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Happy days! More Indie Pattern Month shenanigans to share. For Week 3 the challenge is to use a new to you indie pattern. This is a pattern review for Lekala 4026.

Lekala 4026

Whilst searching for a Jumping into June jumpsuit pattern, blog pal Ali of Thimberlina recommended Lekala.

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I did not find the jumpsuit I wanted but I did come across dress 4026. The shift dress has princess line seams and some pocket detail that I thought was cute. 2 clicks of a mouse and I had a PDF sent to my email. Putting the paper together was easy.

The patterns have minimal markings and I like that. 

Pinstripe Crepe Fabric

I decided to use a lightweight crepe pinstripe fabric. To break up the stripe I played with bias cut on the side panels to create an interesting chevron. This crepe has quite a bit of stretch on the bias.

I’m quite impressed the instructions. They were clear, logical and easy to follow. Certainly better than Burda downloads!

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Sewing construction

While cutting the side panels I did forget that there were no seam allowances however I was lucky because of the stretch the fabric has on the bias. It took 2 wrong cuts to get the correct grainline on the bias. I wanted the chevron to point up and not down. Got there in the end :-).

I finished all my seams in red.  Red contrasts nicely with the pin stripe. For armholes a simple baby hem by serging edge then topstitcing. I did not want it bulky so double fold was out of question. The neck finish is quite possibly my favourite! Made some bias binding (from the side panels that were cut in wrong bias direction) and used it to finish. Seams were also topstitched. I left out the epaulets and buttons as I wanted this to be something I can wear for work especially for meetings.

I am very pleased with this dress. I have worn it twice already to work with my Morris blazer! I felt pretty good.. Its very comfortable and it can be worn with a belt. I do like it with my red wide belt.

Verdict

Lekala patterns are new to me. I confess I had not thought to try them because I was skeptical about the price.  Digital custom fitted sewing patterns for less than £2? I thought they were too good to be true. However the fit on this dress is great. I did not make a muslin so there were no adjustments. I am extremely pleased with this dress and I will be making another in linen with the buttons and epaulets yeah! In fact I have also been browsing their extensive range of patterns and even bought another one 😉

Thanks to Monthly stitch guys for hosting #IndiePatternMonth. I am having such a blast with these challenges!