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Tuesday 21 November 2017

Velvet Knipmode designer birthday dress



When you're celebrating a significant birthday you need a new dress, right? And when you're going to spend your birthday in a castle it needs to be a posh dress!

After going through my pattern collection I decided this was the perfect occasion for one of the Knipmode designer dresses by Dutch designer Janice. It's from the October 2017 magazine, #26


KM 1710-26


I chose a matte stretch velvet in a deep shade of emerald. The colour is very hard to capture and it doesn't help that most pictures were taken by candlelight. Although the pictures are a bit blurry, I hope their festive character will make up for that!


In the wine cellar

Now let's talk about construction details first before all that wine will distract us. Over the last few months I've been struggling with the fit of the Knipmode bodice block. Although I was making progress, I was not ready to cut that pretty velvet without making a toile first.

When I was looking for fabrics with a similar amount of stretch I found a loud mix that resulted in a Pippi Longstocking / Ikea employee type of dress.




On second thoughts, I probably would have been arrested for indecent dressing when entering Ikea in this prototype. That neckline was scarily deep! I raised the neckline (4 cm), thus creating a cheater FBA by adding length where it was needed.
 The rest of the dress was fine once I did my usual  adjustments: taking out 2 cm at the neck base and correcting the hip curve. Knipmode patterns are drafted for a X-shape while I'm 8-shaped with a higher hip curve. I shave a bit off at the lower hip and the same amount to the high hip. This is such a standard procedure I'm thinking of creating a cardboard hip curve template.
One other thing I should mention is that, although the line drawing suggests otherwise, the pattern has no darts in the back bodice. The center back seam provides subtle shaping, resulting in a nice overall fit.

Since I hadn't been sewing stretch velvet in ages I did a few test runs to decide on the finishes. The biggest challenge was formed by the front neckline. Instructions told to just foldover and stitch down, but to be on the safe side I added fusible seam tape first.




After fusing and topstitching I measured both bodice pieces against the pattern. No stretching had occurred so all was good! The skirt has three diagonal pleats, the bodice two. The lower bodice pleat is folded over the waist seam before the side seam is stitched.




When I put on the dress to decide on the length I found the skirt too straight to my liking and I tapered it to obtain more of a pencil shape, taking out a total of 10 cm of the circumference. I catch stitched the hems because I prefer the clean look over a twin needle or coverstitch finish.

I'm really happy with how this dress turned out and I will most likely make this pattern again.

I'll add some extra pictures, just because....partydress in action! I had the most wonderful time celebrating my 60th birthday with our family. Excellent company, great food, ample wine and whisky. All that, and a dress that was made to party!


Presents!


With the knight in shining armor

And with the real deal 💘





Bring on the next decade. Cheers!


24 comments:

  1. Absolutely lovely! Love that fabric and the color looks great on you!

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    1. Thanks Robin! That fabric made a mess of my sewing room and covered me in emerald fluff but it was so worth it!

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  2. What a wonderful dress in a lovely color. Perfectly made!
    Happy Birthday Marianne!
    Astrid

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    1. Thanks Astrid! It turned out just like I hope it would!

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  3. wow that dress is gorgeous and what a fantastic fit. Perfect choice of pattern/fabric. love the rich color on you. Happy Birthday!

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    1. Thank you! It took a lot of muslins but my challenge to turn my fitting issues with Knipmode patterns into a list of standard adjustments is finally getting somewhere. Looking at the pictures I think I also need to reduce the shoulder width a tad.

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  4. Van harte gefeiciteerd. Beautifu version of this dress. And what a coincidence, I posterd on this dress today too.

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    1. Dank je wel! I noticed your lovely red version of this dress and it looked so different. I think I'll make another one soon, maybe in a print.

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  5. Looking great!!!
    Love the color and the style on you. Seams to be the perfect birthday dress.

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  6. Happy Birthday, looks like you had a wonderful time! I really love that dress, the colour and fabric you chose for your special occasion is just perfect!

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    1. Thanks Allison! Looks like jewel tones are my new black!

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  7. It has been so lovely to read your blog post about your beautiful velvet dress. Your weekend at the castle with your family to celebrate turning 60 must have been so special. You and I have had a lovely time turning 60 this year with our family coming along for the celebrations. I too made a special dress but I haven't thought to post it on IG. And I also have 3 metres of green stretch velvet in my stash waiting to be made up. I will have to wait for next year once summer is over and done with.

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    1. Green stretch velvet twins! It's lovely fabric to work with although the cutting stage was quite messy. I hope you'll post your birthday dress on IG soon. My dress will be out again at Christmas Day!

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  8. The dress is just gorgeous and so are you! So delightful to see these fun pictures and share a little in your special celebration!

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    1. Thank you Karen, you're making me blush! It was a lovely weekend!

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  9. So gorgeous! Velvet is the perfect special occasion fabric and that color looks so beautiful on you! What a wonderful way to spend your birthday. 😄

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    1. Thank you Tanya! Special times, special measures. It was wonderful!

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  10. What a stunning dress! The perfect birthday dress, and you looked gorgeous in it. Thank you for sharing

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  11. Just divine! Perfect for such a fabulous birthday event! Xxx

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  12. Lovely dress and fabric. A personalised hip curve template makes 100% sense.

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  13. you look gorgeous in your stunning dress Marianne! Looks like you had a lovely birthday celebration.

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  14. Happy Birthday - many more! You look gorgeous in your beautiful dress.

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  15. questo vestito e un incanto ,mi piace molto questo modello si adata molto benne al corpo un bacio lili

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