I Made Lizzie Bennet's Dress from Pride and Prejudice (and it was *hard*)

Hello everyone and welcome to a new video!

As an avid Pride & Prejudice fan and a seamstress, it was only a matter of time until I attempted to make another dress from the 2005 adaptation. I love the simple style lines of Lizzie's more casual dresses, which look both comfortable and flattering. However, as I've found in this video, not as simple to make and adapt to other silhouettes!

I used 5 meters of lightweight striped polycotton for this, which was £8.5 p/m, and I was luck to snag the last five of it! For the patterns, I used heavily altered patterns from Patterns of Fashion 1 for the bodice and the sleeves, and Butterick B5970 (also altered) for the skirt. Please bear in mind that this is *not* intended as a historically accurate or adjacent Regency dress, but instead a re-creation of the dress from the film adapted to fit my proportions (which are extremely different from Keira Knightley's lol).

I think the dress turned out well! If you can, let me know down below in the comments where I should embroider the back. I left it out because I wasn't sure if it would make me want to wear it less, but now I think it'd be a really nice addition!

-- THINGS MENTIONED --
Fashion Plate, 'Morning Dress/Full Dress' for 'La Belle Assemblée'

-- MORE --
Instagram (perhaps overactive stories): @catscostumery

Music is from Epidemic Sound.

[makaylar.]

I'm so grateful that you added in the breakdowns and frustrations because that's most of my sewing projects 😆

[JadeSummers]

Cat! I'm glad you struggled through, because you did a great job. Honestly, it looks so expensive, and you made it the perfect length for modern wearability. And the flare looks better than the original style (no regency video is complete without a little bit of roasting to that awful silhouette). 10/10, picasso.

[CameoFarmer]

"As a seamstress, I see it, I want it, I make it." Love it. I'm going to continually quote you on that.

[denisebennett]

Congratulations on overcoming all of the dress obstacles. It looks great.

[MsDawn]

This dress is by far my favorite from my favorite version of Pride and Prejudice. This too is a hill I will die on. The dress came out beautifully. It looks wonderful on you. I'm so impressed by your skills as s seamstress.

[sarahwatts]

I like that it's not a 1:1 recreation, but you can absolutely tell where the inspiration comes from

[TomWDW]

I really appreciate you talking about how you edited the pattern to fit your body type instead of Keira Knightley's.
I think people who want to recreate costumes need to think about that and be okay with foregoing total 'accuracy' to find something that works and looks good!!

Great job!!

[liv]

I've learned my lesson after making that queen's gambit pinafore - ALWAYS staystitch anything cut on the bias. I do it as soon as I cut the pattern piece, before doing anything else, because IT. WILL. STRETCH. I had this beautiful checkered pattern that inevitably warped and looked wonky and crooked, but luckily the pattern was small enough that it doesn't look bad. Your solution worked wonderfully and the dress turned out beautiful, and it's instantly recognizable as the dress from the film (which is what we hope for when recreating something, I think!)

[Steph_here]

I clicked on this so fast, the entire time squealing 😍 and your hair looks super pretty in this video

[sarahmwalsh]

You really stuck with it and it came out beautiful! Boy, do I know that frustration when it just. won't. WORK!

[michellecornum]

It came out very pretty. It's crazy how a change in fabric can change the entire thing. I've made many circle skirts, all with the same pattern, and each one is different. Some have such huge waistbands that they had to be pleated in the back. Some only hang correctly if they zip up the side. I can't explain it, I just know that it happens.

[katarinadankova]

It looks so beautiful on you. I'm glad you didn't give up on it.

[Nachtfoxx]

I think you should do the embroidery on the back for sure, it would look so sweet! Beautiful work, it turned out lovely

[indiabilly]

That may have been a nightmare but you are so clever to be able to adapt that pattern to suit you so perfectly and trouble shoot all the issues xx

[CandycaneLane]

Pride & Perseverance, yes please to more p&p dresses

[shinytinfoilgirl]

Love the way you did the skirt closure! I've got a wrap dress in my project queue and I may have to use a similar closure!

[kathrynbassett]

Looks wonderful thanks for being real as it is so encouraging. Keep on sewing beautiful dress

[waterbitten]

Some projects teach us lessons we didn't intend to learn at the onset.. you already know how to make dress, the practice you needed was in fitting and the project provided that. So that's a win in my book.

[clairedocherty]

Stunning, your resilience is so admirable 🥰 sleeves are particularly gorgeous in the end!

[malinamontenegro]

You can never have enough pride and prejudice dresses! Love this!