FO: Star Anise by Gracious Threads

I was very fortunate to be given the opportunity to test the new pattern release for Jess of Gracious Threads.  I love so many of her designs and recently reviewed her Eclair Blouse.  But anyway the Star Anise Dress is gorgeous.  I love the simple clean lines and the slightly vintage look of this dress.  It is stylish but practical and I feel works well for both younger girls and tweens (it comes in sizes 2-12y).

As usual I made a mix of sizes for Miss M, with size 3 width and 5 length throughout.  This proved spot on for fit, with the waistband falling perfectly on the natural waist and skirt length spot on with no adjustments required.  There are many features of this dress that I love, the way the darts in the bodice and pleats in the skirt match with seams through the waistband for a continuous line is lovely and everything matched up perfectly first time.  The added detail of the fold back cuffs on the sleeves is also super cute.  In testing I did have a few issues with the cuffs being tight but that issue has been addressed and I feel was more of a problem for me due to mixing sizes in the way I did.  Next time I will check the measurements of the cuffs before cutting.  

The fabric I chose for our version is a vintage lightweight (almost sheer) cotton with an embroidered border.  I'm pretty sure my Mum bought this many years ago to make a dress for me, which makes this very special.  Due to the lightweight nature of the fabric I cut an entire second dress from white cotton and treated the two pieces as one throughout so none of the darts or pleats showed through.  

So here it is :-)

And just to prove that it is totally play worthy ;-)