Cotton Lawn Wiksten Shift Dress

Hi friends! Here’s another project I’d had in the queue for a while. Normally I can’t completely resist the new shiny fabrics or patterns that appear on my Instagram feed, but right now I’m being forced (like so many of us) to sew from the things we already have. I’m finding it’s very satisfying as someone who likes to complete things (TV shows, to-do lists, etc.), plus it’s making more excited to sew because I have what I have and I’m not feeling overwhelmed by all the choices. Everything I sew feels like I’m checking something off a list that was vaguely swimming in the back of my mind. This Wiksten shift dress was a more recent addition to the pool pre-isolation, but the pattern itself was one I’d been meaning to try for a while and I’m glad I did!

This shift dress is very quick to sew up! For those of you who may be thinking that I’ve been sewing like a maniac, I want to put it out there that a lot of the stuff I’ve sewed up lately has been a quick satisfying project, which leads to finishing things a lot more frequently! This dress in particular was basically an afternoon/evening sew. It features patch pockets, no closures, and I serged everything on the inside. Including the edge of the neck facing that I was instructed to turn under but I was feeling slap-dash and just ran it through the serger instead! I’m so rebellious. The other thing that makes it really quick is that the short sleeves are cut-on instead of set-in or raglan, so you don’t even have to sew sleeves (unless you’re doing the 3/4 length ones that are included).

For sizing, I debated for a VERY long time before I decided. I’ve made one of Wiksten’s patterns before, the Haori (which you can see here), and for that I read a lot of things suggesting that I should size down. For the Haori, I measured into a medium but made the extra small and it fit great. For this one, I was mainly debating whether I should size down two or three sizes. I’d tried on the shift dress shop sample at Patch when I bought the fabric and pattern, but I must have had a mushy brain that day because I didn’t write it down anywhere and couldn’t remember whether it was 4 or 6 that I had decided would be best for me. My measurements put me in a size 10 (37.5″/29.5″/39.5″), but I ended up tracing off and cutting out a size 6. I figured it was better to go slightly too big because I could fix that if I needed to much easier than if I went to small. The main reason I picked size 6 was because the pattern booklet and all the online stuff I read said that the most important measurement was to compare your bicep measurement to the finished armhole measurement and allow for at least 3″ of ease. My biceps measured at 12″ circumference, and lately my shoulders/arms are the limiting factor for fit, so I went with the 6. The finished garment measurements for the size 6 said that the armholes would be 14 5/8″ in circumference, so that seemed like a safe bet.

I am happy with the fit. Maybe I COULD have gone down a size to the 4, but I like the amount of movement I have in the arm area, and don’t think it feels/looks oversized on me. You can see the shape of the cut-on sleeve below in case you’re curious! I think it also helps that there’s a waist tie to bring everything in at the waist. I don’t think a straight up shift dress silhouette is very flattering on me, so if it hadn’t been included, I probably would still have made a tie for the waist in order to change the silhouette of the garment.

Before I forget, the fabric is a cotton lawn by Kokka that I got from Patch. I can’t find it anywhere online to link you to, unfortunately. I searched a bunch to try to figure out exactly who it’s by, but the selvage only had test colour circles and nothing else at all, so I had nothing to go on except “Kokka turquoise paint splatter” or something like that. Regardless, it’s a lovely light-weight lawn that washed up really soft and drapes nicely. I like the amount of structure it provides for this pattern without being stiff or uncomfortable.

Below, you can’t tell, but it’s the main place I changed anything about the construction of the pattern. The pattern for the shift dress tells you to cut one yoke piece and then gather the bottom back piece to fit between the notches. I thought it was silly and not very nice finishing to only have one yoke piece and have to finish along the back seam with the gathers, so I cut two yokes instead. I didn’t do a full burrito, and instead of had the two yokes act as one piece of fabric at the shoulder seam. In retrospect, I’m not sure why I didn’t go all in on the burrito, but it’s done now and I think it’s fine anyway! I like the yoke detail on the pattern – I think it could be a good place to add a contrasting fabric or to feature some embroidery/sashiko. It does extend into the sleeve area though, so that’s something to consider. As well, I forgot to mention (because this blog post is apparently a disorganized shambles) that this is the mid-length version of the shift dress. There’s a longer dress version and a top, and I made this one because I read things from a bunch of people my height (5’4″) saying they had to shorten the long version by multiple inches in order to arrive at a good length for them. The photos of the above-knee length made it seem like it would be shorter than I’d want, but I figured if I made the middle length and didn’t take any length off it would probably be good. And I was right (feels so good, haha)! It lands just above the knee, which is great because I can’t wear anything short to work as a teacher. Not that I can teach in person right now anyway, because school closures just got extended here until at LEAST May 1st, but a girl can dream of better days, right?

I can’t lie, when I first finished this dress the other evening, I was not convinced by it. I took a couple dimly lit selfies in the light of my basement and felt very meh about the whole thing. But then I slept on it and took photos on a real camera with real daylight and I’m much more on board now. Which goes to prove the obvious truth that you should not judge clothing late at night in photos backlit with yellow-y overhead lights. Who knew! I think my next project is going to be a Paper Theory Zadie jumpsuit in a purple linen I bought while in Finland in July 2018. Past Megan really did present me a solid and did all the anticipated fit modifications on the pattern pieces when she assembled and cut out the PDF. Sometimes I’m grateful for my past self!