Pattern Review – Pinterest and Style 4339 (sort of)

December 8, 2014
Pinterest really is the coolest. This linen dress started life in my head as a completely different style from a completely different pattern and after seeking some pinspiration, this happened. 

My starting point was the fabric – The Line In Between. That I loved it is both unsurprising (linen AND stripes, people. Always and forever) and surprising (RED? WHAT!?). Maybe it’s the impending festive season or the abundance of candy canes at this time of year, but I decided to throw my usual monochromatic caution to the wind and push myself a little outside my sartorial comfort zone with this one.

Back to the Pinterest factor where I got searching on striped linen dresses and came across this dress. That’s very much my happy summer style but I thought all that red and white might be too much, well, red and white. And then I found this dress and remembered a beautiful and small Nani Iro cotton piece that’s lain in my stash for nearly four years since purchasing it from the exquisite Purl Bee in New York. It was perfect – close enough to complement the linen and different enough to provide the ideal contrast. Happy fabric romance *sigh*.

 
For the bodice I used this 1985 winner – Style 4339 (view 2). The already-cut pattern was a good size too big for me so when doing my initial bodice muslin I moved both centre front and back fold lines over by an inch and took 15cm off the length. I drafted the centre back piece to exclude the V and kept it wide enough so I could slip it over my head without the need for any opening or fasteners. 
For the skirt I wanted just the smallest amount of fullness so I cut my front and back pieces around 20cm wider than their corresponding bodice widths and kept the gathering to sit beneath the centre front and centre back panels only. 

There was a bit of trial and error that happened with the sleeves (especially after they stretched on the bias) but it all turned out ok in the end. I ended up turning them under quite a bit to give just the right amount of cap for the look that I was after.

To finish the neckline (and as an alternative to the provided facings), I used the same double fold bias method that most of our Tessuti patterns use. For the hem, I went with a nice deep one. The linen is lightweight and it’s nice to see that extra detail when a fabric is a little on the sheer side. I know the photo below is more dog/less hem but it’ll give you an idea and c’mon…that FACE!

This dress was made for our staff Christmas lunch at Supernormal so I’ll sign this post off with a pic of our Melbourne Tessuti team. Always counting the blessings that come along with these good ladies who are ALL wearing me-made. And Tessuti made (of course).