Moneta

I love a good jersey dress, so comfortable and simple and easy to wear.  Up until now all of my jersey dress needs have pretty much been filled by the Lady Skater pattern, why fiddle with other patterns when I've got that just the way I like it and can make one with my yes pretty much shut?  Good question and the only answer I have is that Colette have recently started to accept Seamwork credits for their main patterns and I had a few credits to spend so I figured I'd give Moneta a go.

When I'd glanced at the pattern before it didn't really seem all that different, but now having made one I can see that the two patterns are distinct enough to make it worthwhile having, and using, both.  The most noticeable difference is the gathered skirt, which ordinarily is not my favourite but I quite like it here.  The gathering is achieved by super stretched sewing clear elastic on to the seam allowance of the skirt and then letting it ping back, far more satisfying than gathering by pulling threads!

The neckline on Moneta is also very different.  With no neckband in sight I was a little sceptical (I love the nice finish of a neckband) and was certainly tempted to add one of the free collar options, but I decided to keep it simple for my first go at this pattern.  The neckline on this dress is very wide on me and I wasn't sure that I liked it at first, but it's definitely grown on me and isn't so wide that it falls off my shoulders. I'll definitely be giving the collars a go in future though, just to add a bit of variety to my wardrobe.

I also like that this pattern has a sleeveless option, another reason I'm glad I have it in my collection.  It's still kinda chilly though so I used the mid length sleeves on this dress, I probably won't go for the again though, they hit me mid elbow and roll up all the time which is a bit annoying.  I am kinda short though so they obviously weren't designed that way.

I used a bright green jersey that is quite lightweight and slinky which works nicely with the gathers I think.  The colour is amazing and I love how good it looks with my Dare to Dream shawl.

I'm also quite taken with the way the green peeps through the lace of my Disco Hetty too.

All in all I'm pretty happy with this dress and I'll definitely be giving different sleeve lengths and neckline options a go in the future.  I won't be persuaded to give up my Lady Skater pattern any time soon, but this is definitely a welcome addition to my jersey dress repertoire!