diff --git a/src/strings.c b/src/strings.c
index 53e0171..120d393 100644
--- a/src/strings.c
+++ b/src/strings.c
@@ -1366,9 +1366,10 @@
 	    }
 	}
 
-	if (list_append_string(rettv->vval.v_list, converted_str, -1) == FAIL)
-	    break;
+	int ret = list_append_string(rettv->vval.v_list, converted_str, -1);
 	vim_free(converted_str);
+	if (ret == FAIL)
+	    break;
     }
 
 done:
diff --git a/src/testdir/test_functions.vim b/src/testdir/test_functions.vim
index bf3e889..e31e2ed 100644
--- a/src/testdir/test_functions.vim
+++ b/src/testdir/test_functions.vim
@@ -4311,6 +4311,10 @@
     call assert_equal(["🁰🁳"], blob2str(0zF09F81B0.F09F81B3))
     call assert_equal(['«»'], blob2str(0zABBB, {'encoding': 'latin1'}))
     call assert_equal(['«»'], blob2str(0zC2ABC2BB, {'encoding': 'utf8'}))
+    call assert_equal(['«»'], blob2str(0zC2ABC2BB, {'encoding': 'utf-8'}))
+
+    call assert_equal(['a'], blob2str(0z61, test_null_dict()))
+    call assert_equal(['a'], blob2str(0z61, {'encoding': test_null_string()}))
 
     #" Invalid encoding
     call assert_fails("call blob2str(0z80)", "E1515: Unable to convert from 'utf-8' encoding")
diff --git a/src/version.c b/src/version.c
index ba41159..260f9b5 100644
--- a/src/version.c
+++ b/src/version.c
@@ -705,6 +705,8 @@
 static int included_patches[] =
 {   /* Add new patch number below this line */
 /**/
+    1035,
+/**/
     1034,
 /**/
     1033,