Friday Pattern Company wilder gown knee length seersucker

Feb 24

Feb 24 Seersucker knee length Wildergown

This was my first make of 2020, a knee length wildergows. This is a Minerva make, i.e. I am writing a blog post for their blog in exchange for the fabric, and I’m not allowed to duplicate, so I’ll keep this short and factual

Pattern: Friday Pattern Company Wildergown. I loved this when it first came out, but never thought it was for me until I saw a few people my size wearing it on IG

Fabric: 2.5 metre of this medium to light weight seersucker, which I got from Minerva in exchange for a blog post. I really love seersucker and this is going to be amazing in the summer. I had intended to make the maxi length but didn’t realise it needed so much fabric (3.5m!), which is why I did knee legth instead.

Size: XL. I can’t say this didn’t make me feel a tiny bit bad, I rationally know what my measurements are and that this size being called XL makes no difference, but its difficult to escape size judgement isn’t it. I prefer it when the sizes are labelled 1, 2, 3 etc.

Oh, and my measurements are bust 40, wast 34, hips 44, in case that’s helpful for anyone. I’ve also got them in my IG bio.

Adjustments: The only change to the pattern pieces was that I lengthened the skirt pieces by about 15cms to account for the fact I couldn’t manage a third tier out of the fabric I had.

I followed the instructions as written except that they ask you to trim down the 5/8th seam allowances after you’ve sewn pieces together, which seems a lot of unnecessary work since this pattern is for light weight fabric so no bulk. So I didn’t trim anything except in the drawstring and it’s all fine.

I actually messaged the Friday Pattern Company designer (I’m so sorry I can’t remember her name!) to ask why she didn’t just make them 3/8th in the first place to save the trimming and she replied really quickly that it’s to be easier for beginners, so there’s more of a choice of finishes and because that’s the standard overlocker seam allowance. So that explains the 5/8th, but not the trimming!

Anyway, the instructions are great apart from that, a good balance between detail and length. I particularly liked that it has you finishing hems as you go along. Sometimes hemming at the end feels like a chore.

Difficulty: This turned out easier/less time consuming than I thought it would be. Gethering the skirt was pretty fiddly, and I’m not sure i’ve done the best job of distributing my gathers evenly, but that’s ok,.

Would wear again?: Definitely. I’ve worn it three times so far and it fits well with my wardrobe. I thought the drawstring might make it a bit fussy, but it doesn’t

Would make again? Yes, in fact I’ve almost finished a maxi version in tencel. I might make a blouse as well!