Adele dress from the new book “Helmat”

I was excited when I heard that the bloggers of a Finnish sewing blog Mekkotehdas were publishing a new sewing pattern book. I have bought two of their previous books and used them a lot. The authors Kirsi Etula, Sunna Valkeapää-Ikola, and Krista Keltanen have created a book full of lovely summer dresses that are right on trend with their tiered hems and romantic puffed sleeves. The book is called Helmat and it is available only in Finnish. However, if you are able to put together a dress without English instructions, this is a wonderful book to consider. For my first pattern, I chose to make the Adele dress out of some lovely cotton lawn.

Kirsi and Sunna are responsible for designing the patterns and Krista has taken beautiful photos of the garments.

Already the cover looks pretty with those green tones and romantic typography. Altogether, the book contains 13 patterns.

Some of my favorites are next:

Saana dress is something that is super trendy right now. For me, I might make it slightly longer but I love the sleeves and the simplicity of this pattern.

Silva dress is a wrap dress. Wrap dresses always make me slightly nervous. Do they really stay on? I classic wrap dress never looks good on me but this dress has more volume and it really might work. I’m tempted. It would be so nice to just throw this dress on and head for a beach!

And here is the lovely Adele dress.

The Adele dress project

For my first pattern to try, I chose Adele. I love maxi lengths and I had 3 metres of Liberty tana lawn fabric stashed that I bought years ago from London. The fashion just wasn’t suitable for it so it sat there waiting until I saw this pattern.

I was between the sizes 38 and 40 but since this dress is quite loose and my shoulders are pretty narrow I went with the size 38. For once, I didn’t have to correct the shoulder slope at all! Usually, my straight shoulders need some adjustment but these patterns seem to be drafted to a sloper that fits me perfectly.

I made a few little adjustments, though. First, I shortened the sleeves a bit. Then, instead of using a button and the loop closure at the back, I went with two pink ribbons that could be tied up in a bow. My fabric amount was limited so my longers ruffle was a bit shorter than what was required but finally, it doesn’t show at all. When the dress was done, I felt that it needed a belt. (It was also worn with one in the pictures of the book.) I had a strip of fabric left, so I made a long narrow belt-tie that could be wrapped twice around my waist and two loops on the side seams that keep the belt in place.

The finished Adele dress

Here is the final result. I thank my daughter for taking the photos!

And from the back:

The dress moves and twirls like a dream:

The summer has been late here in Finland so the lilies-of-the-valley are just about starting to bloom and the first apple blossoms have just opened on the lonely apple tree in the forest behind our house.

You can find the authors on Instagram @mekkotehdas and @krista_keltanen. You can find the book Helmat here. By the way, this post is not sponsored in anyway. I bought the book myself and genuinely think it’s a great book.

The next time, I’ll be back to my folk costume shenanigans. See you soon and happy sewing!

Katja