When the Tessuti Ophelia dress pattern was released this Monday, I immediately thought of this long-stashed blue printed linen.

So in no time, the pattern was purchased, downloaded, printed and traced. The linen was prewashed and I sewed this up in short sewing sessions over several evenings and finished on Friday (public holiday here).

I’m still wearing the Tessuti Claudia I made in 2018 – and have made three more since! My wardrobe is in need of a refresh and while I am much more mindful of overconsumption in all forms, I do feel a couple of new sundresses wouldn’t go astray! While I adore the Tessuti Claudia for hot summer days, I had been procrastinating between a number of other styles as I wanted a different easy-wearing summer style, and I’d been procrastinating between the Tessuti Annie, Sewhouse7 Sauvie and Ready to Sew Paloma. However when Tessuti posted a teaser on instagram about a soon-to-be-released pattern, I decided to wait and see if it was just what I had been looking for.

Description from the Tessuti website: The Ophelia Dress is the ultimate sundress designed for warm days and balmy nights. It is fitted above the bust with bust darts and wide, comfortable shoulder straps and neckband; subtly shaped at the waist and gently flared to the midi-length hem. Topstitching highlights the button through front; stitched down, inseam pockets; centre back seam and wide hem.”

Sizes 6 to 22 are available, bust 32-48inches, hip 36-52 inches.

I opted for A0 printing (2 sheets) because I hate sticking small sheets together!

Thoughts

I suspect the Ophelia may be a pattern repeater for me. The loose shaped fit, pockets, well suited to linen… a perfect Aussie sundress. Sometimes I fall in love immediately with wearing a new style, some times it is a slow burn. Let’s wait and see!

The front button bands are not interfaced. The top band is – depending on your fabric choice you may want to consider lightly interfacing the band… as there are a lot of buttons and buttonholes!

I have found my bra straps can slightly show, that may depend on your bra style of course.

I graded from 8 at the bust to 10 at the hip as per my measurements. I found the fit good and opted not to shorten the pattern (I’m 5 foot 3 for reference).

I had these buttons (gifted by my lovely friend Jen) and they were a great match. They were four-hole buttons so no machine sewing them on… I found handing sewing the buttons on to be the most tedious, time consuming element.

I confess, I’m tempted to try another in a solid colour linen… or stripes…. maybe a check…

Thanks for reading!

Pattern: Tessuti Ophelia Dress, PDF download, sizes 6-22.

Fabric: printed linen, The Fabric Store (years ago sorry!)