Blue dress

One of my cousins chose for her present a traditional fantasy style dress. To my shock and delight, I found a pattern that matched exactly the designs she had shown me.

Anastasia medieval dress pattern from Laura Marsh designs.

The pattern went together easily, but I would recommend checking the length first as while the pattern ‘as is’ fitted my cousin it was too short on me, although we both wear the same size. I can’t comment on the instructions because I never look at the things.

I found a lovely thick knit (called scuba knit) for the main fabric but the print was harder to find. I wanted a design that would look not out of place on a faux-medieval dress and I needed a fabric that would go with the blue I already had. The fabric I ended up using has a lovely print but it is printed slightly askew to the weave and the fabric was also a lot thinner than my main fabric. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any other remotely appropriate prints, so I went with the less-than-perfect fabric which does look very nice.  I cut the panel very carefully, not on the fold to better manage the slight skew, and it ended up not causing much of a problem. 

The pattern said to face the neckline, and while I usually eschew facings I thought maybe it would be different for knit fabrics. It wasn’t; the facing didn’t sit right and the lovely thick fabric showed all the stitches needed to hold the facing in place. I expect that will be the last neckline facing I ever do, unless there is a very good reason.When the dress was worn, the centre panel gaped a bit at the neckline. This was fixed by putting a box pleat in the centre of the neckline, which had the happy side effect of forcing the wonky facing to sit right. So in the end, all was well. The lightness of the patterned fabric also proved useful for lining the sleeves, which would have been very heavy if lined with the blue fabric.

I made the each lacing loop separately and hand stitched them into position before sewing the seam to ensure that they stayed in place. They were all placed according to the pattern, but I think if I made this again I would move the back ones upwards a place or two.