A knockout of a pattern

There are lots of things about this pattern that I would never normally go for – midi length and shirring for a start. However listening to Kate (from The Foldline) rave about the pattern in one of her monthly pattern release round-ups I thought I might step outside my comfort zone and give it a go. And she wasn’t wrong – this pattern is so flattering and a real corker!

For the dress, I made a straight size 12 and only made 2 adjustments. The first was a sloped shoulder adjustment, where I repositioned the shoulder strap placement at the front. And the second was to cut off about 8 inches from the hem for the dress version, as I’m short.

For the top I adjusted for sloped shoulder and also added a tie at the neck to make sure it wouldn’t slip. The pattern doesn’t have a version with long sleeves with shoulder strap (to cover your bra) but it was an easy hack.

Victory patterns have some good resources on their blog, particularly about shirring technique, which meant I got a really neat finish.

I used a viscose crepe which has a mind of its own when cutting out but actually sewed up very well. A really floaty fabric will work well with this dress, particularly the bell sleeves (sleeve option 4).

Happy sewing!

Tanya x

@broomanator