Merino(ish) Coco dress

This winter I am sooo loving using and wearing wool. It is such a fantastic fibre, I could go on about it all day ;-) I have a blog post in mind based on my little experiments using wool, but for now I thought I'd show you my very latest project involving wool, this Tilly and the Buttons Coco dress...

I first found this fabric in a dark grey/khaki colour last year at The Fabric Store (my mecca for all fabrics merino) and used it to make a pair of Black Spinel pants. The fabric has 2 way stretch, making it great for pants, and I have worn them to death over winter, they're so soft, warm and comfy and a little edgy too. They don't bag at the knee and wash and wear beautifully. It's hard to describe the fabric - it's like a ponte (or 'sharkskin?') on the right side, very smooth and with a slight sheen, but then a loopy terry on the reverse. I guess the terry is the merino and the right side is something synthetic, as surely you can't get that finish with wool?!

So when I found some more of it in the recent sale I snapped it up. And at only $8 per metre (and 150cm wide) it was a bargain! The only problem was that the colour was a little crazy - it's sort of a deep teal blue with that sheen. I thought it would be OK for another pair of pants... but I got cold feet and decided to try it for the Coco. I reasoned that the simple lines and shape of the dress would balance the crazy colour.

I decided the dress would benefit from some subtle detail to keep it from looking too basic (it's a fine balance in my opinion!) and I knew from the Black Spinels that the fabric top stitched beautifully, so I added a decorative seam horizontally on the chest and also two seams on the sleeves. I considered pockets but am still deciding on that, it's a detail that can be added later I think.

The only other change I made to the pattern was to take in the side seams from the wrist right down to the hip to give it a more fitted look. Which maybe means I should have used a different size, but with knit fabrics I like being able to tailor the final fit around my curves and also each fabric behaves differently depending on stretch.

I'm pretty happy with the dress. I need to think about how to style it (don't think I've done the best job here), but again thinking of balance I'm inclined to team it with natural fibres - here with wool tights, cotton scarf and wool cardigan - to offset the synthetic sheen of the fabric's finish.

Have you come across any crazy fabrics lately? And are you a wool addict too?