Jenna Dress - By Hand London

Wait, what is this??!! Julia Bobbin back in a vintage inspired dress? WHO'S THIS?!!!

I recently had the pleasure and honour of pattern testing a new dress for By Hand London and I'm so excited to finally share it with you in all it's emerald glory

The Pattern

'The Jenna Dress' from By Hand London, now available from their website!

This dress is an empire line dress with a bias cut skirt in two lengths. It features two different necklines; a low square neck or a jewel neck with optional peter-pan collar and also comes with two sleeve options: short sleeves or the prettiest little tie cuffs.

I chose Variation 1 with the square neck and tie cuffs, but all versions are interchangeable with each other.

The Fabric

Because of the bias cut of the skirt, this pattern works great with draped fabrics such as soft silks, lightweight cottons and rayon. However I decided to go rogue and use a structured silk organza because I am all about that transparent life and I thought it could look really striking in an unexpected textile.

I used the most stunning emerald silk organza from The Cloth Shop Ivanhoe and I just love how the different layers of organza create the most beautiful variations in colour.

Because of the transparency of this dress, I wore it with a purchased slip dress underneath.

The Details

This dress takes me back to one of my favourite eras for fashion, the 60's.

Generally I tend to avoid empire cut dresses. They typically tend to hide my waistline and with my hour glass figure, hiding the smallest part of my body can sometimes make me look like a block.
However with this skirt being bias cut, it still shapes the waistline and flatters the figure, and would be even more exaggerated in a drapey fabric.

I love the tie details on the sleeves. It's such a pretty and delicate detail to add that elevates the dress from a pretty one to a gorgeous one.

The dress closes with an invisible zipper down the centre back and has a lined bodice which I lined with the same organza fabric.

Where possible, I finished the seams with french seams and overlocked the sleeve seams.

Final Thoughts

This is such a beautifully put together pattern with exceptional attention to detail in the instructions. This pattern is versatile and easily adaptable and I'm already imagining version 2 in a silk velvet!

The team at By Hand London have put a lot of love into this pattern and it shows.