Reglisse | the curious kiwi

My second dress for The Monthly Stitch Frocktober was a Deer & Doe Reglisse.

This is my 4th Deer and Doe pattern and I feel qualified now to admit that I’m not a huge fan of their instructions, however I’m confident and experienced enough to get by. The fit on the models on the website isn’t always the best representation but if you squint past all that then the patterns themselves are cute and have interesting details.

I went a bit outside of my usual colour palette this time around. While looking at fabric on the internet I fell in love with Patty Sloniger’s Socks the Fox and after it arrived I picked up some plain grey cotton for contrast to try and tone down the cuteness. It still ended up way too cute overload for everyday wear but I do feel super girly in it and who doesn’t like to feel super girly occasionally?

The website I purchased this fabric from classed it as a quilting cotton, but it is very light weight with a soft hand. Perfect then for a floaty dress, however I struggled to get the skirt pattern pieces on the narrow width, especially after adding 5cms in length.

I had the same issue with my first La Sylphide but this time I decided to try piecing a small triangle onto each outer corner instead of altering the angle of the side seams.

It worked really well. The cotton was easy to keep still when stitching and while this photograph makes the the joins look quite prominent you can hardly see them when the dress is being worn, lost in the pattern and fullness of the skirt.

The instructions for this dress are quite good except for the collar where they suddenly become very sparse.

I knew there was a sew along on the Deer & Doe blog but I tried to get through as much as I could without it but truly I was stumped. A lot happens with very little detailed text and not enough diagrams. There is no picture of the bias being sewn onto the collar so I had no idea how much I was supposed to unfold my bias tape.

So I jumped online and found the Reglisse sew along. It’s all in French (you could translate it through Chrome) but really the photos are all you need. As soon as I saw them everything clicked into place.

It’s a bit tricky to find the posts but you can read the collar section here.

The dress is finished neatly inside, even the elasticated waistband but I am not entirely convinced on the finish at the center front, it feels a bit rough.

It would also be nice to encase the seam on the short sleeve version with bias or perhaps attach one side and then turn them over with the raw edge folded under and stitch in the ditch to sandwich them over the arm hole.

Being a pull over style dress with elastic waist, the fit is very different to what I usually sew but it makes for a comfy wear. This is the fullest skirt I have ever sewn and despite the cuteness overoad I really quite like it.