Blue Lattice Smocked Shirt Dress (Minerva Makers)

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I have another Minerva Makers project for you today - I actually posted this on their website a few weeks back, but I forgot to put it on the blog, so here it is now! The main write up can be found here* with extra photos here*. This project was mighty similar - suspiciously similar, even - to the Honeycomb Smocked Shirt Dress I posted back in November, except this time I used a different kind of smocking, and a different colour of fabric, so that makes them totally different, right? As far as I'm aware, this was my first time using lattice smocking on a garment, and oh my god I love it. Every time I smock anything, it just reignites my passion to smock even more things.

The fabric I used was some Lady McElroy crepe* in a gorgeous blue colour, which as-per-usual with these Minerva Makers projects, was provided to me for free in exchange with the post(s) on their website. The fabric was super soft to the touch and pretty easy to handle, though one downside is it was actually stretchy, which isn't generally something I'd recommend for a shirting fabric. It did work perfectly fine for this, but if you're not into the idea of a stretchy shirt, I did find this linen look crepe* which comes in a very similar colourway and is non-stretch, which would be a good dupe if you were looking to recreate this project. I'm sure I've used the linen look fabric before, though for the life of me I can't remember what for. Maybe I'm imagining things.

As for sewing pattern, I used my trusty Butterick 5526* (which I've also used on my honeycomb smocked shirt dress and my faux suede shirt dress*) which I then heavily hacked. This is now out of stock, but really any shirt pattern will do.

Anyway, make sure you check out this project*, and I'll see you next time!