For me, one of the hit patterns of the last year was Tessuti’s Lily dress.  I made it three times, wear all three regularly, and am currently considering making a fourth.  So when Tessuti released their Eva dress pattern, it took me about a minute to purchase it.  It was the first thing that I made last weekend at Sewjourn.  As per the pattern page: This loose summer dress has a bodice that sits at high waist and a panelled skirt with side pockets. It can be made up in either a short-sleeved or sleeveless version. The Eva Dress is designed as an oversized garment which makes it a fantastically comfortable and cool addition to your summer wardrobe. It’s best made up in medium weight crinkle and plain linens, textured cottons as well as cotton/metal fabrics.

I hoped that this would be a wearable muslin, and I think that I succeeded! The cotton/linen border print that I used for the skirt was a remnant from Rathdowne Fabrics, and it was a bit too small for many other patterns that I had tried to pair it with. I originally searched the stash for a plain brown fabric to use for the bodice, but nothing was quite right. As you can see, I ended up choosing a striped fabric that I felt coordinated with the print in an interesting way.

The bodice is dartless, and is gently curved at the centre front and centre back. Tessuti provided separate pattern pieces for the sleeveless bodice and the sleeved bodice, which always improves the fit. I sewed this up at size Medium, which translates to an Australian 12-14. The pattern is designed with plenty of ease, and is pretty much how I like to wear summer dresses.

I used the skirt fabric leftovers to make bias binding for the armholes, neck and hem. Tessuti have you fold the strip of binding in half, attached it to the outside of the fabric with the raw edges together, then turn it to the inside and understitch then topstitch in place, much like a facing. This was the only part of the instructions that I looked at briefly, and I did pretty much do as directed. Otherwise I didn’t use the instructions at all. It’s a straightforward pattern. I did make some effort to match up the stripes in the border print of the skirt so that they would align nicely, which worked out okay within the constraints of the fabric quantity that I was working with.

I have already made another Eva dress, in hot pink washed cotton with sleeves. It will hopefully be my Christmas day dress. And another sleeveless version is on the cutting table. This is a very simple sew, but just the style I like.