I am not ashamed to say that I have been stalking this dress online since Lauren from Elbe Textiles first shared glimpses of it.

So I was very excited to launch straight in to my first version of it.

And then my second version. And then the third!

Yes, that’s right. I have developed a Duplantier Dress obsession and will dutifully walk you through my three versions.

Let’s start at the beginning!

The Duplantier Dress

The Duplantier Dress is a modern take on the baby doll dress. The bodice has princess seams (my favourite way to create shape at the bodice) and it features a pretty but still practical V-neck. The only reason you can see my underwear is because one of my enduring lockdown lessons is that I am never wearing underwire bras again and now I only wear soft crop tops, which can create visibility issues with v-necks.

I don’t care, I’m comfy. If you’re open to wearing a “normal” bra, there is no reason why the v-neck of the Duplantier Dress would give glipmses of anything.

The skirt of the Duplantier Dress is gathered and there are ties included at the back.

My version of the Duplantier Dress is a size E. My body measurements had me between an E and F and after checking out the finished measurements chart, I was confident sizing down to an E as the Duplantier Dress has plenty of ease.

The Duplantier Dress comes in sizing which caters for a maximum waist of 127cm (50 inches) and max hip size of 153cm (60 inches).

I have used the view A sleeve option, there is also an option for a long sleeve gathered at the cuff (which you will see in action in my third version below!). I also extended the length of this sleeve by one inch. For no particular reason except that as I was cutting it out, I was worried that it looked a tad short.

I have also lengthened my version of the Duplantier Dress. I added 40 centimetres to the length of the skirt piece. I have also seen lovely results of people lengthening the dress by adding an additional tier. I probably would have done that if I could have, but I didn’t have enough fabric. .

Nani Iro goodness

My Duplantier Dress is made from Nani Iro linen. Because, sometimes it just feels good to turn beautiful fabrics into beautiful garments!

I only had three metres of this fabric and I used every last little bit of it for this creation. I really wish Nani Iro fabric wasn’t quite so narrow!!

I also used a different linen in my stash to line my Duplantier Dress. In the pattern as designed, you use a lining piece to finish the centre front and centre back (ie. the neckline) of the dress. As my fabric was a little transparent, I decided to line the entire bodice in linen, and also add a shorter lined skirt.

I had some lovely soft linen from the Fabric Store in my stash which I had bought with the idea of a crisp white shirt dress. But I had somehow accidentally purchased an off white, rather than the crisp bright white I had imagined. So the off white linen had languished in my stash until this Duplantier Dress gave it it’s destiny!

So a fabric purchase mistake turned out to be useful!

In the end, I love the end result of this Duplantier Dress. It feels effortless, but put together.

Sure in this fabric there’s a bit of a nightgown vibe, but in the right way!

I do have to admit that while I adore the dress, I prefer the back and front views. Prior to this I had never actually worn a “baby-doll” dress and I have to say that the side view, really does give me maternity-wear vibes. This is partly exacerbated by the fact that my version has not one but two layers of linen, which is far bulkier when gathered than other fabric options.

It is also exacerbated by the fact that I really was not in the mood for any creativity so I just used the same skirt piece for both the shell and lining. What I should have actually done was create a simple A-line skirt for the lining, in order to have reduced bulk.

As I was a little unsure about this bulk, I decided to create an additional wide self-fabric belt to accompany my Duplantier Dress. This way, if I’m in the mood to look more like I have a waist, I can whack on the belt. When I’m more in the mood to be an exceptionally pretty tent, I’ll go without!

• 

• 

• 

• 

The belt is based on the belt of the Wildwood Wrap Dress, although I’ve slightly widened it by a centimetre or so.

All in all, I’m really happy with this Duplantier Dress.

So happy, in fact, that I’ve already made multiple additional versions. All of which I believe demonstrate that the Duplantier Dress has the potential to be a VERY versatile pattern.

Dotty Duplantier Dress

So this was my second version of the Duplantier Dress. Which I decided to make out of this navy cotton which has huge embroidered holes in it. It seemed like a unique fabric and a fun idea at the time, but I must say it turned out to be a SLOG!

Shame on me for not having the foresight to realise that fabric with enormous holes throughout would be a pain in the butt!.

I’m also wondering if I am forever destined to be attracted to sewing the Duplantier Dress in transparent fabrics!!

As you can see, I’ve made a few hacks to the Duplantier Dress pattern, the primary one being that I have lengthened the bodice so it sits at my waist, rather than being a baby doll dress. While this definitely does change the style, I really like the Duplantier as a simple basic bodice and I see a lot of potential for hacking it in the future.

For this version I created a simple pleated skirt. And I doubled the length of the wrap ties so that you can wrap them all around your body and then back to the back, rather than just in one direction.

I also made a few choices which were not stylistic choices but were to deal with the fact that when your fabric is made up of huge holes, every seam allowance is visible! This lead me to decide to underline the dress, as I thought it would at least enable all of my seams to not be visible on the outside.

So underlining with a white cotton is how I lined the upper half of the dress. This meant that I also had to create a facing for the neckline, as the ordinary way you would finish the neckline didn’t work due to my modifications.

When it came to the skirt, however, which was simply a big old rectangle which I needed to pleat, I thought that underlining would be combersome and bulky, so better to create a simple separate lining.

I did so by creating an a-line skirt lining piece (like I should have done for my Nani Iro version!). When I sewed it, however, the way that I had used a different method for lining the top and the bottom, meant that the white fabric coming through the holes in the navy was much more visible in the top of the dress than for the skirt. It almost made it look as though the two garments were made of different fabrics.

While my 6 year old usefully suggested that I could sew a square of white fabric behind every hole on the skirt (thanks mate!), I instead decided to go buy some new lining fabric (which was actually slightly heavier than the fabric used to underline the bodice and sleeves) and instead I created a skirt lining which was a quarter-circle skirt.

Having a skirt with bit more oomph and volume for lining really helped do the trick, making the top and bottom halves look more as though they belonged together. There’s still a bit of a difference but I’m much happier with it now.

For the side seams of the skirt shell, I have used french seams, which seemed the best available option. But they are still somewhat visible through the large holes in the fabric. Still, I figure there is so much volume going on in this skirt that I’m probably the only one who will notice!

And, voila!

I finally achieved victory over the annoying fabric with holes everywhere and ended up with a classic 1950s housewife polka dot dress!

I do kind of wish it had pockets but, once again, fabric with enormous holes in it made that problematic, in terms of visibility!

• 

• 

• 

• 

Duplantier Dress in viscose/linen

So, I’m sure you’re thinking, two Duplantier dresses is surely enough?

• 

• 

• 

And if the above version isn’t enough to prove to you that the Duplantier Dress can be used to create some very diverse looks – here is my third version!

In my town there is a “big box”-esque fabric store which I use for most of supplies – threads, elastic, interfacing etc but I almsot never buy fabric there as nothing inspires me – I reserve fabric purchases for the lovely indie store Cross and Woods!

But when I went into the big box store to buy white cotton to remake the lining of the version of the Duplantier Dress above, I found this navy viscose linen blend (30% linen), which I actually liked and was very affordable.

It behaves mostly like a viscose so it has an excellent drape to it. And I couldn’t wait to see how the Duplantier Dress would look in a very fluid drapey fabric.

For this fabric, I have used the view B sleeve for the first time, with no modifications. I am also using the waist-length bodice that I created for the polka dot one above, rather than the baby doll one.

For the skirt here, I didn’t have quite enough fabric, so have made my upper skirt tier 6cm narrower than the Duplantier Dress as designed, so this is a bit less gathered.

Then, for added skirt length this time around, I have gone with the tiered option.

Based on the very exacting method of cutting out the two biggest rectangles I could out of the fabric I had available, my bottom tiers are 23cm by 180cm, for each of the back and the front.

And, some how, it all comes together as I really like this version of the Duplantier Dress too.

And, finally, in case you’re wondering “is three versions enough, is she done with the Duplantier Dress yet?”, the answer is: No.

I have some lovely textured black silk which I am planning to use for my next version. The silk I want to use to make a black version is, of course, transparent, so I would love any advice about the best way to line it. I am in two minds between taking a similar approach to how I did the polka dot version or, rather than actually lining it, making a black slip to wear underneath it. But I’m not sure if the spaghetti strapped slip under transparent black silk look might be a bit too much?

I guess only time will tell!