It’s a good thing that I made the Tessuti Pia dress last week, because now I can quickly move that Lekala dress much further down my blog.  Thanks so much for your comments on that post!  Clearly we all learn as much – if not more – from our mistakes than we do from our successes, and it is also apparent that it is good for our egos to know that others make flops as well!  So, moving on to Pia.

This is Tessuti’s latest dress pattern, and I was very quick off the mark to buy it. Just the sort of thing that I like – and the sort of thing that suits me. Loose, but with a little shaping, and interesting pockets.

Actually, the pockets are so interesting that when my husband saw this dress on me he described it as “rather pockety”. And pockety it is. The inner pocket bag is cut smaller than the outer one across the top, so the outer bags outwards. Actually not difficult to make, but very effective. The bodice seam curves up at the centre front between the pockets.

The back is meant to be cut in two pieces with a centre back seam, but I cut mine on the fold. It would be easier to make any fit adjustments if you left the seam in – but I didn’t think of that since it was a straight line! I cut this out as size Large in width but size Medium in lengths throughout. My fabric wasn’t quite wide enough to cut the entire front skirt width, so I narrowed to fit at the hemline and angled the side seam back up to the waistline.

The fabric is a Japanese textured cotton/linen from The Cloth Shop in Ivanhoe. Just divine! The neckline and the armholes/extended shoulder edges are finished with bias cut strips in the same manner as many of the Tessuti patterns, where the folded bias strip is applied a bit like a facing and turned to the inside them topstitched close to the fold. The pattern piece was only just long enough to get around the neckline.

I wore this dress yesterday, when it was quite hot, and it was delightful to wear. And I felt great in it. Another Tessuti pattern win for me!  Check out Bernice’s shortened and slightly altered Pia – it’s wonderful, and is inspiring me to re-make this pattern with an above-knee skirt.