I’ve been admiring the Tessuti Claudia dress for a while. The problem is our high summer period is short and I don’t get many opportunities to wear sleeveless tops, let alone dresses. Separates seem to be a better option and what I need in my wardrobe.

I was drawn to the Claudia dress pattern because of the square neckline. I love blending geometry in my clothes and jewellery through angular shapes and straight edges. Angular shapes are normally used in tailoring so maybe its the blend of masculine and feminine that I enjoy.

This summer I made three versions of this pattern all in size large. I used heavyweight linen for the red check and pink version and lightweight linen for the green with painterly splotches.

I found the pattern wasteful in terms of printing. The waste paper is put in my worm farm so at least it is recycled. The pattern came together simply and the instructions were easy enough to follow.

The strap length was over 10 cm too long for my body so size them to fit you before you sew the facing.

On my first version of the top, I found that the fabric was bagging slightly around the bust. To fix this I sewed a row of ease stitching under my top line of stitching. This helped to slightly ease the fabric to the shape of the bust. The pattern is designed for a b-cup (I’m a d-cup) so this bagging may be due to the sizing or that the fabric may have stretched.  The fit is good on my other two versions so I didn’t bother making any adjustments to the pattern.

I cut the length at a length that suits me and allowed 1.5 inches for hems. If you have a lightweight fabric I’d consider sewing a deeper hem – around 5cm deep looks really luxurious. Lots of designers add this feature into their garments as it shows they don’t have any fabric restrictions.

The other minor change I made to the pattern was to sew wider straps. I’ve always suited chunky straps and bolder styles in jewellery and clothes. The wider straps help to balance out my body – especially my strong arms – and hide my bra straps. If you have delicate features you might want to stick with narrow straps.

My pink version of this pattern was made from scraps of fabric that I pieced together after cutting out my Kochi Kimono. The centre back has a join (which it’s not meant to) and one of the pieces is slightly off grain but it still looks great! All of these tops were made using a meter of fabric to meet the requirements for sewing leftovers.

I love this pattern. It’s become one of my new favourites. I’m on the lookout for more square neckline patterns. Please let me know if you have any recommendations.

Happy sewing!