Named for our wedding venue, the Silvermine Tavern in Norwalk, CT, this dress has a modernized Gibson Girl silhouette, with the straight front skirt panel and fullness around the sides and back and a fitted bodice. While it makes a spectacular wedding dress, it would be equally stunning in almost any color for any formal occasion.

The knitting itself is not at all difficult and could be ably dispatched by anyone comfortable with basic lace knitting. It does, however, require hours of careful, attentive, and patient finishing work.

The fit of this garment can be blocked slightly larger, smaller, longer, and shorter due to the nature of the lace fabric. Choose the size closest to your measurements and block to fit yours. The project was designed to have about two inches of negative ease in the bust, about zero ease at the waist, and several inches of positive ease through the hips.

The pattern begins with the waistband, using a provisional cast on to center the stitch pattern. The bodice is knit in three pieces (one front, two backs), with a buttoned placket in back. The center panel of the skirt is knit from the bottom up, while the main piece of the skirt was knit from the top down with cording separating the lace patterns. The bodice pieces are sewn together with mattress stitch, but all other seams are done by picking up stitches along the edges to be joined and doing a three-needle bindoff on the right side, both for strength and because the look mimicked the cords on the skirt.