I went to a wedding this summer for the first time since Covid. It was definitely an occasion that needed a new dress!

I was lucky enough to receive a wonderful gift from Liberty and got my hands on the most spectacular silk print from their summer The Beauty and the Chaos collection.

I’ve been a bit obsessed with a pink green combo so this Covington silk crepe de chine was an immediate winner for me. (I actually can’t find this particular one on the liberty site at the mo but I found it’s here at Fabric Godmother. Probably my fault for taking so long to post!).

With such a special fabric (and something I’d never purchase myself because it’s 🤑) I wanted to make sure I’d do it justice! I tried and tested several patterns and ended up settling on the Timea dress by Vikisews.

The Timea dress has a tie front bodice with a short bias cut skirt and a 3/4 length puffed sleeve. The barbie pink sample dress was definitely an eye catcher though I wasn’t looking for a short dress. I decided to do a quick toile though and see how it would look on me. I also needed to try out cutting the skirt on the straight grain instead of the bias as I wanted to keep the print directional. The skirt was basically a quarter circle skirt so looking at the pattern piece I knew it would fit but I wasn’t sure how it would affect the drape. Luckily it worked!

I have to say I knew this was the one straightaway. The fit and style just suited what I wanted, plus the fit was spot on first time so I didn’t need to make adjustments. I did choose to make the skirt midi length following my toile. I had the fabric length for it since it worked on the straight grain and it would give a more “wedding” feel to it.

I bought the pattern with the Russian instructions as it’s way cheaper than buying the English version. With those, I skimmed the photos, translated anything I think might be complicated and then proceeded to just ignore them altogether. Despite that, it’s a beautifully speedy make. I’ve always found Vikisews patterns to be very sensible and well put together that sewing up is a dream!

I made the size 44 in the height range 154-160cm.

I did not pattern match the back and frankly, I don’t regret it. I’ve never been a stickler for pattern matching and I don’t think it affects the appearance here especially with a print like this.

The front bodice of the dress is fully lined. I had to use the main fabric for the lining as I didn’t have anything of the right weight or colour to match. It’s meant that on the lighter parts of the print a really faint shadow of the print on the lining side can be seen. It’s not really noticeable in photos but it’s something I’d try to avoid in future if I did this over.

Sadly, it was quite a grey day when I took these photos so you’re missing out a bit on the real joy of the colours of this fabric. It’s just so gorgeous IRL!