A Matching Bolero

After I finished this dress, I decided that it needed a matching bolero.  There was a small amount of yardage left after cutting out the dress, and I hoped that it would be possible to squeeze a Dorothy Bolero out of the remnants.  The pattern itself comes with its own bolero, but the front lapped pieces are quite oversized and there was no way to cut the pattern out of my remaining fabric.  I contemplated purchasing an extra yard, but soon decided that was just ridiculous.

Turns out, I didn't have enough to cut everything out, even with the smaller pattern pieces from the Dorothy Bolero, but I still wasn't going to give up.  The turned back wing collared version of the pattern was my preferred silhouette, but there was no way to make that work.  I dug around in my stash and found scraps of eyelet from a very old project.  Using that eyelet for the facing pieces, I could just manage to cut out the band collar view of the pattern.

But I thought that the squared off edges might look strange paired with all of the curved edges of the pockets and neckline of the dress.

My solution was to curve those squared off edges, both on the cuffs and the center front collar.

It was a simple change and I think that it really helps bring both of the designs together.

I was slightly concerned that the contrasting facing would be noticeable and look cobbled together.

In the end, it ended up a being happy coincidence and looks much better than I had imagined it would.

I did interface the facing pieces because the eyelet fabric was somewhat flimsy compared with the piqué.

The contrast serves to break up all of those checks when it is worn with the dress.  The fabric is a cotton/poly blend, and while it isn't my favorite textile to work with, in this case, the finished product almost makes me forget that I hate working with and/or wearing polyester.

There was also a question as to which size I should choose with this pattern.  I went with the larger of the two, which definitely works, but I would also be curious to see how a slightly smaller silhouette would look.

But I am sure there will be opportunities in the future to test that theory.  And with this dress, I think that the bigger sizing works quite nicely.

Overall, I am extremely pleased with this outfit.

Both the dress and the bolero turned out even better than I had hoped, which is always a wonderful outcome.