DIY Smock Dress
If ever there’s a trend I like it’s a loosely fitting one, even better if you can make it out of warmish fabric so it’s as much like wearing a nighty as possible. (Sad but true!) Smock dresses are absolutely perfect for this – the whole idea is that they’re oversized and they fit into the 90s grunge revival thing that celebs like Cara Delevigne et al have kicked off. ASOS have lots of smock dresses at the moment in all sorts of fabrics so it’s a great place to go for inspiration.
Smocking is the act of sewing loose parallel lines horizontally across the fabric and then pulling the tails of the thread to gather the fabric evenly. The gathers are then sewn permanently into position and the original lines of thread removed. In this case the smocking is done in the skirt section.
This is another case of me having a dress in my head but finding it impossible to find a pattern that matched. In the end I created my own – you can now download the smock dress sewing pattern here!
The fabric I used was polyviscose suiting from Abakhan.
I used a 22″ zipper on the back of the dress and sewed it on the outside. The exposed zip has become quite a contemporary look. To do this I used my zipper foot but instead of putting the needle on the same side of the foot as the zip I used the opposite side so the stitches ran just inside the edge of the zipper tape.
Worn here with Topshop Argo Croc Boots it’s good for an everyday work outfit but can be styled up with black heels and some bling or down with my trust Doc Martens.
15 Comments
Kelly
Hiya
Love this make so much! But the link to the pattern isn’t working and I’d love to have a look at the pattern
Thanks
Catherine
Hi Kelly, so sorry the link isn’t working for you, if you could email me at ohhidiy@outlook.com I can email you the PDF? X
sophie
Hi, I was wondering if you’d be able to send me a pattern too. I’m desperately trying to find smock patterns only but not finding any!
Giuditta
Hi!
The dress is so nice! I can’t wait to try to do it for a friend of mine! But the link to the pattern isn’t working for me too… 🙁
Greetings from Switzerland!
Catherine
Hi Giuditta, please could you email me at ohhidiy@outlook.com and I’ll send you the PDF? If you could let me know what browser you’re using that would be great. x
Jess
Hello Catherine!
I absolutely adore this dress but I too am having trouble viewing the pattern! Should I email you with the same address you responded with earlier?
Lots of Love
x
Catherine
Yes please and I can forward it on, it’s very strange as I deleted it and readded it again. Please can you let me know if you’re getting any error messages? Thanks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjvFOG7ZyFY&index=15&list=PLGYb3eTcr5F351zzdh2ZOfzgFyc6XWC5S|https://youtu.be/vjvFOG7ZyFY?list=PLGYb3eTcr5F351zzdh2ZOfzgFyc6XWC5S|https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjvFOG7ZyFY&index=15&list=PLGYb3eTcr5F351zzdh
I could not resist commenting. Exceptionally well written!
Amanda Watlington
Hi. I can’t get the link to work. I’ve sent an email to you. Thank you!
Catherine
Sorry for not getting back to you, give this link a try: http://ohhidiy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Smock-Dress-Sewing-Pattern-Free-Download.pdf
Cynthia
Hi. Is this pattern still not available? Here is what I get from the link. I use Google Chrome browser. I sure would like to try this smock dress (but as a long top). Thanks
“This site can’t be reached
http://www.ohhidiy.wpengine.com’s server DNS address could not be found.
DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN”
Catherine
Sorry for such a late reply, try this link: http://ohhidiy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Smock-Dress-Sewing-Pattern-Free-Download.pdf
Gemma
I would also love the pattern: I love that dress! But the link’s not working.. is it still available?
Catherine
Try this link:it works every time for me it’s so strange! http://ohhidiy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Smock-Dress-Sewing-Pattern-Free-Download.pdf
Rosio Fernandez
I would love if you could send me the link to the pattern, since the link didnt work