A collegue of mine asked me if I could make her a Dirndl, a traditional austrian dress.
She has difficulties with finding a size that truly fits.
As I´m fairly new to pattern making I promised I´d try. So yesterday we had a nice chatty evening and I took her measurments. Now I´ll start drafting the pattern - wish me luck!
The dress is made out of four major pieces:
The blouse: Traditionaly ending at an empire waist. With either short, 3/4 or long sleeves, depending on the season, most of the time puffy and gathered at the hem.
The bodice: It is originally made out of linen. It has a button closure at the front, sometimes it has Dirndl-hooks for lacing. The more modern Dirndl have a zipper at the side and the lacing and buttons are just decorative. The bodice is kind of low cut, but got more and more low, I think since the "Oktoberfest" (it´s a festival in munich where everyone get´s into a Dirndl and get´s drunk with beer).
The skirt: Sometimes the skirt is attached to the bodice, but if you want to be able to vary between skirts and bodices you can make it seperatly. It´s done in 3 lenghts, floor lenght, mid calf and over the knee. Traditionally the skirt is gathered with a method that´s called "hanseln":
The apron: It´s hem ends a few cm over the skirt hem. The apron is gathered with the same method as the skirt. The side you tie the bow says something about your status (married, unattached, widow).
Enough Dirndl talk - let´s start!
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