Sheona dress by Athina Kakou

Athina Kakou is a Greek sewing blogger with a lovely modern and girlish style that I like a lot. When she asked me to review her first solo sewing pattern, the Sheona dress, I jumped to it immediately.

Sheona dress – pattern details

Sheona dress is a basic jersey shift dress that is easy to wear. This pdf pattern has several different options: a basic shift dress, two versions with different ruffles and a tee-shirt. You can further select either short or 3/4 sleeves that are great for winter. The pattern is available in both English and in Greek.

What I really liked in this pdf-pattern, was that there was no need to trim any edges when taping the pages together. I do not mind taping the pages, I think it is sort of relaxing task and sometimes and an interesting puzzle as I refuse to look at the pattern layout! However, it is very annoying having to have to cut edges out of over 30 sheets of paper.

The size range goes from 4 to 28 corresponding to the bust measurements from 69 to 130 cm (27″ to 51″). My measurements were between the sizes 10 and 12. After some consideration, I made the size 10 at the bust and upwards and graded to 12 at the waist and below. The Sheona dress has a relaxed fit with quite a lot of ease, which finally makes it very easy to fit.

Fabric

The pattern is designed for knits. Choose something that has a bit of weight and leave those cheap and endlessly stretching t-shirt jerseys in the shop. I wanted to have fabric with a big print to take advance of the dartless front. Just it happened that Nuppu print company had its new autumn collection come out just a little over a week ago. I fell in love with the Iltakävely (=”Evening walk”) pattern on the inky blue background.

As soon as I got home, I threw the jersey in my washing machine and then to the dryer. I was amazed when I took it out and it was completely wrinkle free! Talking about an easy dress material! I did not have to iron it at all but proceeded straight into cutting it into a dress.

Two metres was enough for the dress and I still was able to position the pattern pieces on the fabric just like I wanted. In fact, I think I can still make a tee-shirt for my daughter out of the scraps.

My pattern modifications

I was a bit worried that the sleeves would be too narrow in size 10 and cut them a bit wider, but then finally the fabric was stretchy enough so that I ended up narrowing them back to the size 10. I did shave a tiny bit off from the front shoulder area of the sleeve as I noticed a stubborn wrinkle sitting there after I basted the sleeve on.

Originally, the hem ended just above my knees. I finished the dress and only then watched a vlog post of Athina describing this pattern. I saw that Athina had shortened her dress quite a bit and I liked the look. So I went back to my sewing room and chopped about 14 cm off from the hem (the measurement includes the 2 cm hem) to make the dress into a cute mini dress that I can wear with tights or leggings.

Sewing

This is very easy and quick to make a pattern that I can recommend even for a beginner. The instruction booklet comes with a lot of images. To those that like more help there is a free video sew-along. It only took me a few hours to make it. I used my serger/overlocker for the seams and finished the hems with my cover stitch machine. However, you can easily use a double needle or a zigzag stitch as the instruction booklet recommends. Just make sure your hem is a bit stretchy.

The finished Sheona dress

I like how this dress came out. The loose fit makes this a really comfortable dress that is easy to throw on. Because it is such a simple pattern it is perfect for showcasing beautiful printed fabrics like this nature-inspired print I chose to use.

Here is the same dress from the back view:

Once again, we were back at the lovely Träskända park around the 1800th-century manor that once belonged to the famous philanthropist Aurora Karamzin. Nowadays the park is owned by the city of Espoo and parts of it is a nature preservation zone. However, my favourite place is the flower garden just next to the manor that is still maintained and in beautiful shape.

I’m pretty sure that these grape vines are not from the 18th century! I was amazed to see all the blue grapes growing in them. Finland is not your typical wine country!

I got to pick a bunch of grapes and taste them. The grapes were small and pretty sour but still edible.

Here is a little video we made together with my husband. Enjoy:

This is all for today! Thank you for reading! I hope you liked this post and remember that you can also subscribe to get notified on future blog posts! In the meantime, happy sewing!

Katja