Colette Macaron Dress – The Tetris Dress
The last few items of clothing I’ve made are definitely not of the wear-every-day variety. This one is no different.
Meet my Colette Patterns Macaron Tetris Dress!
This dress was inspired by this skirt from Jenny at Chronically Uncool. I had to have the fabric. I had to. But I knew I couldn’t make something exactly the same – that wouldn’t be fair! I knew I wanted it to be a dress but I didn’t want a shirt dress. So, what should I do? I should pick out a colour from the blocks and make a lovely Colette Macaron dress using the tetris fabric and the contrast, that’s what I should do!
This fabric wasn’t cheap (well, not for me and especially with the duty added when it appeared in the UK from the US via Spoonflower – be careful when ordered from the US UK peeps!) and I was really annoyed when I washed it and the colour ran. It made it look faded and, well, very 80s. I put the fabric back in my stash, saddened, until I thought: hey! I’ll just make it look like it’s from the 80s and faded all over!
The contrast red was a dullish red that looked washed out. Matching the two of them together seemed like the logical step!
I wanted to make sure the block pattern wasn’t interrupted at all at the bottom of the skirt (I didn’t mind so much about the bodice) so that it looked like an uninterrupted game. To do this, I changed the more fitted skirt into a slightly fuller, straight hemmed gathered skirt. I made sure to match the lines in the pattern up correctly at sides (It wasn’t possible to match up the colours, sadly) so it was, well, seamless, for lack of a better word!
For the neckline I used red bias binding. Actually, it’s confession time: I used bias binding because the facings I cut out didn’t quite fit and I really could not not be bothered to cut out and interface some new ones. In fact, the first time I made a (still unfinished) version the facing didn’t fit either. Has anyone else had this problem?
I like my sleeves a little bit longer as I’m not a big fan of my arms so I added just half an inch to the length of each and redrew the curve. They’re nice and loose to give me good freedom of movement for dancing. I’m pretty sure the only time I’ll get to wear this dress is while I’m out and dancing. Or in. And dancing. I like a good dance.
Once more, Sarai at Colette Patterns really laid out the pattern in the best way. The instructions are clear and simple to follow and, as per usual, extremely well presented. Obviously I didn’t follow the skirt pattern for my version but my next one (and there will be a next one) will have the proper skirt on it. Maybe a bit longer than the one on my muslin though…
I’m also taking part in the Minoru Sewalong over at Sewaholic but I’ll show you my jacket when it’s finished. For now, here’s an incredibly messy sneak peek of my traced and cut out pieces so you can see the fabric I’ll be using.
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Thread Carefully 
What a fun dress! It fits really well and I bet you get some great wear out of it.
I hope I do: I’ve been saving this fabric for ages!
It’s still every shade of awesome, work appropriate or not!
Thanks lovely – I’ll be sure to wear it to our next meeting. Maybe with my new red shoes!
Everytime I see people using clothing patterns it inspires me to dig mine out and try them, thanks! I really like the Pink fabric you’re using for your next project!
Thank you! I’t s alovely medium weight chambray. The purple and cream fabric is actually a piece I got from Tilly at the Brighton meet up a good few months ago now. I still haven’t bought my zips so can’t move on to the next stage. There a few added extras in there that I haven’t shown – all will be revealed in the end!
Love the dress! The Tetris fabric works perfectly with the red. The Macaron is one of my favorite dress patterns and yours is one of the most fun versions I’ve seen. It looks fabulous on you!
I’m so disappointed to hear about the Spoonflower fabric situation, however. There are a few prints I’ve bookmarked on their site, but will be thinking twice about now. What’s the point of selling custom fabric, if it’s just going to run?
Thank you!
To be fair to Spoonflower, it might be that I washed it at too high a temperature. To be honest though, I never change the settings on my machine (and they’re set to a 30 degree cotton wash). I have some other fabric which isn’t as densely printed so I’m holding off until I’ve used that to see what happens! When (and lord alone knows when that’ll be!) I do, I’ll report back.
Super fun!!
Wow, I absolutely love this dress! That fabric is so awesome, I’m trying to justify buying some ;o)
very cool! I love the fabrics
Thanks, both! Spoonflower is great for fabrics – dangerous for my bank account though!
Love it!!! What a great idea! 🙂
Thanks! I can’t take all the credit though: I was inspired by the others I’ve seen elsewhere!
What a fun dress! I’d be so tempted to fill letters into the squares with a fabric marker though!
That’s a good idea for a next one – the crossword dress! I’ll have to keep a look out for some!
So cool! Love the Tetris fabric, too bad the colors washed out a bit though (it isn’t really noticeable in the photos though!). I’m also a big fan of the fuller skirt on the Macaron. I’m planning on making my own soon and I just might make the same change now that I’ve seen it done.
It’s not too hard to do and I’d recommend it! The normal skirt on the macaron is too short for me anyway – I always add two inches of length to all the Colette Patterns anyway!
Oh, so fun! Love this! This is such a fun dress. I bet you’ll get lots of compliments when you wear it. I’ve heard that about spoonflower prints- that the color fades pretty easily.
Lovely & fun! I like the fabric combo & that you’ve made the skirt a bit fuller – I think I prefer it like this!
Really nice fabric for the Minoru. I especially like the lining. My version is a similar color for the outside. Great minds think alike, I guess. LOL.
I thought it would be a nice fun colour for rainy days! I have added a few bits of lace here and there so I’m hoping it’s not going to look too girly when I’m done. Fingers crossed!
This is so much fun ! xx Hi there!
Thank you! I still have to wear it out somewhere. I even brought it home with me on holiday but have spent most of my time wearing the dress I made when I was here!
Amazing! For your awesome skills that you routinely share, I’ve given you a Leibster Award! See my blog for details.
What an amazing dress….I need to get some tetris fabric!!! It fits you beautifully too
Thank you so much! It’s from Spoonflower.com if you want some. Just be careful when you’re washing it – it faded really really badly on me.
Thank you, I’ll have a look. Thanks for the tip too, always good to know it is so frustrating when beautiful fabrics fade.