This is a very quick post about a simple autumn dress…

Analysing my wardrobe, I realised that I needed more simple, throw-on dresses. This project started with inspiration from a dress that a friend wore on holiday, made from black lyocell twill; the perfect thing to dress up or down. Searching online for black twill (if anyone knows where to get black viscose or lyocell twill, please let me know!) I came across this lovely orchid-print viscose twill from Abakhan. I’m not the biggest fan of autumn (I find the dark evenings depressing) and needed an excuse to get excited about cold-weather sewing. This rust/cream print definitely helped me to get a little bit more excited about the colder months.

For the pattern, I found a dress very similar to my friend’s dress in a French sewing magazine (fashion Style N°9). I only had to change the front neck slit to a back key-hole design and I had the perfect pattern.

It’s a very simple dress. Kimono sleeves, an elasticated waist, a simple slit at the skirt and the added keyhole at the back of the neck. The neck is finished with a facing, which I attached to the shoulder seams with some top stitching. Thanks to the busy print the stitches are barely noticeable. All seams are finished with my overlock, which was super quick and clean. All in all it took no time to put together but the final dress is really nice and super comfy.

The fabric was very easy to work with. It’s the first time I actually worked with viscose twill, and I really like it. It has enough body for a dress but still drapes really well. Even though it’s viscose, it doesn’t wrinkle too badly either. And I just love this print, the colours are just perfect!

So all in all a great little dress. Can you believe that this is my first dress with an elasticated waist? What took me so long?

I might tweak the pattern slightly next time (remove some of the volume of the sleeves, lower the waist a tiny bit) and once I’ve found the perfect fabric, I will hopefully recreate the little black dress of my dreams.

I hope you are all inspired to do some autumn sewing!