Wedding Dress and Evening Top

For years I have wanted to design a wedding dress for the machine knitter but never actually got round to it. During one of my many chats with Anne Smith (Machine Knitting Monthly) she convinced me to ”go for it” so here we are.

Also I felt in this economic climate, when we are all having to count the pennies, it made perfect sense. Having looked at wedding dresses for sale I was staggered to find a decent dress cost at least £600 and £1000 was not uncommon. The top I have created has cost approximately £32.75, which if you include the cost of materials for the skirt means you can create the whole dress for less than £100. Believe me it is not that difficult to do as I hope to prove, and the satisfaction gained is priceless. The following instructions apply to either top.

Materials required

1 Cone Yeoman’s Supersheen in Ivory or Sweetpea, used 2 fold throughout

Suitable Dress Pattern

1 metre 54” ivory or pink poult or taffeta

1 metre 54” lining

14 inch open end dress zip

Boning for bodice (see back of pattern for amount)

Beads and Sequins of choice

Machines

Any standard gauge punchcard machine or electronic with lace carriage

Garment illustrated was knit on a Brother 965

Pattern preparation

Tie a length of cord around the waist of whoever the top is intended for and measure back waist length (this is vital to ensure a good fit). Take a tape measure and place end on the prominent bone at base of neck and measure to cord. Usually this is somewhere between 15-17 inches, adjust pattern accordingly as described in pattern instructions.

The dress pattern I have used is Butterick B1431 costing £7.50 and I used view A as my base, but you can use any pattern of your choice. The only alteration I made was to make the bodice top straight instead of dipping in the centre at the bust line, as it does on the pattern. This is very easy to achieve as I will show you. The first thing to do after buying the pattern is to take out the 4 pieces required for the top, numbered 1, 2, 3, 4. If you wish to alter the bodice as I did, take the front piece No.2 and extend the centre front fold line about 2 inches / 5cm. at the neckline. Then simply draw a straight line from top of seam to centre front line as shown in diagram 1. On all the pieces a grain line is marked to indicate straight grain of fabric, using a rule, extend this line to the outer edges as shown (marked in red) in diagram 2.

Diagram 1

Diagram 2

Lace Panels

We now need to knit 4 lace panels in a pattern of your choice. I have used Pattern 159 from Brothers Stitch World. You need 2 panels measuring approximately 15” x 18” / 38 x 46cm. and 2 panels 15” x 15” / 38 x 38cm. These measurements cover the first sizes up to size 16 (38” bust) for larger sizes measure the panels your using and adjust accordingly. I worked on size 12 (34” bust) throughout. In the lace pattern I used, 16 rows forms a complete pattern, you need 12 complete patterns for larger panel and 10 for the smaller. For the larger panels push 100 Ns (50/50) to WP and cast on using WY, hang a claw weight at each end and knit about 12 rows. RC000 TD4 enter desired lace pattern and with MY knit to RC192 (for larger sizes this will have to be adjusted) operating lace carriage as instructed. Take off on WY. For smaller panels work as for larger but knitting to RC160. Block pieces to the sizes stated and press.

Cutting out panels

Pin pattern onto the backing fabric (poult or taffeta) and mark notches, to be honest I do this very lightly using an ordinary pencil. Lightly mark the top and bottom of grainline and cut out all pieces.

Diagram 3

Diagram 4

Sewing

Join side panels to front as described in the pattern instructions and press seams open using a seam roller, if you do not have one use a rolling pin wrapped in a tea towel. Join back sections and press seams open. At this stage I decided to do the beading as the panels are easier to handle, avoiding were the side seams are to be joined. These I beaded as necessary after sewing the back and front together and pressing the seams open. The beading can be as complex or simple as you want, as you can see in the close ups of the wedding dress beading, and the simplicity of the evening top were I only used sequins. In the case of the wedding dress I was fortunate to have mother of pearl cup sequins left over from a a brides dress I made 45 years ago? To which I added pearls bought by the metre at 60p and diamonte. For the evening top I just used purple cup sequins which were given to me in 1965, and I still have a couple of hundred left. It took me 10 days to embroider the wedding top, but to be fair the nerves in the ends of my fingers have been effected by the chemotherapy and I found the process a bit difficult. Otherwise I’m sure I would have been quicker. But as Anne said, if you can’t go overboard with embroidery on a wedding dress, when can you. With the beading finished sew the open end zip into back opening as described in the instructions.

Lining

Diagram 5

The boning on the bust seam is slightly trickier because of the fullness over the bust on the side panel. I recommend sewing the side which is nearest to the centre front first, this holds the boning in place and makes it easier for you to ease in the fullness of the side panel to avoid getting the fabric ruched. Pin bodice to lining, right sides together, matching seams and stitch as shown in the instructions. Turn through to right side and hand stitch lining to back of zip and press carefully. As you can see I have made a fringe of pearls along the bottom edge, which looks wonderful were it joins the skirt, this of course is optional

Evening top strapsFit the evening top onto the person its for and measure from the top of the bodice over the shoulder to back of bodice. Knit 4 straps (optional) about 1” longer than required by bringing to hold position centre 5 needles and E-wrap using yarn  3 fold and carefully hang a claw weight.

Evening top close up

Push in the left part button for circular knitting TD 4. I knit about 400 rows twice, using a blob of Bostik multi-purpose glue in the middle of each piece to anchor the stitches so you can then cut in half. Position on bodice and pin before attaching the the lining. I placed mine about 3.5cm. apart, then sew lining as for bodice. As you can see I also stitched the straps together on the shoulder, sequins could also be added to the straps if required. Finally, put the kettle on, make a cup of tea and put your feet up, you’ve earned it.

Carl

All photography in this article by Carl Boyd