Linen shirt dress

Hi everyone! My name is Ping and I blog over at peneloping.com. I started taking pattern-making classes last year and I’m so excited to share my latest drafting adventure with you today!

This dress is a copycat of an Anthropologie dress I completely fell in love with a few months ago. It was one of those dresses where it catches your eye, you pet it a bit, and immediately want one in every color. So I went home and decided to try drafting a pattern to recreate it.

I won’t go too much into the boring technical stuff, but I started with a torso sloper to get that continuous front panel, then switched to a bodice/skirt sloper set for the rest of it. For the bodice, I kept the waist darts, did cutaway armholes, lowered the neckline a bit, and then drafted a collar stand and collar. For the skirt, I added flare to the back, introduced pleats to the front, and then added a waistband and ties. The trickiest part was definitely the bit where the waistband, ties, skirt corner, and front panel meet. There’s a lot going on, and notching and marking dots are crucial! I had to rip it out the first time and re-sew it by hand to get it to sit right. But I’m thrilled with how it worked out!

And then there’s the fabric. I chose the Medium Weight Linen in Orchid Bloom. (This particular color is currently sold out but they’ve got a bunch of scrumptious colors available!) I can’t even describe how luscious this stuff is. I have a hardcore linen obsession going on right now. This linen is the perfect weight for a shirt dress without being too heavy and bulky or too lightweight and see through. It was super crisp when I got it in the mail but I stuck it in the wash and have ironed it a bunch and it’s softened up really nicely and drapes well without warping weirdly. It does wrinkle very easily but I love the summery casual effect that has.

And lastly, if you want a chance to win a $50 gift card for Mood, head over to my blog and leave a comment!