Summer dress in Broderie Anglaise

Way way way before the current season of the Great British Sewing Bee had started. I had this project in mind. My daughter had seen a dress on a TV celebrity before Christmas and had said she wanted one similar to it. However, finding suitable fabric was a struggle and we kept putting it off! I had found a pattern in one of the Burdastyle magazines that I had. It’s pattern 111 from July 2015  It's very similar to the Orchidee dress, which has just been released by Deer and Doe, if you are looking for something more up to date.

Once she had seen this Broderie Anglaise fabric, she was more than happy for me to make the dress out of this. The fabric arrived just a day before the first episode of GBSB and once it had aired it seemed like the world went buffet dress and Broderie Anglaise mad.

This is NOT a buffet dress! (I’d never heard the term before GBSB and I’ve been sewing for over 10 years). This has a high neck at the back and a deep V front, which closes with buttons. The bodice is shaped with darts front and back and attached to a midriff band. The skirt is attached to the band. The original pattern called for a tiered skirt, but my daughter wanted a simple gathered skirt and ‘not too full”. The sleeves are almost raglan is style, but rather than finishing at the neckline the end just a couple of centimetres away from the neck edge.

The original pattern calls for a side zip and a self tie belt. I opted to intall the concealed zip in the back seam as I had a long enough one in my stash. I also made the button front a faux fastening. I used some small self cover buttons that I had left over from a wedding dress I made a couple of years ago.

I absolutely LOVE broderie anglaise fabric and I almost made something for me rather than my daughter - but I have lots of clothes and she doesn’t have too many of this type of dress - Plus we both wear the same size so I can pinch this if I want to!!!!.

This fabric is very very fine. The base cotton is a lawn weight and it is quite narrow. I only just squeezed this out of 3m. Due to the fine nature of the fabric I used a fine microtex needle - however I broke 2 needles going through the embroidered sections - so I’d advise you go for a slightly thicker needle. Also my overlocker hated this fabric - the varying thickness of the fabric played havoc with it and I wish I’d just used my pinking shears on the raw edges. After I’d rethreaded it several times!!!!!!!

I lined the bodice, midriff and skirt with a plain white cotton as it was quite sheer. In retrospect I should have chosen something a bit lighter - a poplin weight would work perfectly. The sleeves were left unlined. The pattern calls for a facing rather than a lining, so I had to think through the construction order quite carefully in order to achieve a neat finish on the inside. The sleeves are finished with an elastic casing which helps keep them in place and the hem is about 5cm deep.

I used the Kenneth King method for installing an invisible zipper.  It takes a little longer, but the results are great every time and it helped that the invisible zipper foot for the Pfaff machine I have is the best one I have ever used.

My daughter Loves this dress and has been swishing around in it for the last few days since I finished it. She plans to wear it with a corset style belt - Very cottagecore!!!!

 

Originally posted on Minerva