Coral Linen Eva Dress

One final post before the year ends - Happy New Year everyone!

Before we went on our big European holiday a couple of months ago, I got it into my head that I needed a new summery dress to wear in the hopefully sunny places we'd be visiting.

So as you already know from the blog title, the pattern I used was the Eva dress (here's a link to the Tessuti pattern), and yes, you probably already read this in the title too: like just about everyone else, I made it in linen.  I do already have a dress in the same lovely coral shade of linen (blogged back here), but that dress has become a bit shorter in the wash, so here I've made something that can shrink lengthwise to its heart's content.

To be perfectly honest, I wasn't sure this long sack style of dress would suit me...  I do generally like sack dresses, and I know this dress looks terrific on other people, but I was worried it was going to be very dowdy on me, and even when I tried the dress on after finishing it I wasn't sure I liked the length.

Anyway, I took the dress with me to Europe - and how wrong I was!

I wore this dress all through my Europe trip, and - let me keep being completely honest with you - it looked better than all the other clothes I'd brought along (oh and I might do an extra post about that - I love looking at other people's travel wardrobes!). Most of the time in Europe I felt a bit scruffy, but in this dress I felt less of a tourist :).

In an out-of-town bakery in the South of France, in this dress and heels the baker seemed to take me for a French maman bringing her kids home, and threw in extra pastries pour les enfants - et bon weekend, madame!

On a dry, hot day exploring Les Baux the dress was amazingly comfortable, and the length was easily tucked up into my undies for climbing ancient worn down steps.

And in Rome it was the one outfit that felt elegant enough for "la passeggiatta" (I believe that's strolling and sampling gelatos) among the locals :).

My little 7 year old daughter took all these photos, and I am quite astonished at her skills with my camera! I haven't had to do ANY cropping or straightening the way I do with my own photos... 

The official photographer

Pattern:

Sleeveless variant of the Eva dress from Tessuti patterns, made in a size S.  The pattern cost me $28 in hard copy form.

Fabric:
3 metres of linen from Lincraft, and I think it was about $14 / metre which would total $42.  I had about a half a metre left at the end of some sneaky cutting - Rachel had let me know she'd only needed about 2.5 metres but obviously how much you'd need depends on the size sewn, fabric width, and repeats in the fabric design.

I already had thread from my making last coral linen dress, and I didn't need any other notions, so the fabric plus pattern costs add up to $70. That sounds a lot, but with the amount of wear I've given this dress it feels worth it.

Tessuti patterns' Eva dress in coral linen

Modifications:

• Lengthened the bodice by 2cm to try to give the illusion of a longer body
• Changed the order of assembly of front and back panels to give myself a better shot at lining up the seams (they're still not perfect though - I was in too much of a hurry)
• Used a regular hem rather than binding the hem, just because I'd skipped the last part of the instructions and assumed the dress was going  to have a regular hem
• Omitted top stitching

Pros:
I love the neck and sleeve binding, I love that the instructions include steps for finishing your seams, and I love the pocket instructions - they're the real deal, and give you a properly finished pocket that sits facing to the front of the dress as it should. I remember proper pocket instructions like these in my old 80s / 90s designer Vogue patterns, but I haven't seen them in ages. And the pockets themselves are excellent, nice and roomy and positioned at a very comfortable place.

I've heard a few negative mutterings around the place about hand drawn patterns vs those drafted in CAD or whatever other software gets used, and I have to say, I absolutely don't mind if a pattern is hand drawn - what I care about is whether it's a well-drafted pattern.  Not all hand drafted patterns are good, but it seems to me that Tessuti patterns know what they're doing, even if their patterns do look 'old school"...

Cons:
I can't think of any cons!  When I initially tried this dress on and reviewed it in the bathroom mirror, I thought it would look better at just below knee length. I was wrong; the lantern shape of the skirt would be lost on a shorter dress. The bathroom mirror didn't give me enough perspective to be able to judge length, so the con is on me.

See you soon!


- Gabrielle x