Despite this summer of pencil skirts and little blouses, my first love remains the hippy dress–a dress that’s loose and smock-like and looks good with boots. (I think this love stems from my love for the muumuu.)

A Simplicity pattern that I use a lot makes a good hippy dress, but then I discovered these patterns from France. France knows all about hippies, right?


This line primarily makes children’s patterns (enfants and bebes) and I learned about it when a couple of craft bloggers I follow bought enfant patterns and raved over the “simple, sophisticated lines.” We’ll see how they sew up–but the pattern pieces already have a French flair:


(Note to anyone who’s forgotten their high school French: Modern patterns from Simplicity, etc. are labeled in English and French, so you have an automatic glossary for these. And there are diagrams. And hippy dresses are not complicated.)