Mädchen-Kleid Dress in Schachenmayr Egypto Cotton Color and Egypto Cotton - S8040 - Downloadable PDF

Mädchen-Kleid Girls' Dress Knitting Pattern in Schachenmayr Egypto Cotton Color and Egypto Cotton (S8040)

This free downloadable PDF knitting pattern from Schachenmayr provides instructions for a charming girls' dress, pattern reference S8040, knitted in the popular Schachenmayr Egypto Cotton Color and Schachenmayr Egypto Cotton yarns. The design is worked in multiple sizes to fit a range of children, making it a versatile project for knitters who want a classic, wearable garment for young girls. The dress features elegant shaping, a structured colourwork stripe section, and neat armhole and neckline finishing — all hallmarks of a well-constructed knitted dress pattern.

What Is Being Made

The pattern produces a fitted girls' dress with side shaping that tapers from a wider hem toward the waist, creating a flattering silhouette. The dress is constructed in separate pieces — at minimum a back section (Rückenteil) is detailed in the provided content, with armhole shaping and a shaped neckline. The construction method is classic flat knitting, with pieces worked back and forth in rows and then seamed together. The garment is sized across four sizes, accommodating a range of children's measurements, with stitch counts of 104, 110, 116, and 122 cast-on stitches for the back piece respectively.

Colourwork and Stripe Design

A key decorative feature of this dress is its horizontal stripe section, worked in two contrasting shades from the Schachenmayr Egypto Cotton range. The stripe sequence is introduced at a specific height — 19–20–21–23 cm depending on the size — and consists of alternating blocks of 6 rows in off-white and 6 rows in cyclam (a deep pink/fuchsia tone), repeated three times, followed by a final 6-row off-white stripe. This creates a bold, graphic band of colour across the body of the dress before the knitter returns to the main cyclam-natur colourway. The use of cyclam-natur as the primary colour and off-white as the contrast gives the dress a fresh, summery palette well suited to cotton yarn.

Techniques Used

• Flat knitting: The dress pieces are worked back and forth in rows on straight or circular needles, a standard approach for garment construction that allows for seaming.
• Side shaping with decreases: The dress is shaped along the sides using a structured decrease schedule. Stitches are reduced every 10th row and every 8th row (varying by size) to taper the skirt toward the waist, reducing from the cast-on count down to 80–86–92–98 stitches.
• Directional decreases: The pattern specifies two distinct decrease methods to maintain neat, mirrored shaping on each side. On the left edge, a slip-slip-knit style decrease is used (slip 1 knitwise, knit 1, pass slipped stitch over), while on the right edge, a standard knit-two-together decrease is worked. This technique creates clean, symmetrical shaping lines.
• Armhole shaping: Beginning at 26–27–28–30 cm in height, armholes are shaped on both sides using a stepped bind-off sequence: binding off 3 stitches once, 2 stitches twice, and 1 stitch five times on each side, leaving 56–62–68–74 stitches for the upper body.
• Neckline shaping: At 32–34–36–38 cm, the centre stitches (10–16–16–16 stitches) are bound off to begin the neckline, and each shoulder is then completed separately. Further neckline rounding is achieved with additional stepped bind-offs.
• Colourwork stripes: Simple horizontal stripes are worked by changing yarn colour at the beginning of rows, a beginner-friendly colourwork technique that requires no complex intarsia or Fair Isle skills.

Stitches Used

• Grundmuster (main pattern