My favorite local yarn shop, Ritual Dyes, commissioned a shop sample to help advertise their expanded stock of sewing goods (including a lot of Merchant & Mills fabrics and patterns). I don’t wear dresses, so I enjoyed the opportunity to sew a silhouette that I wouldn’t otherwise make. This dress was way too small for me to try on (I’m a size 16 in M&M), but I’m excited to see what it looks like on a smaller body!
Fabric & Supplies
- Merchant & Mills European Laundered Linen in Electro Blues Check (160 gsm / 4.7 oz) (available at Ritual Dyes)
- Pellon SF101 Shape Flex Fusible Interfacing
- 1.25” wide knit elastic
- Schmetz Microtex 80/12 needle (next time I’d use a Universal needle with this linen)
Sizing & Modifications
- I cut a straight size 8 with no modifications, as requested by Ritual Dyes.
Sewing Notes
- Dresses require a lot of fabric and the M&M laundered linen is very shifty, so I cut single-layer on my dining room floor (RIP my back and hips).
- I didn’t have enough extra fabric to pattern match the side seams of the skirt, but I tried to be intentional about the placement of the pattern pieces with respect to the checks.
- I tried to place the pattern pieces so the finished edge of the double-turn hem would fall in the center of a check to avoid color changes that would make it obvious if the fabric was a bit off-grain. You can fudge this a bit while hemming because you have ~4” of wiggle room.
- I tried to place the pattern pieces so that the waist also fell along the center of the checks, but I didn’t take into account that the center front of the skirt is higher than the side seams, so you can see a color change in the finished object.
- I didn’t pattern match the bodice pieces per se, but I again I was intentional about placement. I tried to ensure that I wouldn’t have any obvious color changes that would draw the eye to any off-grain cuts. I also cut adjacent pattern pieces from different colors so I wouldn’t have any instances where it looked like I tried and failed at pattern matching (what I call “close-but-no” situations).
- I don’t love the pockets—the pocket bags are too small for my (admittedly large) hands, and they move around a lot. If I made again, I would make the bags bigger and add understitching or pocket stays.
- Gathering the skirt was tedious and a time-consuming. It may have been easier with lighter-weight fabric. If this is your first time trying out gathering, I recommend looking up some tutorials online because the instructions don’t offer any tips.
- I would have liked more guidance on dealing with seam allowances, especially the seam allowance attached to the back elastic. It’s not understitched to anything, so it creates a bump that might bother me if I was wearing it.
- A caution for beginner sewists: I love Merchant & Mills fabrics and the silhouettes of their patterns. I do not like their pattern instructions: they are sparse, with few clarifications or tips, and the diagrams are often confusing. I had to rely on my intuition and experience to figure out what construction methods made the most sense, and even then I had to seam rip multiple times. I think this pattern could be very frustrating for novice sewists.
- The diagrams are especially frustrating when constructing the bodice. PSA: the shading for the RS and WS of fabrics in M&M patterns is the opposite of what many pattern designers in the U.S. use. But the bigger issues is that they don’t distinguish between the RS of the main/exterior fabric and the RS of the facing fabric. The key distinguishes between main fabric and lining fabric, but they didn’t use the lining shading for the facings. Paired with the sparse instructions, it can be difficult to figure out what exactly you’re supposed to be sewing at any given step.
Notes for Next Time
- If working with linen, serge the selvage edges together to prevent the weave/grainlines from becoming warped or skewed (I was being lazy because I had shingles) 🫠
- Block interface the fabric before cutting out the bodice pieces to keep the weave stable and allow for more precise cutting and pattern matching.
- Increase the pocket bags and add understitching or pocket stays.
- Look up tips & tutorials for gathering a lot of fabric.
- Secure the seam allowance where the elastic attaches to prevent a bump.
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