Charlotte's Damsel Dress

Pattern Used — Damsel Dress By Roberts Wood

The Damsel Dress pattern is part of a mini-collection by Roberts Wood of garments designed to be cut from repurposed fabric, and explores unique and interesting construction methods. The dress features a structured, fitted, elasticated bodice with a full skirt and 3D bows. Roberts Wood suggest that the design method allows the maker to fully customise the fit of the garment to create a piece to their exact body requirements. If this sounds a little different that patterns you've used before, we'd recommend reading through the size information given here before you begin.

Charlotte usually wears an NZ size 14/16, and she chose the size 4 in this pattern based on her measurements. She choose our Organic Cotton / Silk Voile in the colour Violet and decided to line the entire dress due to the semi-sheer opacity, using 9 metres in total. Also required was a 40cm invisible zip and 13m of 19mm wide elastic. As you can imagine, this dress was a time-consuming project requiring great attention to detail, but Charlotte said the end result was well worth it! She would place the difficulty level closer to advanced, due to the method of construction used. She made very few changes to the pattern — adding only the interfacing and a layer of dupion silk to her bows, to give them structure in the soft voile.

If you'd like to try this pattern out, we'd highly recommend making a toile first. A garment like the Damsel Dress is ultra special and very much worth taking the extra time to perfect the detailing.

Download the PDF Damsel pattern from the Roberts Wood website here.

Roberts Wood suggest the Damsel pattern would suit repurposed lightweight fabrics. The large pattern-pieces are designed to be cut cross-grain, from repurposed fabric such as silk curtains or cotton sheets. Most non-stretch lightweight fabrics with some structure would fit the bill, think silk dupion, silk taffeta, or lightweight cottons. Charlottes silk cotton voile blend was a little on the softer side, giving the silhouette more drape. Pictured above are a few suggestions from our Online Store!

From top to bottom is Cotton/Silk Voile - Citrus, Cotton Voile - Orange Glow, Crisp Gingham Cotton - Scarlett, Cotton Voile - Forgetmenot and Regency Stripe Cotton Silk Voile - Sangria.