Behind the design
Designing The Asymmetric dress

The Asymmetric Gather Dress is a sophisticated day to evening dress with gathers at the neck, side and centre back. The gathers are created with a simple channel, threaded through with elastic and secured.

The feature of this dress is its asymmetry and it can make quite a difference if you have the gathers on one side or the other. To check what might suit you best, stand in front of a mirror and take your fabric and swath it over your shoulders, making a gather on one side then the other. I've noticed that placing the gathers on the opposite shoulder to the side I wear my hair parting seems to work best, but play around and see what suits you.

If you place the front and front facing paper pattern pieces with the printing uppermost on to your fabric, the neck gather will be on your left hand shoulder as worn. But if you would prefer your gathering on the other side just reverse these two pattern pieces so the printing is face down on your fabric.

The lovely thing about the gathers is the way it can show off certain fabrics. This style really suits woven or knit fabrics with plenty of drape. It will make the gathers fall well, without weight the gathers might look puffed and clumsy. If you wish to increase the amount of gathers simply extend the casings to accommodate this or at the neckline extend the A to B stitch-line but in both keep the elastic length the same.

For this pattern a 4cm / 1½" wide soft elastic has been used but if this is unavailable to you or you would prefer a less deep gather, choose a thinner elastic and narrow the width of your casing channels.