Double Breasted Military Dress

I saw a dress on Crafster that had been made using a pattern site called Lekala that makes custom print-out patterns. This seemed too good to be true so I thought I should test it. I found this awesome military dress on the site, put in my measurements and printed it.  

You have the option to pay $1 extra for seam allowances; as that was another 25% on the price I decided not to do that and that was not the correct decision: you already want to retrace the pattern once you've printed it and stuck it together adding seam allowances is a bit of a faff.

I was worried that the pattern wouldn't fit and while I was making it, it felt a little small; so I unpicked it and made the seams smaller only to have to put them all back in because it fit perfectly! I did have to take some of the seams in but only because I have a long waist and short body and I'd have to do that anyway.  I'll certainly be using the site again so that I don't have to worry too much about editing pattern pieces!

The dress is made from 3m of navy linen garbedine mix so it's quite thick and sturdy.  It has a large lapel, a side zip, belt and 10 pretend buttons on the front. I decided to choose some RAF gold buttons but they do stick out a little so using flatter buttons might be better next time. 

I was given a fantastic Christmas present of an assortment of exciting thread and buttons so I used some of it to edge stitch the lapels in gold and make them look a little more snazzy.

The epilets are also quite snazzy...

It's held together by a bright gold zipper and an inside button.  I've added a couple of inches to the dress and to the facing so that it can be walked in without flapping open.


Overall, a good experiment! The site, in this statistically significant sample of one, produces patterns of the size required.  The dress itself is smart and fun.