Grey Lily

I have wanted to have a relaxed linen dress for a while. I found some end-of-roll fabric that the salesperson said was most probably some kind of linen-silk mixture. The fabric has a slight silk shine to it but also some roughness due to the linen. At home I noticed that the label said “Do not wash”. Arrgh! Dry cleaning in Finland is so expensive that I could buy a new dress with the amount I would spend on two dry cleanings. So, I took a risk and dumped the whole fabric in water. I hand washed the fabric and… Guess what? Nothing happened!

I bought the Lily Linen Dress pattern and cut the smallest size out of the fabric. It was hard to estimate the fit due to the dress being loose, but after sewing the shoulder and the side seams the dress looked… well… a grey sack on me. I went on anyway leaving out the sleeves and hemmed the dress and sew the pockets on. Then I started thinking for some modifications. I decided to take about an inch in from the sides all the way down to a few cms from the pockets. The pockets are left to protrude slightly which adds some modern feeling to the dress. Finally I added the ties quite high, some 10 cm above my real waist to gather the extra width and to balance my proportions. I have a long back and short legs so a lifted waistline suits me much better than a regular one.

Finally I am quite happy how the dress turned out. It is relaxed enough to wear with sneakers or putter around in the garden. I do not even need to iron it since the dress actually looks better with some wrinkles –  the ironing makes the silk shine a bit too much.

P.S. I’m not looking at the camera on purpose. Every time I try to pose and smile at the camera my face twists into a horrible grimace. I cannot help it! Finally my dear husband (Who I have to thank for the photos!) begged me not to look at the camera and not to smile and the photos were much better even if I tend to look distant.