Anna Dress – By Hand London

I had a beautiful rayon from Sew Over It waiting away in my fabric stash which I bought for £12 a metre: it is very easy to sew with, and is quite floaty and summery without being see through at all. The fabric irons well which helps for the pleats too.

The bodice pieces are fairly straightforward, and there are no separate sleeves to cut and stitch as they are kimono style (part of the bodice pieces). There are a number of skirt panels – I labelled these with a code in a washable fabric pen in order to keep track of them.
The instruction booklets contains layplans for all versions of the pattern, and diagrams for each stage. The wording of the instructions is also fairly straightforward, and I supplemented these with the Anna sewalong onthe By Hand London website when it came to trickier/new elements like pleats and invisible zip. I thoroughly recommend looking this up as there are colour photographs and other helpful tips that give more detail than the booklet.

I did need to make some alterations as this dress was put together. (FYI I am a 5ft UK size 10 in the shops, and my measurements aligned to a size 8/12 for this pattern).

I found that the back neckline gaped a fair amount. On the sewalong pages By Hand London have included a link to a post where you can alter pattern pieces to address this, and they also have a cheat/quick fix version of their own. Being an impatient kinda gal I did use the quick fix which basically involved trimming away from the centre back seam. As it turned out even though I did trim away some of the material the neckline still gapes a little as I move about…this may also be contributed to by the combination of stiff zip and flimsy material.
I did also have to alter the front pleats because the bust area on the finished dress was a little ‘saggy’. The width of the fabric across the bust points was fine, but I think that my short stature warped how this was meant to look. On this Anna dress I lengthened the pleats which seemed to fix the issue.

I was really looking forward to making this dress and feel that I have achieved my aim in creating something cool, comfortable and attractive for warm summer days. I was happy with the length of the skirt, which swishes in a very satisfying manner, and the dress has enough room in it to be easy to be flattering yet not restrictive at all.

This was quite a therapeutic make as there is a lot of straight seam sewing. Other than some darts and pleats it is a case of matching notches, sew and finish seams. (That is apart from inserting the invisible zip, which I can never get right no matter how clear the instructions). The kimono sleeves mean that this pattern is accessible for beginners with limited skills and don’t require a great deal of thought.

For a more detailed review and further pictures check out my blog post
http://www.thepetitepassions.com/2016/03/anna-dress-from-by-hand-london.html#more