I love my Reeta! I originally planned to have it finished before my Norfolk holiday, but I’m a slow sewist. My lovely boyfriend packed my sewing machines in the car to finish during holiday as I anticipated a rainy day to finish it. It’s comfortable and breezy! The polycotton fabric is from Adam Ross Fabrics in a bold Hawaiian pattern.
THE CONSTRUCTION: The pattern is actually quite simple since most of the stitches are straight lines, but there are two fiddly bits – turning of the yoke and attaching the collar – and this is what made this pattern a little more intermediate. I’ve never attached a collar or having to turn a yoke before so this was quite tricky. The instructions were not very clear – I had to do the yoke twice and the collar about 3 times. Note: you will match collar to notch perfectly as indicated on pattern if you continue fitting in and use the length of the collar’s rounded corner.
THE FIT: The waistline and pockets locations are perfect. No adjustment needed. I made a size 12. The pattern is made for a 5’8″ Finnish person, I’m 5’4″, I’ve shortened the pattern 3.75″ before cutting (as I fear I didn’t buy enough fabric) then another good 1″ and a bit during hemming. My rope was about 5mm thick from John Lewis. There are a LOT of buttons, it’s a blessing that my sewing machine has automatic buttonholes and can sew buttons!
Will definitely make this again, perhaps in a viscose in various length.