Woot woot! Patterns for Pirates has released another pattern and it’s a cuuuuuuute one!
It’s called Gather 'round and oh. my. god. there is so much gathering involved. But I promise that if I can handle this dress, you can. I am the anti-gatherer….I avoid it at all costs and because I refuse to practice, I’m not that great at it. But guess who got LOOOOOTS of practice in while making the cutest dress and top? ME!
So I’m basically a professional fabric gatherer at this point. Not to brag or anything. (ha!)
Okay, okay. Let’s get to talking about the new Gather 'round pattern!
It is a fitted-at-the-bust and loose everywhere else dress + top pattern. The main bodice piece is fully lined when using the v-neck and crew neckline options, and there is also an adorable ruffled crew neckline, and a mock turtleneck. Judy really packed in the sleeve option on the Gather ’round pattern, with tank, cap, short, 3/4, long, and gathered bishop sleeves. Like seriously…ALL the sleeve options you could ever want! And then of course she hooked us up with multiple lengths: top, above-knee dress, 2-tier above knee dress, and 3-tier below knee dress.
All the good things, y’all. All of them!
Here are the two that I made during testing:
Let’s talk about the top version I made first! I joked during testing that I might be 37 years old but I refuse to act like it. Because any time I see adorable Halloween fabrics, I pretty much NEED them in my life. So naturally while I was out shopping at my local JoAnn Fabrics, I came across this cute pumpkin print and threw it into my cart as fast as I could.
I mean. How can you blame me? Spooky season is coming and I need to be prepared!
Options used for this version:
- Short Sleeve
- Top length
- Crew neckline
- Added 1″ to the bodice for typical side waist adjustments
The bodice hits somewhere between your natural waistline and an empire waistline, and then for the top length the skirted portion falls at where I would consider a “long” crop. I think the proportions of the top length is super cute and can be made to dress up or down so easily.
Obvs I took the dress down path.
How can you blame me though? These darn pumpkins are just too cute!
The other Gather 'round I was able to make during testing damn near broke my spirit. It was of no fault of the pattern, it was the fault of my gathering. I seriously almost had that third tier of fabric gathered all nice and neat and I pulled juuuuuust a little too hard on my gathering threads and broke them, undoing all of my work.
I almost cried. And then I gathered myself (pun intended) and broke out some elastic and finished the skirt that way instead. Everything worked out in the long run and I have a darn cute dress to show for it!
Option used for this version:
- Gathered cap sleeve
- Waist ties
- 3-tiered below knee skirt
- 1″ added to side waist for typical adjustments
- V-neck neckline
I hope it’s clear how much I adore this dress. Or maybe how much I adore how this dress made me feel. Because I am digging these photos of me in it for sure! I really wanted something I could wear to one of the many fall weddings we have coming up in the next few weeks, and I thought this was perfectly sweet for just that.
I made a video so you can watch how the skirt moves…and also watch me twirl a hundred times while wearing it.
The Gather ’round pattern is not fitted in the waist by any means. However, Judy included waist ties that are optional and I’m so glad that I added them. It allows me to give myself a little more waistline and I felt like a dress with this much fabric wasn’t going to drown out my figure.
I’m almost wondering if I should have done the ties in a contrasting fabric, but it’s a little too late now isn’t it? What do you think?
As usual, I think Patterns for Pirates really knocked it out of the park with this pattern. You should go check out all of the other tester images that came in for this pattern too. Everyone looks AMAZING!
Pattern: Gather 'round by Patterns for Pirates
Fabric: Pumpkins + Teal Floral from JoAnn Fabrics | Polkadot DTY from July’s F4P
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