I’m totally in love with this wool dress hacked from the Wiksten Shift Dress. I wasn’t sure I would feel comfortable in this type of dress, but I totally do! It feels so swishy and comfortable and I can see several summer versions in my wardrobe. The line around the bodice is a bit up and down but I think that’s okay in this style, but let me know if there’s something else I should be doing. Not quite sure.

For the hack, I followed the tutorial on the Wiksten site, but I added a second tier.
https://shopwiksten.com/blogs/news/shift-dress-hack-gathered-skirt
For the first tier, I multiplied the width of the pattern piece by 75% and added that to the width – as the hack suggests. For the second tier I used the full width of the 150cm fabric. I am a Minerva Maker but I bought this an ultra lightweight pure wool suiting from them on special offer a while ago: https://www.minerva.com/mp/1230636/wool-suiting-fabric-navy-bronze
I cut the bodice 18” down from the high bit of the neck. The next time I would taper the front bodice down by about 3/4” from the centre front out to the sides.

Liberty Lawn neck facing

I used Liberty Lawn for the neck facing because it find it very stable and comfortable against my neck.

Added pockets

I added pockets following the Megan Neilsen tutorial.
https://blog.megannielsen.com/2016/09/tutorial-sew-inseam-pockets/
I made the pockets from silk satin, so I faced the first couple of inches to keep them invisible. I always face each pocket piece even though I know one will not be visible but it stops me getting mixed up and doing the wrong one!

Rolled hem

With a full skirt like this I nearly always do a rolled hem on my serger/overlocker and I did this here too.