Princess Merida's dress: Burda 9648

Whew! Just a few days before we leave for Texas, I managed to get Myra's Princess Merida dress finished.

I'll post proper modeled photos after she's opened it for Christmas, but for the moment, hanger shots will have to do. As a reminder,

This is the dress I was attempting to copy. I think this comes pretty close, while still being playtime friendly. The pattern I used was Burda 9648. The most critical design change I made was to use a knit fabric - panne velvet and metallic jersey from Hancock Fabrics. Since I used a knit, I omitted the back zipper and used a band at the neckline rather than facing or lining.

I changed the neckline to a square shape just like Merida's. Her's is trimmed in gold, but I just used the metallic knit as the band fabric. The band is mitered at the corners, and the finished width is 1/2 inch.

For Merida's belt, I was loath to make a separate piece that Myra would likely just lose, so instead I pieced a waistband and strip down center front of the skirt. These are all 1 1/2 inches wide. I initially thought it would be easiest to applique the gold knit onto the skirt, but this knit is quite thin and unruly, so piecing was a better way to go.

The bottom of Merida's dress is decorated with a wide, beaded and embroidered band. Beading and embroidery seemed a bit much to me for a dress up dress, but my metallic knit is pretty bling-tastic on it's own. I used a 4 inch wide band with a coverstitched hem. Since the skirt is gored, the band is shaped rather than just a plain rectangle.

A better view of Merida's square neckline

I'm pretty pleased with how it came out, and I hope my wee lassie likes it, too. I'll let you know.