rainbow dress - done!

The rainbow dress (based on the Rectangular Fitted Tunic from Stephanie Japel's Fitted Knits) is done! For specs, see below:

Self-portrait


Front of dress


Back of Dress



self-portrait


How it went: I'm more or less happy with the outcome. Not as fitted as I wanted it - this was a side effect of working with so many different yarns. The tunic part of the dress is knitted from side to side (which I loved) and then I added short row shaping at the sides and bottom for the skirt. This was partly a stashbuster and partly a way to try out some new yarns. The experiment in this regard worked quite well, I think. I wasn't sure how it would turn out considering that I used quite wildly differing weights and types of yarn.

Specs:

Yarns:
Berger Du Nord Belle Print (100% silk)- worsted weight
Fleece Artist merino sock yarn - sock weight
Fleece Artist sea wool (100% merino)- sock weight
Handmaiden Sea Silk - fingering weight
Claudia Handpaints (100% merino) - sock weight
Handmaiden Silken - DK/worsted weight
Alchemy (100% silk)- fingering weight
Needful Elba (100% nylon - ribbon)
S.R. Kerzner "Sari" ribbon (polyamide)
Rowan Calmer (cotton/acrylic) - worsted weight
Romni linen (100% linen)

Needle sizes:

3.25 mm, 3.75 mm, 4.0 mm, 4.25 mm

Other notions: 6 buttons

Finished size: 35" bust, 32 inches long at longest point.

Pattern:

For the "bodice" and most of the dress, I adapted the Rectangular Fitted tunic pattern by Stephanie Japel with the following changes:

* instead of the "morse code" pattern, I put in black stripes with linen to separate the colours. [I love the morse code pattern but didn't think it would show well with so many colours)

* I made the "small" size but increased the length to 26", excluding the hem.

* instead of seaming the sides, I used a provisional cast on and then 3 needle bindoff.

To make the "skirt":

(a) I added some short row shaping to the bottom of each side of the tunic (starting from the hip shaping down)... the short rows were worked in 4 stitch increments)

(b) I then added short rows to the bottom by dividing each piece in half (both front and back) and working short rows in 4 stitch increments - deepest point of the triangles to the outside.

(c) I then added more short row shaping to the bottom, reversing so that the deepest part of the triangles faced to the middle.

As a result of this dress, I now have 3 new favourite yarns:

(a) the Berger du Nord Belle Print (which was sent to me as part of an online swap. Thanks, Ruth! )

(b) Handmaiden Silken

(c) Handmaiden Sea Silk (I know, I know... I've jumped onto the Handmaiden bandwagon).