Making Matilda - Megan Neilson Dress Success!

 

Good morning everyone

Coming your way today with something entirely NEW! (To me that is - to everyone else this is old news as usual).

Apparently I love an Aussie pattern designer - by pure chance (Pattern Emporium and Style Arc being my faves) - and now another! 

I have spotted this Matilda Dress ages ago but never really gave it a thought. However I got attached to the idea of the cargo pockets and utility style of this one which I thought may be good for my new shape. 

There are princess seams (which seemed an easier option for fitting my chest), drop shoulder or sleeves (nice for a broader back), pleated breast pockets (volume), and an A-line skirt with roomy statement pockets (big butt skimming properties) and collar and stand (winner winner chicken dinner I do love a shirt dress). 

I got his absolutely epic fabric at Croft Mill -not somewhere I usually browse but Zesty Zebra took my heart. 

I made not one, but two toiles for this dress! Who even am I. It was a slow sew project that has been going on in the background for several weeks. 

On the size chart I picked a 16/18 which was were I best fit into. A starting point.

The first toile gave me the general shape of the dress which was 'ok' but certainly didn't fit. My first adjustment was to do a flat chest adjustment - ie pinch out all the excess at the princess seams to make it lay better. If you're taking out the bust fullness, the waist tends to need moving up too. My toile was very low waisted so I brought that up by 1 inch. See pics below:

The effect of this adjustment was that I then had a gaping armhole. Very annoying. This was also fixed by pinching the excess out into a dart shape for a bit of wizardry.

The excess fabric was pinned out as below into a dart. Cut into the dart and close it up to make it disappear. It's then necessary to smooth off the armsyce curve which meant trimming off that little triangle in the second pic. This pattern has a front yoke and therefore the yoke piece also needed adjusting. I lined up the pieces and again trimmed off the excess in pic 3.   Gape be gone!

The dress having a front and back yoke, means you do a 'double burrito' to finish the seams and it gives a 'beautiful inside as out' finish. The waistband also has an inner piece which encloses all the skirt and bodice seams for another flawless finish. I hand stitched that down and it looks so satisfying. 

The construction of a shirt or shirt dress is great as you can just do little sections as and when you want. I feel like they have 'chapters' that you can just put down and pick up. Placket, collar, buttons...

The dress also has seams in the back for shaping which I love as I have a sway back so it sits really nicely. No adjustments needed to the back. 

I made this during the hot hot day so there was only really one label to choose. The lovely Aimee at Sew Anonymous sent this to me. 

She's one of life's lovely humans so do have a look at her shop. Talking of lovely humans - Shout out to Karen (of the seaside) who incredibly ran a Race For Life and had my name on her back amongst others. I was so touched by that. We've never met in person but sewing had us connect as we sewists do. Thank you! x

Back to the stitching...

This is obviously the sleeveless version which I prefer for warm weather. Easier to pop a cardigan etc over the top then without sleeves getting stuck! 

I did cut out the pieces for the collar however when I tried it on, I really liked the 'mandarin collar' version using just the collar stand.  (Fun fact - prevents your armour from chaffing).

I spent a lot of time on this one therefore I definitely have to make another! Or several now the fit is correct. After feeling a bit rubbish its been nice to find something that feels nice to wear. 

Whats got two thumbs and loves the Matilda Dress? This gal!

Thanks for stopping by - feel free to comment and come and say hello on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Bloglovin too xxx