Have you heard the latest news from Deer & Doe? After a decade of offering innovative, French-inspired patterns, the company has been sold to Closet Core Patterns. I’m a huge fan of Deer & Doe AND Closet Core, so I’m thrilled about this news. Closet Core has some of my favorite standalone patterns, a vibrant sewing community in Closet Core Crew, and sources so many high-quality fabrics through their online shop, Core Fabrics. I recently made this luxurious Circée dress in blue and gold textured brocade from Minerva. I feel like absolute royalty in this gown. The pattern and fabric were both fairly easy to work with, but I had to make some adjustments to improve the fit of the final project.
This textured woven brocade is a light to medium weight fabric from Minerva’s Core Range. It comes in four beautiful colors and would be perfect for formal attire. The wrong side of the fabric is a little scratchy, but nothing too uncomfortable. I didn’t wear a slip or anything under the dress for this photoshoot, but I definitely would if I were going to wear it out. The fabric laundered well and kept its color beautifully. The fabric was easy to sew, but unraveled a bit if the seams were unfinished. You have to be careful while pressing this fabric, but any wrinkles are easily steamed away without losing the lovely, raised texture of the fabric.
The Circée dress has been on my mind since its release in October 2022. I’m not usually one for statement sleeves, but Circée’s grabbed my attention and never let go. This wrap dress is so versatile that with smart fabric choices, it’s easy to make this dress for the office, for a night out, for formal events, and everything in between. Originally, I was going to wear this to a wedding, but I’ve decided to pick something shorter and easier to dance in.
I’m not sure why, but this dress exposes way more cleavage for me than I expected by looking at the drawings and other sewists’ makes. Also, there was a bit of extra fabric in the bust along the princess seams. For a better fit, I removed about one inch from the bust apex along the seam and created a new seam line to match the shoulder seams. It’s not perfect, but it’s miles better than it was before. I think the next time I make this dress, I’ll raise the neckline several inches to add more covering to the décolleté (yay French words!).
