Simplicity 4118 Red Linen

I guess this has become a bit of a TAT (tried and true) pattern for me. I made it first time over a year ago and have become more comfortable with using this dress as a jumper style which I feel suits my body shape much better.

Anyway a while ago I was in a smaller independent fabric shop, they are rare here on the Gold Coast and had to buy so fabric. One of the thing in their sale bin was this red linen with lycra. I have a weakness for linen, I love it , love the look, love the feel and even though I hate ironing I will iron linen. Unfortunately they only had about 1.4 metres of it so thats all I got.

This red linen has sat in my stash for a while before I decided what it should become. There wasn't enough for a pair of trousers, I thought about a skirt but felt I would be wasting it, then after coming home from dinner one night and having had a bit to drink decided that it would look great as a red shift style dress. I pulled out this pattern and the fabric, fit the pattern on it somehow and thankfully left it there and slept on it.

I had originally thought I would do a real quickie job and simply use bias around the neck and armholes and skip the lining altogether. Thankfully after sleeping on it I saw sense and made it up with facings and fully lined it.


Front view:

The lining fabric was some weird cotton that I found in my stash which must have survived from the 80's. I knew I would not be using it for any thing else so it became my lining fabric.

Please excuse the weird stance. It can be challenging to get a good photo when the camera is balanced on a stack of books and you are using the timer.

This is I guess how I would wear this in spring and autumn. I have found that I really like the look of the shirt underneath, it hides my chubby upper arms and seems to show off the dress better. I find that if I wear a belt a bit above my natural waist it help to disguise just how short my legs really are.

This is probably how I will wear it at work over the winter months here. I thing the tan of the belt and boots help tone down the redness of the dress and make it a little more suitable for work.