Fitting the Dungiven Dress

The Dungiven Dress is a midi length dress with topstitched box pleats on the front and back for waist shaping. The back has topstitched princess seams. The hems are finished with facings. 

(photo of front and back)

The pockets are inset on the front with a cool boxy shape that echoes the shape of the pleat topstitching. 

A two-way separating zipper is set in the front with a centered application and a facing, and the neckline features a convertible collar.

(pocket closeup and top-of-zipper-and-collar closeup here)

(photo of pocket and zipper)

The sleeves are easy fitting with a playfully boxy shape. The two sleeve length options, elbow length and full length, are finished with facings featuring a split. The sleeve facings can be folded up to style them, a smaller fold on the short sleeve or a cuff-like fold on the long sleeve. 

(short sleeve and long sleeve closeup here)

(photo of each sleeve)

The fit of the Dungiven dress is sporty and easy in the bodice, semi-fitted in the waist, and easy in the hips and skirt with an A-line skirt silhouette. The waist need not be overly snug – the pleats do the work of shaping (practically and visually) without needing to pull everything in tight. The sleeves are intended to have a boxy and modern feel, with a playfully exaggerated silhouette. They should fall to or almost to the inner elbow on the short sleeve, and past the wrist bone on the long sleeve. 

The Dungiven dress is a longer style skirt, ideal for wearing as a regular dress and styling as a duster. The finished length is very intentional in design due to zipper lengths. Since we’re using a two-way separating metal zipper, the length needs to work with the average available zipper lengths. While you can get a custom one or adjust the length (at the top only! See the zipper post for more!), that can be annoying, so do consider carefully any dress length modifications before diving in.  

To fine-tune the bodice fit, use the pleats like darts! They can be shifted up or down, even lengthened or shortened, to customize the bodice to your personal needs. You can increase or decrease the pleat intake to suit your preferred fit. A muslin is really helpful to work on this! You don’t have to make a full-length skirt – to the hip level will do. And you can skip the zipper and just pin it closed, unless you want to make a whole muslin to practice the construction, too! 

If you plan to blend sizes, specifically at the waist, see the Blending Sizes post here. 

To consider lengthening or shortening the dress, head here for more details. 

Zipper troubleshooting information can be found here.