Reeta shirtdress from Named patterns

I have woefully neglected the blog in the last 12 months and I’ve decided the Reeta dress from Named was the pattern to change that because, hopefully, I can offer some advice on sewing it.

It’s been a popular pattern ever since it was first released in 2017 and is a modern take on the classic shirt-waister styles by Finnish brand, Named. All the reviews agree it’s a really nice style which looks great but the one thing they all seem to comment on is the ’tricky’ or ‘confusing’ construction methods used. I’ve fancied making a Reeta for a while so I thought I ought to give it a go and to be ready for the pitfalls and to pass on anything I learn from the experience to you, dear reader.

I had 3 metres of purple/pink/turquoise Ankara fabric which I had picked up from the swap at the Sew Sustainable fair in London back in January. I had anticipated using it for something buffet-dress wafty style but, so long as I could cut it out with acceptable-not-necessarily-brilliant pattern matching, then the Reeta might be a nice alternative..

I traced off the size 42 based on my body measurements, unfortunately I was kidding myself because the 44 would have given me more wiggle room over the bust, the waist and hips were fine. It isn’t the end of the world, this time I took a smaller seam allowance (it’s only 1cm to start with, eek!!) I’ve added extra to the bodice pattern for next time though. One thing a lot of reviewers also remark on is the length, it’s designed for a woman of 5’8” so I removed 10cms from the length before I started (more on this later)

As the area people seem to have the trouble with is the yoke and facings I will concentrate on those. Maybe it’s the fact that the collar is also enclosed within the burrito is what makes it unusual, on shirts the collar is more often added after the yoke section is completed. Because the collar goes on early it means that the neck seams all become enclosed which gives a lovely neat finish inside.

It certainly helps if you are already familiar with the Burrito method because that will definitely help you get your head around what is happening here. My strongest piece of advice is to read through the instructions for the whole collar/yoke/front facing instructions (points 6 through to 11) several times first, use a highlighter pen on key words or phrases if necessary. Look really carefully at the diagrams too because there are a couple of times where it could be easy to rush ahead based on assumptions of how you might have sewn these areas on other patterns. The diagrams have all the information you need, expand them on screen or print those pages a bit larger if you need to so that you can see the stitching lines clearly.

First attach the inner and outer yoke pieces to the dress back as per the instructions. Next, the long front facings get attached to the inner yoke shoulder seam then all the yokes and collar are rolled up inside the burrito, point 8b is important and I wonder if this could be where some people have started to come unstuck in the past, you’re only sewing the collar and neck edge not down the front facings as well at this stage. Pull everything through and complete the rest of the yoke at the shoulder seams now, there seems to be a fixation with sewing everything on the machine, this makes me cross and is not essential! If it means you get a more accurate and neater finish then for goodness sake slip hem the remaining edges by hand! Or at least tack (baste) them in position to stitch in the ditch and not just rely on pinning (and what’s with this obsession of using a million pins to hold something in place? just tack it! Tacking/basting seems to have become a dirty word and it’s usually more reliable than pins in tricky or hard to get at areas.)

This is what the finish inside the collar will look like, the seams are all neatly enclosed, I used plain cotton lawn for the inner yoke.

Once the yoke is complete step 10 might catch you out. Initially only sew the short lower edge of the front facings to the dress hem, the facings themselves are slightly shorter than the front of the dress which causes the hem itself to turn naturally upwards. Now sew the long edges of the facings to the shell of the dress securing the hem in its upward facing position. I hadn’t encountered this technique before but it certainly gives a nice neat turn-up at the hem.

This diagram shows the hem is already slightly turned up when the rest of the front facings are sewn on

The rest of the construction proceeded much as I would expect, the pattern fitted together very well with notches matching and the rest of the instructions were pretty clear. I mentioned earlier that I shortened the pattern by 10cms but once it was finished I think I had shortened it little too much, next time I’ll add 5cms back on. Also, having worn it for a day I think the position of the waistline casing is slightly too high on me so I will move that downwards by 3-5cms.