She may not have made it to the ball, but my Named Anni hack is a cutie nonetheless.
At one point a contender for #TheDressmakersBall, I decided that made in this fabric - a sold out crepe from Fabric Godmother - my Anni wouldn't be quite smart enough for the occasion.
I set her aside while I whipped up this luxurious Gable/Aldaia hack instead, but I'm so glad I picked her back up again and finished her off.
What first drew me to this version of Anni was the unusual cutout detail on the front bodice, which I just love. The construction and somewhat confusing instructions/diagrams left me scratching my head and feeling very frustrated, but I thankfully figured it out in the end.
My dreamy vision for this dress originally involved the wrap skirt add-on, but I didn't have enough fabric to see it through. I used the skirt from the Selkie Patterns London Dress, before realising that I had cut the fabric slightly off grain. Normally I don't sweat the small stuff, but with the striped pattern repeat it was SO obvious, making the skirt look super wonky. My only option was to unpick it and cut it on grain, which resulted in an unplanned shorter, gathered skirt. Far from my first choice, but sweet enough.
Anni required me to do my first ever FBA (full bust adjustment) and it turned out to be less scary than I feared, thanks to this handy tutorial from Sew Over It. I'm pretty happy with the overall fit after shortening the bodice by 2cm too, but movement is a little restricted across the back in the shoulders and sleeve caps. I've never had this issue before, but it's definitely something I'll need to address for future versions as I can't get the wrap skirt vision out of my head. If you have any tips for how to fix this issue, I'm all ears!
P.S. I'm wearing the chunky ASOS sandals that loads of people hated in my Instagram poll, but I'm still not 100% sure I want to return them. I kinda like them...what do you think?
