DP studio Aysmmetric dress

This make was inspired by fellow blogger Shauni, who blogs over at A Magnificent Thread, when I saw her version of this awesome asymmetric knit dress by DP studio. I'd never heard of this pattern company before but looked them up after seeing Shauni's post.

Shauni's version

They are a French company, but their patterns also come with English instructions, although the illustrations alone would have been enough to be able to make this dress, they are brief and do presuppose some sewing knowledge. My hubby bought me the pattern back in April and I've been on the lookout for some inexpensive fabric to make a wearable toile ever since. A couple of weeks ago I picked up a navy knitted rib. it was only 1m wide, so I bought 3m - which was more than enough and I might even scrape a top out of the remnant.

The pattern comes in an A4 sized box and is printed on thick sturdy paper. At first, I thought there were lots of pattern pieces but discovered that there are only 8, but they are BIG! as all pieces are cut from a single layer of fabric.

I bought some tissue paper and traced my size. Based on my measurements I cut a 40 for the top, grading to a 42 at the hip. The drafting on this pattern is excellent. I could take in the waist a little bit, but it's not overly big. What I am really impressed with, is the drafting at the shoulders and arms. A lot of patterns I have made recently have been way too narrow at the shoulder, and the armsyce has been really small (Gertie patterns). This was a pleasant change and I made no adjustments to these areas at all. the dress is a very comfy fit and I may use this as a baseline for all other knit patterns.

The dress came together easily and is suitable for a confident beginner to sew. An overlocker really does help and it would have been a super quick make, but I ended up using the overlock stitch on my regular Janome machine as my overlocker was playing up badly and I spent an age trying to get it to work. It really needs to go and be serviced. I also used the twin needle for hem and sleeve finishes - a first for me!

I found the fit great and had lots of compliments when I wore it today. I do think the split is a little high and I will probably add to the length at the hip to make this a bit more modest, The model version on the website seems to be much longer.

This would be a really stunning dress in a sparkly knit or scuba fabric. It would also work well in a Ponte de Roma fabric (and probably show fewer lumps and bumps). I can see this being a staple of my winter wardrobe and I might even use the top part of the pattern to make a couple of tops to wear with jeans or under my pinafore dress.