My first version of the National dress

In 2020 I decided to sew a dress inspired by Norways national dresses, Bunad.

From April 2020 to 17 May 2020 I created my simple but pretty folk dress which was inspired by the Norwegian national dresses. I documented it on Instagram but I decided to share some of it here today. One of the reason I wanted to sew one was because I did not have a Bunad or folk dress. Bunad is expensive, folk dress not so much but I did not like the ones I could buy.

I saw the opportunity to make a dress that had the similarity to the folk dresses, by using Ida Victoria pattern, Victoria dress. Before I started getting materials and drawing the pattern, I sketched a few simple versions of the dress that I had in my mind.

I decided not to use the typical materials we use in Bunad or folk dress, which usually is made from cotton and wool. I used viscose jersey to make it more stretchy and dressy. I did not wanted it to become a “real” folk dress. Just a dress inspired by Bunad and the folk dresses.

I was really happy with creating this one because it was the first big sewing project for myself were I actually planned what I needed to make the dress and what kind of decoration the dress needed. I wanted to embroider flowers, leafs, etc. on the upper part of the dress but I did not have time to find my own embroidery design and equipment to sew it. Therefore, I used two patches from Selfmade (stoff & stil) to iron on “fake” embroidery.

It is two years since I sewed this dress and now I am planning another folk dress inspired outfits for my little collection. My plan is to finish it before 17 May (the national day of Norway) but it seems like that will not happen, because I have too many things to be done that should have been finished in April.

But I might get it ready before May ends.

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