Pattern Review - Megan Nielsen, Sudley

Hey Sewers!

I  am very excited for this weeks blog post, never have a pattern and fabric gone together so well! I have teamed the Megan Nielsen - Sudley dress with this beautiful embroidered sheer fabric from Montreux Fabrics which I picked up at the Knitting & Stitching Show. It's lined with a simple black cotton I got from Goldhawk Road.

I saw this fabric from afar across the stall buried under many other rolls, I made a bee line for it, wedging myself between the hordes of people queuing and fished it out. It has vivid multicoloured embroidered flowers meandering across a sheer black base giving it a psychedelic 70s vibe. There is a blue border along the selvedge which I took advantage of for all the hems, this did mean ignoring the direction of the grain on the fabric but I don't think that's a problem.

I opted not to pattern match with this fabric because of the way it is made, even though the pattern has a repeat they're not perfect and I knew the fabric would be difficult to handle anyway so I chose to make my life easier and skip this.

I have used Megan Nielsen patterns before and so I was confident this pattern would not give me any issues at all. I had read previous reviews that the waist seam can come up low on some people so I measured the pattern carefully beforehand and cut the waist seam 1cm higher than the pattern suggested. I also noticed the dress comes up very short and given I want to be able to wear this in the summer without tights I knew I'd need it longer. Since I was using the border of the fabric I just continued to cut all the way to the selvedge so I had a couple inches to play with on the hem.

I used French seam finishes throughout since the fabric is sheer and I thought using the serger would look untidy. So this means sewing every seam twice and then with the lining as well meant I actually sewed some seams 4 times! Phew! For the sleeve hems I did a tiny rolled hem and found a really useful and thorough tutorial on how to sew these from a wedding dress seamstress on YouTube. Her channel is great! This fabric is very delicate and frays easily so you really want to be extra careful so you don't need to unpick anything because it would leave a hole. I used a microtex needle so I didn't get any snags and a short stitch length.

What I really like about this pattern is that it is reversible! So you can wear it with the ties at the front or at the back depending on what takes your fancy! I love this boho style and the fact it's multicoloured means it pretty much goes with everything. I usually wear it with a lime green cardigan just to stick out even more!

I really enjoyed this pattern and I highly recommend to any new sewers but maybe make it in an easier fabric if you are more of a beginner. It's really versatile so you could make it in a chambray or cotton or just anything lightweight really, you can omit lining and use facings instead. There's also no closures to worry about it just slips on over your head so that's a bonus!

Happy Sewing!

Liz