Good things come in threes: A trio of Anna Dresses By Hand London Pt 1

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Hello again,

One of my winnings from Indie Pattern Month 2016 was an Anna Dress pattern from BHL. This is a pattern I have coveted for some time. So when I got it I went a little bit gaga and sewed up 3 dresses in a row!

My little sister came to visit around the time I had finished them and she fell in love with one of them. She tried it on and I gave it to her. She looks amazing in hers – she is tall, willowy and graceful ( I am the shortest one in my family – a sore point with me!).

Anyway I love these Anna’s so much. I cant add anything construction wise that isn’t already out there. There is an excellent sewalong on the BHL website which is what I used, I didn’t read the instructions that came with it.

Its a fabric hog though. Printing it and taping it up was not that much fun if I had to be honest.

I did a muslin of the bodice after tracing the size 8/10 which fit my measurement. The fit was good. What I didn’t muslin was the skirt and it turned out to be at least 6″ too long – its only later that I realised i think its drafted for wearing with very high heels. I shortened the skirt and went on to cut out the second one in the V neck and the 3rd one in the V neck. I really like the V neck. I had to hand sew the slits for a neat finish. The seams were finished using an overlocker. The hem was hand sewn as well. A good chance to practice some of the new sewing skills I am learning from the Claire Schaeffer book.

Ok pictures and pictures….very picture heavy this post. I was going to do pictures for all three Anna dresses in one post but I was late with processing the pictures so I am presenting them as a 3 part blog arc over the next 2 – 3 days. This is the first one which has a lovely story behind the fabric. When I went to the Yorkshire Spoolettes meetup back in February , I had the pleasure of meeting Karen who blogs over at thesewingmiserabilist. She was wearing this wonderful dress made out of a beautiful crepe fabric – I fell for the fabric and she helped me find it at Fabw0rks. I bought it later but spent an age dithering over what to make with it. The fabric is so beautiful – the pictures dont do it justice – the rich deep purple almost aubergine background for the fiery orchids like print. It has some stretch on the crossgrain. I love the fabric and feel fabulous in it :-). In the end it was Anna! Enjoy!