Frida Dress, Designer Stitch pattern

The new pattern from Designer Stitch, the Frida Khalo dress (aff). In this pattern, the main focus is on the fabric. The pattern with its simple lines is perfect to be used with beautiful special fabrics. The inspirational images were really beautiful and when I started looking for some embroidered fabric, the search was not easy. After the test was done, these fabrics were everywhere, so lucky you, if you want to make a Frida. 

The Frida pattern (aff) has a few options for length ( top, tunic, dress ), with or without a flounce and also a few sleeve options ( short, long, short gathered puff or gathered long sleeve bishop).  I made a muslin in size 2 and I only made a 1 cm narrow shoulder adjustment. 

My first version was made in this gorgeous embroidered velvet ( no aff.), which I ordered  when I knew that I was going to test this pattern, but at that moment, I did not know ( I missed that) that in the front  are 6 pintucks and when I got my fabric I knew that there was no way to make nice pintucks in that fabric so I changed that in gathers.

Also to fit nice in my embroidered motifs I decided to add 10 cm to the full dress option....at the moment I had something in my head, like a nice cozy autumn dress but after making the first pictures it felt not really "me " so I got an idea to add some elastic at the waist, to make it more fitted. I used a method similar to this

 only I attached the elastic directly on the dress, instead of making the casing first.

Also, the sleeves are different than the pattern...I did that to fit nice in the embroidery, it is the normal sleeve pattern with a length of 31 cm, from the shoulder down. I added elastic at the sleeve hem too.

 Another change was to finish the neckline with bias band turned to the inside to get an invisible result on the outside. 

Love this dress!

This version is made in a border embroidered cotton. I loved this fabric when I saw it online, only when it got to me, it was not blue with white embroidery, as advertised but a bit purple with light purple embroidery. 

I played a bit with the embroidery, to get a nice pattern on the front and back yoke and that is why I added a center front seam. In this version, I made the pintucks and I love the look in this thin cotton. 

I am very happy with both versions and I know what I am going to sew with the next embroidered piece of fabric I will find. 

The new Frida Dress is to be found at the Designer Stitch shop, in PDF format with English instructions.