Four more dresses on repeat

Here are four dresses which I've made last month and this - they are all repeats of patterns I've made before.

In order of me making them the first is an Anna Allen Demeter, made with some viscose / linen mix fabric which I bought from Fabric Godmother at the Stitch Festival in London earlier this year.  Nothing much to say about it really, it's quick and easy to sew and wear, although I've put it away for the autumn because it doesn't scream summer to me.  (Unless we were having a serious heatwave in which case I think the terracotta / ochre colours in it would work fine.)

The next finish was another linen Mattea which I've also put away for autumn wear.

Then came a third version of Willow made from two metres of Tana Lawn from stash.  I recut the front and back necklines and front armholes, but it still isn't an ideal fit.  It's better than the first two I made, but I think I need to compare the bodice pieces with other patterns that fit better and recut again.  Not a job for now, I'd rather be sewing other things, but maybe next year.

And finally a Tessuti Felicia - I first made this pattern four years ago.  This is made from seersucker gingham which I bought recently from Abakhan intending to make an ME2016 with it.  However, I then bought a cardigan which is a perfect colour match and would definitely not go over the ME2016's sleeves, so I decided to make it up in this pattern instead (and now have nearly a metre of left over fabric).

I'd already cut out the bodice pieces before I decided to try on the yellow one I'd made back in 2020 when I weighed more than I do now (lockdown baking 😉) and made the decision to cut the bodice a size smaller.  However, the neckline and shoulders had to stay a size M because the size S cutting lines weren't inside the size M ones.  Changing the armholes, side seams and bust darts was straightforward though. 

I'm really pleased with how this has turned out and will be making some more Felicias, although I think I'll probably bind the neckline and armholes rather than face them.

Tessuti Mattea dress & top

I bought this pattern at the Stitch Festival in London earlier this year and last month I made the top version, to see how the sizing worked.

I cut a size 1 and the fit was fine.  I used some leftover fabric from a Vogue repro vintage dress (V-8728) that I made back in 2013 and it came together pretty quickly.  I followed the pattern instructions as written for this one.

Fast forward a few weeks and I've just finished the dress.  This time I made a few changes - I took out the centre back seam and cut the back bodice in one piece; I didn't use stitch & tear interfacing on the neckline and armholes, I staystitched them instead; I also bound the armholes on the inside rather than the outside and I made pocket bags, not the 'attached to the front bodice' version in the pattern.  I used some linen which I've had in my stash for a while and it took 1.9m.  It would probably have needed more if I'd cut bias binding for the armholes from it, but I used commercial binding instead.

I traced a size 2 skirt, (can't really remember why now... but might have been because it fitted better on the dot and cross paper that I used for tracing).  I haven't top stitched the neckline - I'll see how it wears without it, should be OK because the facing is understitched and also tacked in place on the shoulder seams.  I'm going to make more of these, and if they're in linen I shan't bother to interface the neckline facing - even with using very thin interfacing it feels quite bulky.  The fabric I used for the top was a lot thinner so the interfacing was fine with that.  Now, what shall I make next?