The Nettie Dress


I'm in love with this new pattern from Heather Lou at Closet Case Files. In case you haven't heard of it yet, this is the Nettie Dress & Bodysuit. When I first saw this pattern I realized that a bodysuit was exactly what I was missing from my wardrobe. I recently finished some floral Tania Culottes that I love, but haven't worn yet because I didn't have a top that would go with them. I only liked the look of tucked in shirts, but you could the wrinkles of the shirt fabric through the skirt. The bodysuit is the PERFECT solution.

This is the dress obviously, but I definitely have plans for a few bodysuits in the works.

I really wanted to try the body-con dress variation as well, and I just so happened to have a convenient excuse... 




Saturday night my husband and I were going to an event at his university. So of course I decided on Friday that I would make a dress. Nothing like a time crunch to motivate you, right? On Saturday morning I whipped up this dress in just two hours. Talk about instant gratification.

I've had an idea for a dress like this in the back of my head for a long time: open back, high neckline, long-ish sleeves, just above knee length. The great thing about the Nettie pattern is it includes so many options. It was easy to create exactly what I wanted without any modifications.



The fabric is a lovely deep purple knit from Jo-Ann. It's super soft and fluid - I believe the bolt said it was 95% rayon, 5% spandex. If you use a thinner knit this dress will definitely show every bump and bulge, so careful underwear consideration is a must.

Heather includes instructions for adding a shelf bra with cups, but in my case I just wore a NuBra (they're basically sticky bra cups - I find them to be pretty comfortable, and they work well, but they do lose their stickiness after a while.)



I love how you can make this pattern as sexy or as modest as you like. Hopefully I struck a good balance between the two - I don't think I scandalized anyone last night ;)

The Nettie's so quick to make that I'm planning on whipping up a couple of bodysuits before my husband and I leave for my birthday trip (24!) to New Orleans on Friday. I'll be posting lots of pics on Instagram, which I've finally started using. You can follow me @designbylindsay!

I hope everyone's having a lovely Me-Made-May, and I can't wait to see more Nettie's popping up around the blogosphere! If you make one leave me a link - I'd love to see it!


<3 Lindsay


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