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Burbank Mesa
Back in October 2018, I was asked to go to Burbank for a meeting for work. This meeting was going to be with some VPs of a big, sexy Hollywood company. So, I needed a new dress to wear! I looked through my stash and found a fabric that had some of the colors from the Pantone list of colors for Fall 2018, because in my mind, I wanted to try to be a fashionista as possible. lol
So, I picked this double knit fabric that had several of the colors in there. (The white line running down the middle is the selvage folded to the middle.) This all came up fast, so I needed a TNT pattern, so, of course, enter the Seamwork Mesa.
I had been experimenting with higher necklines, so I wanted to go with a boatneck. I had done a couple free-handed with my rotary cutter, but I decided I should try to actually create a little add-on pattern piece so I could recreate the look easily in the future. Here's my front bodice piece with my add-on layered on top. I traced some key markings from the pattern below to make lining it up perfectly easier.
I wanted that neckline to be clean and pretty, so I lined the dress in a cotton knit from my stash that I acquired in a Girl Charlee bargain lot.
I sewed everything together right before I had to leave for the airport. I ended up hand hemming the sleeves on the plane and the bottom is (still a year later!) unhemmed.
I managed to get one decent photo on my trip while I was being sorted! I'm a Hufflepuff! lol
Now for some better photos of the finished dress.
Since I've been going back and blogging about all my Mesas, and looking closely at the photos, I've noticed that the back of the dress bunches up at my lower back. I definitely need to fix that. I never notice it when I'm wearing the dress, so I've now made 10 dresses with this same problem.
Tessuti Lois
When the Tessuti Lois was released back in Sept. 2017, I fell in love and bought it immediately then actually started making it right away. This is unusual for me. I often buy patterns shortly after they release if there is a release window discount. But it typically takes me a while to get around to making a pattern. So, as you can probably imagine, I own many, many patterns I haven't made yet!
But this dress had such a simple beauty that I was immediately drawn to, so I had to make it immediately. I made a size 14 with a 4" FBA, meaning I added 2" to the front bodice piece. It started out looking like this:
And after my alteration, it looked like this:
The fabric is a rayon challis, but I'm not sure where it came from. although I probably remembered back when I actually made this dress.
This dress is so great to wear. It skims over my apple middle just perfectly. My husband loves the low neckline. I made this as a wearable muslin. The fabric isn't a special occasion fabric, but the silhouette is more of an evening wear one, so I tend to wear this dress out to the musical theatre.
The dress has a side zipper that I end up not needing to use with this dress. But I'm not sure I'd risk leaving it out of the next version.
I'm definitely making this dress again. I honestly don't know why I haven't yet, since I made this dress almost 2 years ago now!
Do you have any patterns that you instantly fell in love with? Tell us about it in the comments!