Pattern: Vikisews Rosalyn dress, printed English version. Bought half off with party season in mind
Fabric: Liberty Chequered Rose tana lawn, bought from Shaukat. This was an unusual splurge for me but it was love at first sight! It was from the S/S 22 collection inspired by Alice in Wonderland, though I never caught it in the actual store.
Pattern notes: Much like the Atlas, this was a highly enjoyable tour de force of ‘classic dressmaking’ techniques: loads of darts, gathers, invisible zip, facings and rouleau straps. It was my first time using a printed Vikisews pattern and I didn’t find it quite as user friendly as their PDFs. For one, there’s no printed instruction booklet included: you need to scan a QR code on the pattern tissue to access a PDF. Secondly, with ten sizes included it was really hard to follow the correct cutting and notch lines as the dashed lines are not that distinctive and often all blurred together. I initially sewed the back darts too narrow because I followed the wrong lines.
The instructions are good though, thoroughly guiding you through steps to get a reasonably nice finish (as in, overlocked rather than french seamed or anything). There’s a lot of little pieces in the bodice and I felt a few more notches would have been helpful to make sure you have pieces the right side up, and the sleeves atypically have the entire armsyce gathered rather than just the cap than between notches, which is not explicitly specified (but you definitely need that entire edge gathered to squish all that fabric in).
Fit notes: My measurements put me bang in between size 38 and 40; I went for 40 due to the slim fit and this was the right choice as it’s pretty spot on through the waist and hips and I wouldn’t want it much tighter. I didn’t make any other alterations other than taking a slightly deeper hem. The pattern helpfully has two ‘try on for fit’ points so some adjustments can be made as you go, though it’s only really once you’re 75% done that it’s possible to try on. I could stand to take a tiny pinch out the back neck but otherwise it’s pretty great.
Final thoughts: Fun to make and fun to wear. It’s getting its first outing at a Christmas party tonight, though I need to decide how to layer to help tana lawn deal with below-zero temps…
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