New Pattern Release: The Davenport Dress
Have you ever fallen in love with a fabric and realised it was sold out everywhere because you were late to the party? Well this gorgeous lavender fabric with mutli-coloured embroidered foliage was that fabric for me. I even remember messaging some other fabric companies to see if it would come in stock again. All were big fat no’s! So when I saw this fabric on the Minerva site I had to do a double take. Was it really the fabric I had lusted for? Was it the one that got away? It was indeed, and I was beside myself. I knew I had to make something incredible with it since I had almost missed out on it!
That brings me to the new pattern from Friday Pattern Company, the Davenport Dress. When I first received the email to test this beauty I squealed in delight. It was as if someone took all the features I had wanted in my dream Summer dress and laid it all out in front of me. I couldn’t believe it. Up until that email came through I was going through all the options in my head and was not satisfied with any of them. So this was truly fate. I knew it was going to be the most magical dress ever with these two combined.
The Davenport dress is a pull over dress with elastic in the front neckline. It has ruffles on the upper sleeve and gorgeous puff sleeves that finish with a cute ruffle and elastic sleeve hem. The tie in the middle cinches it all in and of course it has pockets! All the features for a killer dress. I was just hoping I had enough of this fabric to squeeze it out. Spoiler alert: I totally did! I used every little bit of the fabric.
The sew up for this dress was really simple, but there’s quite a few steps in the construction as opposed to a regular dress. However, those extra steps really make it special and they’re all really straight forward. It came together in two nights of sewing for me. The lawn was the perfect fabric for it, but the embroidery did make it a little bit more fiddly in certain parts. So be mindful of that if you’re sewing something up that requires more precision. It was only the tiniest obstacle that I encountered but absolutely worth it. Once I had finished I was just in awe of what I had made. It was just so pretty and I kept trying to remember I made it. Don’t mean to toot my own horn but I will not be surprised when people in the future think I purchased this.
I couldn’t be happier with how this turned out. I can see this being a very cute everyday dress but also being easy to dress up for somewhere special. Those are the types of dresses I love to make. I already have two more planned in this pattern but this one will always be the most magical.
