FROCKTOBER - frocks we love: The Dress Shirt, Merchant and Mills

By
We're celebrating FROCKTOBER at The Drapery, 
to kick-start your spring and summer sewing!
When you buy any dress pattern plus the fabric to make it, we'll take 10% off the price 
(in store or online using code 'FROCKTOBER' at checkout). 
Plus, we've teamed up with the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation, 
and for every pattern + fabric combo sold we'll donate $2 to this great cause.




We are almost over and out with Frocktober, but for this one last post about a frock we love: The Merchant and Mills Dress Shirt.

Inspired by the shape of a classic men's shirt, the dress shirt is a loose-fitting frock with a bib front and shirt tail hem. It's one of those garments that is easy to throw on over leggings or worn alone, and it really comes into its own when sewn out of lightweight fabrics like linen or chambray.

The Dress Shirt, like other Merchant and Mills patterns we have tried (our review of The Factory Dress is here if you missed it), is a straight-forward sew, but with a few lovely extra details. I often end up learning a clever technique with these patterns. The pattern diagrams are charmingly hand drawn, and it really is worth paying attention to them as they often include small details not present in the written instructions.  


Our version was cut into a tunic length so most of the shirt tail hem was omitted. We used the mid-length sleeve, but there's a short option in there as well. The pattern covers UK sizes 8-18, which seem roughly the same as Australian sizes - it's a loose frock, so there's no precision fitting involved.

There are some gorgeous versions of this pattern doing the rounds of the internets, like this beautiful subtly striped version from Harmony and Rosie. And how about this smoky grey version over at Merchant and Mills? Oh yeah!

Our Dress Shirt was made from a hemp/organic cotton/wool blend fabric that we don't have in stock at the moment (hopefully back in soon), but any of our linens, or organic cotton/hemp fabrics would come up an absolute treat as The Dress Shirt. Our range of Merchant and Mills enzyme washed linens (1, 2) are a match made in heaven for this pattern.

 Here's the pattern cover & back:



Don't forget our 10% FROCKTOBER discount applies to pattern + fabric purchases until October 31! In our online shop, just enter the code 'FROCKTOBER' at checkout.

- Fiona & Jane xx
 

Comments

Post a Comment

We love to know who's reading and what you think so please leave us a comment! We'll also try to answer any questions you may have.

Popular posts from this blog

Care of your Boiled Wool

By
Image
We have some lovely 100% boiled wools at The Drapery for this first time this year. The care of these fabrics was a bit of a mystery to us as well as to you, so we've done some investigation. Will my boiled wool shrink if I wash it at home? More than likely, yes. That surprised us, too. One would guess since the fabric is called 'boiled wool' and has a felted, non-fray texture, that it is pre-shrunk and would not shrink further. Not so - please be well aware! Here's what we found: We tried three kinds of gentle washing: - Front loading machine wash 'wool cycle', 30 degrees , with wool wash liquid, rinse, spin. - Gentle hand wash, warm , with wool wash liquid, rinse, press dry in a towel. - Front loading machine wash 'wool cycle' cold , with wool wash liquid, rinse, spin. In both warm washes (machine and hand) the wool experienced 10 - 15% shrinkage in length. There was little to no shrinkage in width. The cold wash showed sligh...
Read more

Boiled Wool Shrug - free tutorial

By
Image
We have some luscious boiled wools in stock at The Drapery right now, and have put together a free tutorial for possibly the easiest garment you'll ever make! Searching for boiled wool inspiration, we came across this simple and lovely shrug by Manda of Treefall Design, who was inspired by a ready-to-wear piece. We whipped up a couple of prototypes in the shop and arrived at this which takes just a 75cm cut of fabric and three straight seams. Edges can all be left raw because boiled wool does not fray! REQUIREMENTS 75cm x boiled wool , ours is 150cm wide - would also work in wool knit fabric such as this Japanese wool blend (or this one ) and this Merino Rib Gutermann Sew-All thread in matching colour Cut about 50 - 55cm in from each selvedge so you have 2 pieces approx. 50 x 75cm, each with a 75cm fluffy selvedge. The piece from the middle is spare so you can use it for another project, or perhaps to embellish your shrug. Pin your pieces together along th...
Read more

Pattern freebie: mini dachshund jacket

By
Image
** ETA Dec 2020: Sorry! Due to technical issues (a broken laptop where the pattern was stored) this pattern is no longer available. You can use the illustrations of the pattern pieces below as guide by taking the measurement of the length of your dog's back to correspond to the length of the jacket body along the fold line. Alternatively, we recommend you try the new free dog jacket pattern by Closet Case here .  When we published a photo on Instagram of one of our dogs (wee Lola, above) wearing a jacket made from the scraps from one of our projects recently, we had a few requests to share the pattern. So here it is! A quick guide to how I make a my dog jackets. This is a super simple pattern that is easily adaptable to the size of your dog. But please note that the straps are short and the body long on this pattern to fit the long n’ low dachshund in particular as most jackets are too short for their gorgeous sausagey bodies.  Pattern pieces are below in JPG forma...
Read more