I never ever thought I’d make a milkmaid style dress… Because I’m not ahem well endowed enough. But I decided to get over my insecurity and whip up the Brandi Joan M8359 design.
The finished dress came with me to Sorrento and enjoyed wearing it twice while I was there.
It’s a feminine dress with gathered bust, nipped waist and full skirt with slit. The pattern has two sleeve styles an an option to make as a top.
I think it’s pretty obvious I skipped sleeves all together. I’m a bit sick of elastic head sleeves so decided to draft straps. I’d seen a ready to wear dress with straps and the drafting of the bodice made it super easy to attach straps before lining the bodice!
My pretty cotton lawn fabric is a John Kaldor print from Sew Essential. It’s fairly opaque so I didn’t line the skirt. The straps and cups were self lined then I used a white polyester lining on the rest of the bodice, but I should have self lined the bodice too!
I made a size 14 bust grading to 16 at the waist which was perfect. The gathering at the bust is forgiving enough not to need an SBA.
It’s a satisfying make with nice bodice construction. I put an invisible zipper in the back and shortened the hem length by 2″.
There is boning at the waist that’s a little unnecessary in stable fabric but does help prevent the bodice from sagging and wrinkling since the bust area is so soft and unfitted.
The skirt is a gorgeous shape. As someone with a round tummy, the shape skims over my stomach in a really nice way. And surprisingly I love the slit! It’s sexy but not too revealing. Don’t have a good photo of that though.
I’d quite like to make a version in viscose! But haven’t seen many milkmaid dresses in such a light fabric – RTW or from patterns. I wonder if it would be too floppy. Something to mull over!
Very pretty summer dress, in a classic blue and white fabric. Perfect for hot summer days.
I love this style dress and have had many, many over so many years and they have all been in viscose so go for it. Very pretty.