It’s no secret; I love Itch to Stitch patterns!
I was lucky enough to help test her latest design, the Davina dress.  Pretty, feminine, classic, great fit—she pretty much hit all my buttons.
I sewed up my version in an ITY knit from my stash. This pattern requires a knit with a high stretch factor (at least 75%), and great recovery. This pattern is extremely fitted thru the bodice, so if you decide to use a fabric with a lower stretch factor you really should go up a size.
Wow. Someone didn’t even hem her Davina dress. I do normally hem my knit dresses, even though it is not required since there is no raveling. But this dress was barely long enough for my taste, despite adding 3 inches to the skirt length, so I opted to be daring. My mother is seriously rolling over in her grave. 😉
Such a great, twirly, half-circle skirt. Love, love, love!
There are loads of sleeve length options, and when I originally sewed this I tried out the medium short sleeve. Notice my version as pictured has no sleeves—for 2 reasons.
One, sleeveless knit dresses are more  practical for me, since I find them more comfortable with a cardi over a bare arm rather than wrestling the sweater on top of sleeves.
Two, the one thing I wasn’t crazy about on this pattern was the armhole fit when the sleeve was inserted. Maybe you can see that the armhole does not sit directly over the shoulder line. Super pretty design line for a sleeveless dress, but not so great IMHO with a sleeve. I do have fairly broad shoulders, so maybe it is my personal fitting issue, but if you make the Davina Dress (and I hope you do!), this is an area to pay attention to.
I love this dress so much I plan on making another one very soon, in a solid jersey knit. The pretty gathers on the front bodice don’t show up well in my print version, and that + the circle skirt are my two favorite features of this pattern.
Right now you can buy the Davina Dress for 20% off, + also enter the raffle on Kennis’ web site to win a free copy of this pattern. If you are in the market for a fresh, feminine new dress pattern (duh, who isn’t??), then I hope you give the Davina a try. I’m pretty sure you’ll love it, too!
Happy sewing!
Maris