Seeking a simple sew with sensational style? Feast your peepers on the Peppermint Myrtle Shift Dress!

Cute, classic and cool with a touch of retro: the Myrtle Shift Dress is a beginner-friendly make with sleek lines and elegant curves. With the front cut on the fold, the retro-inspired Myrtle provides an uninterrupted canvas to showcase your fave prints, patterns and colours. Bust darts are in play to provide shaping and it goes without saying that Myrtle features spacious pockets for all your trinkets and treasures. The top-stitching detail around the neck and armholes invites you to get creative with contrast threads and the keyhole loop closure at the back neck is a fun opportunity for a feature button without having to take on the task of sewing a buttonhole! Got some ribbon, trim or tassels that you’d like to use as a tie closure instead? Knock yourself out! Simply sew them in place of the loop and button when you’re sewing on the neckline facing.

Myrtle cuts above the knee and the pattern includes lengthen and shorten lines should you wish to customise the length. Don’t think Myrtle is reserved only for hot weather either: switch out the summer-suitable light- and mid-weight linens and cottons for something heavier like drill, denim or corduroy to turn your Myrtle into a pinafore-style garment. Perfect for layering in the cooler weather!

Speaking of fabric, for our versions we chose two from the beautiful range at Karmme Apparel. The Traveller In Me | Rottnest Stripes blockprinted range was an easy pick for its bold colours and lightweight, soft-drape cotton, and we also chose the beautiful quality linen from the handpainted Traveller In Me | Mexico range. It was too hard to pass up the darling tassels that Karmme stock so we popped a bright pink one on as an alternate closure for one of the dresses!

The love child of Imby Langenbach, Karmme Apparel (fittingly pronounced ‘calm’), started its life as a beautiful bespoke bag company, an embodiment of craft and care. Imby was taught to sew at a young age by her mother, growing up learning everything she could about the machines, choosing the right fabrics and garment construction in her mum’s sewing room. A maker at heart, Imby has now transformed Karmme Apparel into a haven of boho apparel sewing patterns alongside complementary fabrics steeped in tradition with modern iterations from Jaipur, India. Hand block-printed and digitally printed soft cottons produced by Indian artisans showcase rich colours and designs from Imby’s travels, perfect for showing off me-made masterpieces.

Our dresses were superbly stitched by our sewing manager Laura Jackson, and modelled magnificently by Shannon (@Pins_And_Tonic) and Serah @SerahSews. And that perfect pink wall was courtesy of the good folk at Share The Dignity, an organisation that aims to bring dignity to women, girls and those who menstruate who are experiencing homelessness, domestic violence and period poverty.

Shift into gear and get to making the Myrtle – the only question is, can you stop at just one?

Head over here to buy the pattern now!

PHOTOS: Kelley Sheenan PATTERNMAKER: Garmenta Apparel MODELS: Serah @SerahSews and Shannon @Pins_And_Tonic FABRIC: Karmme Apparel SEWIST: Laura Jackson