Cotton Lawn Simplicity S8888

I don’t know about you, but there is not a lot of sewing going on around here right now. We are in the middle of lockdown (again) here in the UK and I am homeschooling my little boy full-time. After he goes to bed I am much more likely to be found knitting on the sofa in front of the TV rather than beavering away at the sewing machine.

In the interests of sustainability it’s probably a good thing that I am not making loads more new clothes, but I do have plenty of makes that I haven’t blogged yet! So here is a dress I made and photographed several months ago…

This fabric is made by Storrs London and was from Minerva.com – it is a cotton lawn that feels really tightly woven and as a result is incredibly smooth. It’s lightweight but completely opaque – I haven’t lined this dress! I haven’t had a cotton lawn like it before – it’s very smooth. This dress pattern is Simplicity S8888 which I have had my eye on for a while ever since seeing Rumana of The Little Pomegranate make a gorgeous one. It is one of the Simplicity ‘hacking’ patterns but the only hack I made was to remove the zip from the back as I found there was enough room to get it over my head without a zip.

The Simplicity pattern was easy to make and comes with lots of options but it was a little on the big side, I know that the commercial pattern companies often include a lot of ease but as this is a non-fitted pattern I didn’t really think it would matter. I took a little wedge out of each underarm to bring it in round the bust and left the rest of the pattern as-is. I chose to include the in-seam pockets and make the midi length which isn’t exactly midi on me – I am 5’ 7” and if I wanted it to be truly midi I would need to add length next time. There are several sleeve options but I went for the sleeveless option so that it will be cool in summer, I have been layering it over a long sleeved top and with leggings in winter.

I love these smock dress styles for special fabrics such as this one, the dress looks pretty but isn’t fitted at all so should fit me weather I gain or lose a bit of weight. I feel like it gives me a bit of insurance that it will be able to fit me for years to come. I am not afraid of my body fluctuating in size, I think it is only natural, but I do like to think my makes are more sustainable if they would fit me at several sizes. I would hate to make a dress in this gorgeous fabric and then find that next year it doesn’t fit anymore. I think you will probably see me continuing to make sack/smock dresses for a long time!

I must admit I do not lean towards floral fabrics. I make something floral maybe once per year, however, I do love a dark floral and this ticks all the boxes for me – it’s pretty but not too delicate or feminine which is just not me. I also love these blacks and turquoises near my face as they are such lovely colours for my skin tone. I will definitely be thinking about embracing these colours more in my personal colour palette going forwards.

Hopefully it makes no difference whether I made something recently or not, it is nice to be writing about makes and looking at my sewing even though I don’t feel like sewing much right now. Hope you are all well and staying safe!