If you guys aren’t familiar with Athina Kakou, you are truly missing out! This lovely lady is a wonderful beacon within the sewing community, is one of the creators of the SMYLY (sewing makes you love yourself) movement, and is constantly spreading her positivity and happiness through the online sewing world. She has been featured on both the Love to Sew and Stitcher’s Brew podcasts, and I would recommend checking both of these episodes out to learn a little more about her.
Over the summer, she reached out to me to ask if I’d like to test out her newest upcoming pattern, the Sheona dress. It’s a great wardrobe basic, a knit shift dress or tee with some fun embellishment options if you’d like to dress it up a little. As you are probably well aware by now, my belly and I have been living in knits this summer, so I was excited to try out this pattern and possibly have a new go-to pattern!
I chose to sew up the simple shift silhouette, but I’m looking forward to the ruffle-hemmed version in the future! I love a simple shape with a fun fabric, so this floral print double brushed poly fit the bill perfectly. One thing I loved about this pattern – I made this dress with one yard of fabric. You read that right, ONE. Think of all the possibilities!! I’ve already got many more dresses planned.
I loved the way that this dress fits me. My previous go-to knit t-shirt dress type pattern never fit exactly how I liked in the shoulders, and I always found my (otherwise VERY much loved) first version fitting me in a way that seemed too small in some areas and too large in others. I corrected some of these issues the second time around, but still wasn’t completely thrilled with the fit. This dress, however, fit so pretty straight off the pattern. As I was lucky enough to receive a copy of the pattern to sew up in the testing phase, I didn’t make any alterations or modifications to the pattern – I simply sewed it up exactly as instructed. I prefer to do this the first time I make a pattern, anyways, but was a little nervous about what this would mean for the baby bump. Luckily, the shift style in stretchy knits offers more than enough room to accommodate my beach ball belly! I’m so happy, because that means that I won’t need to make any alterations to this dress to keep it in my wardrobe rotations after I’ve had the baby – I will just fit into it a little better then!
At 5’8”, the length likely falls a bit shorter on me than the pattern intends, but I actually love the length. It is long enough that I feel comfortable and covered, but short enough that it seems fun and casual. On the day that we got these photos, I wore this for a 3-hour road trip that included a quick pit stop in Waco, TX to visit the Magnolia Markets. I felt super comfy throughout the car ride, but also felt cute enough to go walk around and snap a few photos at the Silos. Point is, the dress transitions well and can be dressed up or down.
Dress: handmade by me
Pattern: Athina Kakou Patterns – Sheona Dress
Fabric: Sunday Floral on Mint Double Brushed Poly Spandex from Knit Pop (now sold out)
Though the pattern used in this post was generously provided to me by the lovely Athina Kakou, all opinions expressed are my own, as always!
- XX Elizabeth
