Pattern Review: M4M Alyssa

Last week, I got to test the Alyssa Dress from Made for Mermaids.

I was down at The Bee Hive when the tester call went out and what do we do when we're surrounded by tons of beautiful fabric?  We want to make something!!!  I jumped on the tester call and was picked to make the dress length.  The final pattern will have three lengths to choose from: top, tunic and dress.

I let Layna pick out the fabric and she picked a fun Laurel Birch Mermaid print. (Talk about the perfect fabric to use on a Made for Mermaids pattern!)  She's currently on a mermaid and fairy kick (how can any little girl NOT be on a fairy kick when she lives in a house surrounded by fairy wings) so the fabric was perfect.

One good thing about this pattern is that there are no pattern pieces.  This means no printing!  I was able to download the pattern to my Samsung Galaxy and get right to work!  I got everything cut out in less than 15 minutes and was ready to sew!

The bodice was finished in less than 30 minutes, and that included threading elastic through the back.  Megan uses casings and elastic instead of shirring on this one.  I'm pretty happy about that because shirring doesn't work too well when going through two layers of fabric.  Been there, done that. 

The bottom band is awesome because there is no gathering!!!  You just line it up and sew!  I'm one of these seamstresses that doesn't like gathering, so having a band instead of a ruffle was a huge bonus for me!  I did have to gather the skirt into the bodice, but I'm ok with just having to gather once when making something. 

The end result is really adorable!  Layna loves her new mermaid dress!

I even made some matching shorts from the M4M Lucy pattern!  Another quick and fun pattern!!!