Louise’s dress

Nerida Hansen Smock Dress hack in Buttercup Forest

This was a fun pattern to hack as it’s quite a simple base design by Nerida Hansen Fabrics. Louise wanted to break up the pattern at the neckline with a gently curving V shape—we did this by following a similar method to the Roscoe Blouse neckline by True Bias (a previous make, which we loved!). We lengthened the sleeves slightly and last, but definitely not least, we added an extra tier at the bottom. This made the dress more transeasonal and swishy, even though it felt as if hemming it would never end!

Pattern — Nerida Hansen Smock Dress Sewing Pattern
Fabric — 3.5m of Buttercup Mid-weight Cotton in Forest
Size — 8 (available sizes 8–20)
Thread — Gütterman 304 & 800 (white) on the inside seams
Notions — Fusible interfacing is suggested for the neckline and sleeve cuffs, however, as we were using mid-weight cotton and altered the neckline, we went without.
Alterations — We altered the neckline with a curved V, lengthened the sleeves slightly and added an extra tier to the bottom of the dress. The tiers ended up being around 38 and 48cm in length and the lower tier width was one and a half times the width of the top tier.

One of the best tools during this make was a heat resistant ruler by Clover—this made pressing the three-metre hem much less of a chore!