Minimalistic shirtdress for the summer

Here is a bit older make from last summer that I didn’t get to posting at that time. I bought this lovely stretch cotton poplin last spring when visiting Edinburgh. At first I did not know what to do with it, since it is a bit crispier than the cottons I’m used to deal with. Then I saw this shirtdress pattern while leafing through the March issue (3/2016) of the Finnish sewing and crafts magazine Suuri Käsityö and decided to try the pattern even if it is a bit different from what I usually wear.

The design of the dress takes inspiration of a man’s shirt and it is loose fitting and very minimalistic. The dress includes a matching belt which is threaded through a casing that goes all the way around the back of the dress. As a interesting design feature the back of the dress has pleats that continue from the bottom of the back darts. The belt casing covers the wider end of the back darts, so in reality it is hard to see that the back of the dress is one piece.

The pockets are a nice thing to have, especially in a summer dress which you usually wear without a coat. I tend to draft my pocket bags even bigger. Since I usually carry my phone in my pocket I always put my phone on the top of the pattern piece and measure if it fits. If it doesn’t, I’ll draw a new, bigger pocket pattern.

I had to pose at the other side of our home just because… We have a new lawn! We dug out some bushes that used to cover whole of our front yard and put instant lawn there instead. It is so nice to wiggle my toes in the grass and I immediately moved our hammock to the front yard to be able to relax in the sun.