International Anna Party!

Hello!

Look at me going crazy and doing two posts in a week. There is a very good reason for this though, I made a dress with a deadline. I joined Elle, Ute, and Pip‘s International Anna Party competition to celebrate the marvellous work of By Hand London. I have made two Annas before to a moderate amount of success, but one was too small and the other a bit big. I had graded up and got the bodice right but had never managed to get the skirt pieces to properly match the bodice.

I had quite a tight deadline for this one, so decided to follow the lead of many other people and use a simple gathered skirt instead of the seven gored Anna skirt. I obviously used the rectangle for the ESP skirt as I like the amount of poofery in it and used the pockets for that too. An Anna with a gathered skirt isn’t quite as dramatic as the original, but if you have a bit of a tummy, it’s a lot easier to wear, and a LOT easier to make.

Swish

What is exciting about this one is the fabric. I got some lovely gauzy…. errr…. cotton? gauze? stuff? with purple fluffy knobbly bobbles (so technical) from the Knitting and Stitching show earlier in the year. It’s so light and airy and soft, it’s like wearing a mint green dream. It’s lush. It’s a very loose weave and quite see through so I lined it with some hand dyed hot pink cotton batiste. I even hand sewed the lining bits, as this dress was FANCY. I don’t really know what occasions it is suitable for: where can one go and wear a posh frock, but also flash their pink lining to everyone?! It’s very hard not to do loads of twirls and pink flashes in.

This dress is the softest most comfy party dress known to man. My bust darts are a bit weird, (I ironed them to the side instead of flat) but I don’t mind as I can just swoosh and twirl around all day regardless.

Did you enter the #internationalannaparty? There were some glorious makes there. Check it out on instagram for some annaspiration!