Envelope Dress Criswoodsews

Around April time, I made a top version of the Criswoodsews envelope dress in absence of the appropriate length of fabric to make the dress. It was a very easy project and I have worn it loads since then. It is also one of my most liked posts on Instagram. I haven’t been following Cris for a very long time, but I am a big fan of her style and aesthetic, also her ability to combine anything into a great outfit.I bought the pattern our of curiosity mostly and because I really liked the effortless silhouette of the dress, which is at the same time quite different to the silhouettes I am usually drawn to.  I’ve been putting off the dress version of it for a while, because the weather had been quite volatile and also as time goes by, I feel that any form of summer holidays in a hot country (ie Greece) is disappearing for this year, along with the summer. One hot, sunny day was enough to change my mind, though.

The pattern consists of three pieces and the downloadable file itself doesn’t even need to be printed. There are two versions, one made to measure and one that is one size.  I went for the latter because I was too lazy to do the actual maths.

The front of the dress is two separate pieces that are sewn together leaving only an opening for the head. I carried on sewing a little further than what the pattern asked as in the top version the opening was a bit too low. You finish by topstitching around the seams.

 

 

The back is made out of one continuous piece that is then sewn on the front piece and finished with topstitching that creates a beautiful detail as seen above. I really like the fluidity of the dress and how it falls on the body creating an elegant yet extremely comfortable garment.

I bought 1.5 metres of cotton double gauze from Sew Me Sunshine . It is cut across the grain with the selvedge at the top and bottom of each piece. In full length it covered my feet, so I estimate I took off about 20cm to get to the length in the photo. (sorry I didn’t actually measure it)

As the pattern says, this is a very versatile dress that can be formal or casual, a beach cover-up, a maternity dress, or a night-gown. It was sewn in a breeze even by myself who manages to sew the simplest things in very slow motion. I finished all raw edges with a serger. There are two more in the cards as presents so I hope I have enough leftover double gauze for a colour blocked top at least. I felt extremely stylish the whole day I wore the above outfit. I wish I could dress up like that every day.

(my hair has ben so horrible during corona times that I think it’s only acceptable accessorised withe a scarf, haha)

photography: @juniperific