Merchant & Mills Trapeze Dress

It has taken a while for me to get around to writing about and sharing the Merchant & Mills Trapeze dress pattern. It's possible that this is because I've been making so many versions!
This is a versatile pattern, which is not immediately apparent from the pattern cover illustration. With a variety of sleeve options, as well as a plain or button-back detail, this dress is suitable for everyone.
The dress comes together easily, and the directions are straightforward and simple to follow.
The dress's open back version requires a series of facings to be sewn together. They form the returns of the back openings and hem of the dress. If you have sufficient fabric, it's worth considering cutting them out as one continuous facing. If not, at the very least larger sections for the facings.
It is certainly a comfortable dress to wear, and I love the trapeze shape of the dress and the lovely details on the back and sleeves. It looks great worn with a sandals, trainers, flats, heels, or boots depending on the season and your chosen fabric, or even your mood.
You can read all about this version @ https://www.sewatelierm.com/merchant-mills-trapeze-the-perfect-dress-for-all-seasons/

Making this pinafore involved interfacing, bagging out and understitching which were new to me, but it was ok. I used a fairly floppy denim from The Cloth House which they describe as 'moss backed', a greeny undertone that I could pick up in the facing. I used the selvage for the back seam to avoid finishing that. As the fabric is 150cm wide I could fit in the front and back more or less the length of the pinafore, 120cm, so have fabric left over for a skirt maybe.

I added pockets, apart from *of course*,  but also helps with the movement when you're wearing it. The pattern had a notch in the sides which I guessed would be a good level for the top of the pocket, in the event maybe a couple of inches low.

I cut two pieces from the facing material using the pattern pieces as the to hem it, and top stitched that in place. Just as well as if I had foled up the hem allowance it would have been too short (I'm 170cm). I am thinking to add a topstitch at the neck and armholes too but think it might bulk it up a bit. The neck doesn't lie completely flat but that might be because of my bodging a bit, not much. I didn't really want to use interfacing (plastic!) but it did mean that I could just overstich the facing edge and it will stick together. If I had been more adventurous I might have simply roll hemmed the facings and done away with interfacing .

I think this is something I will wear and wear. The blouse is the Zadie shirt, elsewhere reviewed by me, but the pinny be good with a thin polo and cardi. And my new navy boots!

I can see why this pattern has been so popular, there are some beautiful versions out there. I think it drapes beautifully, in a really simple way, and lends itself well to pattern hacking and individualising

The sleeved options seem to be suitable for beginners. I had problems with inserting the facing on the sleeveless option, but I have an older version of the pattern and it looks as though the issue has been resolved in the updated instructions. I think I would still be inclined to insert the facing using the alternative method I found. I would say the sleeveless version is more suited to a confident beginner rather than a complete beginner.

I have written a blog post on this project with some more information

Who know that this casual laid back dress could also produce such a party ready beauty?! I found 1.5m of lovely metallic linen in my stash and decided it needed to be something sparkly for Christmas and was set of getting a dress, rather than a top out of it. Most of the dress patterns I had required at least 2m of fabric, including the trapeze BUT I realised how cute it would love as a above the knee super wide swingy dress and chopped 5inches off the length to achieve my dreams. I absolutely love this pattern and can see many more in my future. I didn't do the facing, choosing to use the facing from the sleeve version and bias bind the armholes. I made a straight size m and French seamed everything.

It's no secret that I love this brand and apart from the recent releases, I made most of their patterns. The Trapeze is not a new pattern but it was way overdue in my list of makes. Why? Well all M&M patterns come up quite big and I'm only 5ft so I always thought NAH!! not for me. But it was always there in the back of my mind...so I decided to finally buy the pattern and just make it. I used some beautiful wool from Ditto Fabric in Brighton, which fits this pattern perfectly as it's not a heavy wool and it's got a nice drape to it. There are 3 version of the dress and they have just released a PDF version of the button back Trapeze. I made the sleeveless version, which I decided to fully line to avoid any itchiness from the wool. I cut a size 8, which is the smallest size and it needed no alteration. I left the length as is despite being petite....I love the end result and contrary to my initial thoughts it's quite flattering. I'm planning to make a linen or woolsey (mixed linen & wool) short sleeves version. There's a long sleeve version as well but I'm not keen on the flare sleeves.