This is the second of the three unpublished posts and, as the title suggests is for two Anna Allen Demeter dresses - the first is in Butternut linen from my trip to Merchant & Mills
and the second is some striped linen I bought in a sale a few years ago.
Nothing more to say about these really, this is a great pattern for hot summer days as is, and in the autumn/winter with a long sleeved top, cardigan and tights. Like the Felicia pattern, it's a quick sew because it doesn't have any fastenings.
I thought I would get ahead a bit and start writing an end-of-year summary post, but found three draft posts which I wrote back in August so, with a bit of updating, here's the first.
The first dress here is sewn with a turquoise linen which I bought from Bloomsbury Square (although they call this colourway Cornflower Blue) a few years ago. At 260 gsm it's a heavier weight than I've used for other dresses, but it does hang, and swish, beautifully and I would definitely use it again.
The next is a long-sleeved version made from some cotton gingham which I bought from Minerva several years ago now. The sleeved version of this pattern is available as a separate expansion pack - it's not just sleeve pieces, the bodice is cut differently too. I bought this when it was first released and this is the first time I've used it! It was easy to make - the sleeves fit very nicely into the armholes, I did have to shorten them though.
All the others are linen which I bought from a trip to Rye in the summer which obviously had to include visiting Merchant & Mills. I spent quite a while in there narrowing down what I wanted to buy and this is what came home with me.
Of these linens all have now been turned into dresses except for the blue and white check which I will sew up in the spring, and the brown and white check on the top of the pile which was a remnant and will become either a top or skirt, once I've decided which!
So, here are the four Felicias which I've made from this recent purchase
French Clay - a lovely beigy putty-ish colour, with a slight pink tinge to it
Boston Fall - gorgeous, but although when I prewashed it with the other linen purchases there was no problem, the first time I put it in the machine with a mixed cotton / synthetic load, all the pale synthetic fabrics picked up loose dye from it and went a rather fetching (not) shade of sludgy yellow. The clothes made from linen and 100% cotton were fine. So now I'm only washing it with non-synthetic things.
Cinnamon Dust - a gorgeous colour and perfectly matched with my Ember cardigan.
And finally a long-sleeved version in Sophia Plum - a lovely aubergine colour with an ochre yellow grid pattern, which is a slightly lighter weight than the plain colours.
I've put the turquoise dress away now for next summer, and passed on the pink gingham one, but all the others are going to get plenty of wear over the autumn and winter.
This is a Style Arc Montana dress, made in rose linen from Fabric Godmother which I started sewing in August and finished in September.
I tried the bodice on before I attached the skirt and it looked OK, but once I'd finished the dress the armholes didn't have much leeway in them, so I cut triangular gussets on the bias, unpicked the side seam and inserted them by hand. It was a bit of a faff, because I'd completely finished the dress (all seams overlocked), but definitely worth it because it's improved the fit significantly. I do like this pattern, so I'll modify the armholes before I make it again.
And finally!...Now I'm all caught up with this year's knitting and sewing.
This is a Wiksten Shift dress which I finished at the end of June. The length is midway between the short and long dress versions (short dress + 12cm).
I didn't cut a waist tie, but I did add inseam pockets rather than use the patch pockets that came with the pattern (I used Bardon pockets because they were to hand). I've actually placed them a bit low, but they're useable, so I'm not going to move them! Made with Powder Pink linen from LinenOholic - I love this colour.
This took 2.3m and is very easy to wear, either on its own, or with a long sleeved t-shirt and leggings underneath in cooler weather.
Here is another pattern which had caught my eye on Instagram and so far I've made four of them. The first I made in May with some quilting cotton that I bought years ago and never made up because I kept changing my mind about which pattern to use. So I finally made a decision and it became this. The lower tier is a bit narrower than the pattern piece, because of the width of the fabric.
The next one, which I started in late May and finished in early June, was made with Coco linen from Merchant & Mills.
Bardon number three, which I made in July, was from some red cotton gingham which I bought years ago in John Lewis with no clear plan - I think it was an end of roll and reduced, I only had 1.7m, which is not a length I would have bought by choice. Because of that I used different pockets (from a purple Simplicity gingham dress which I made in July - I'll link to it once I've written about it) - the ones which come with the pattern are quite generous. As it was, one of the pocket pieces is made from two pieces of fabric sewn together! The front skirt piece is also slightly narrower than the back, because of the not-really-enough length of the fabric. For this one I modified the armholes to the next size down (although I can't now remember whether this was just for the front or the back bodice as well...), which gives a better fit.
And the last one so far is this one, which I made in August, in a lovely salmon double gauze which I bought from Fabric Godmother this summer.
The skirt pieces (tier 1) are per the pattern, but the next one down and the bottom frill I cut to use up all the fabric length. Again, I used smaller pockets (the same ones as for the red gingham version).
And here's the pattern, which unfortunately is only available as a pdf, so I pieced the bodice together and traced it, but helpfully the dimensions are given for the skirt sections so I just used the measurements and cut them out of dot and cross paper. (I hate piecing together A4 pdfs.)
Love it!
This was the third dress I made this year, the first of my me-made May challenge and the second McCalls 7969 I've made - the first being this gingham one which I made last year. I made the same mods for this dress as for the first one, it's essentially view D with a shorter skirt and longer sleeves with a cuff.
Lovely linen from LinenOholic in Sangria colourway.
I've decided to just write one post for all the sleeveless linen Demeters I've made so far this year, rather than give them each a post with about two lines of text! They are all view B (which has a higher neckline and longer and slightly narrower skirt than view A) with the skirt lengthened by about 3" and the plain ones all took 1.8m of fabric.
In order of me making them they are this one, which I made in April
with Forest Green linen from LinenOholic who have an Etsy shop and their own website.
Then I made a few other dresses before version two came along in an absolutely beautiful pale pink colour. Started in late May and finished in early June.
After that in mid-June (again, with a couple of other dresses in between) came this in Lollipop linen from Merchant & Mills - I absolutely love, love, love this fabric - orange is such a happy, summery colour. this took 2m and I also had to cut the front skirt piece slightly narrower - this isn't quite as wide as the plain linens.
This was the next Demeter off the blocks in a gorgeous yellow linen called Faded Sun which again came from LinenOholic and which I finished in early July.
Five other dresses later, in August, came this one in Penzance linen from Merchant & Mills, I cut the skirt slightly shorter and wider and it took 1.65m
Closely followed by this one which has the skirt width of view A and took 1.7m.
And that's as far as I've got until now, although there will definitely be more. Great in summer just as they are, and in winter with a warm cardigan and boots.
I'd seen several Demeter dresses popping up on my Instagram feed and really liked the look of them. I'd been meaning to make some looser fitting dresses for ages - initially because I didn't enjoy wearing very fitted dresses in hot weather, but more recently to accommodate the lockdown baking increase in my waistline. So in April I made these.
I started off making a short-sleeved top (view C) to see whether I would need to make any fit adjustments. I've had this fabric for years, it came from Classic Textiles in Goldhawk Road I think, and had already cut out and marked up a Vogue 8666 dress but never got around to sewing it up. I had a metre and a bit left, which was enough for this top. It's a pretty good fit, but the bust darts needed moving - it doesn't really notice on this busy print, but definitely would on a plain fabric, so I'm glad I made this toile before cutting out a dress.
And this is the first of several linen dresses I've made from this pattern this year (and no doubt there will be more). A lovely cobalt blue linen - this colour is available from several fabric shops. I cut pattern view A, with the skirt length of view B. I didn't give it a 3" hem though - I liked the unhemmed length, so just overlocked it and turned it up by 3/4". I also adjusted the bodice front with the bust darts moved.
I'm very pleased with how it's turned out. Linen is great in summer (cool) and winter (doesn't stick to your tights, so no need for a slip). Love it!
