too long since your last post when your mom thinks something is wrong with her phone because new blog posts aren't loading on it... Anyways, hi everyone!

The only way I can kind of excuse my absence is because my husband and I are still getting settled into our new place. It was almost move in ready, but man, a LOT of things popped up that we didn't know we had to take care of. Like the gas leak in the attic and in the wall, the brand new refrigerator that died, some electrical problems, the dead animal in the wall, and the roofer that stepped through the ceiling in my sewing room while a new roof was getting put on. Oh, plus patching up drywall, painting, and having carpet installed in one room, but we knew about that stuff. Good times! LOL JK it sucked, but on the bright side, at least we got all of it taken care of within the first couple months of living in our new place and it was all fixable. So we're good now. At least I think we are, I hope I didn't just jinx anything. Oh, I've also been working my usual 40 hours a week and we adopted a cat, Larry Bird.


Despite the house issues I have found time to sew some simple projects, but haven't really been interested in blogging and didn't want to force myself. For my first post "back" I'd like to share this Colette Patterns Hawthorne dress I tried to make for my birthday back in July. "Tried" is the key word because it didn't get sewn in time, but that's ok! I'm over the days of making self imposed deadlines and rushing to get things done. It ended up being perfect to wear to the wedding I went to on Sunday, so it's all good.

A few years ago I made Hawthorne in the blouse view, but I have gained weight since then, so I made different changes to the pattern. This time after two muslins it was determined that I didn't need to do a FBA (weird), grading from a smaller size at the shoulders (I have narrow shoulders) to a bigger size at the waist was necessary, and the bodice needed to be shortened by 3/4 inch. When I finished the dress in July it fit great, but since then I lost a couple of inches in my waist which makes the dress loose and not as fitted as I would like. It's not a biggie, I'll still wear it!


Do you ever get so stoked on a pattern, swear to make a million versions of it, and then never get around to doing it? That's what happened with me and Hawthorne. It wasn't a full on break up, we were just on a break and now we are back in love. Hearts hearts hearts. My only complaint about the dress is that 2013 Erin was not clever enough to think about buying enough fabric from Mood to attempt to line up those palm tree things. There was barely enough fabric to eek out the dress, so pattern matching didn't happen as well as it should have along the bodice front. Ooooooh well!

Since I had sewn the pattern before, everything came together quickly and easily. Zero confusion as usual when it comes to Colette directions. Mark my words, I WILL make a sleeveless version of this dress.

I do like the fabric though. It was easy to sew and press and feels nice on my skin. At the wedding I went to on Sunday it was 34856934856514561495145 degrees Fahrenheit (or something) in the sun and sweaty. Luckily, this fabric let my skin breathe well and kept me as cool as possible until the sun set. Then I had some iced water, chilled wine, and tasty veggies and life was good. The wedding was beautiful and I couldn't be happier for the bride and groom. When I found out that Katherine was getting wifed to J I was so stoked. J is one of my husband's BFFs since childhood and someone I adore. It's so rad to celebrate love with fun people for an amazing couple! Cheers to J and Kat!


But tell me about you guys. How have you all been? Have I missed anything exciting? Do you have any secrets to share? Tell me!