diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
deleted file mode 100644
index 5faaf8c..0000000
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,6 +0,0 @@
-Changelog is kept at [GitHub](https://github.com/Dronehub/minijson/releases),
-here's only the changelog for the version in development
-
-# v2.7
-
-* added support for strict ordering
diff --git a/docs/changelog.md b/docs/changelog.md
index ab65e4a..05cc967 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.md
+++ b/docs/changelog.md
@@ -1,6 +1,12 @@
 Changelog
 =========
 
+v2.8
+----
+
+* serializing a dict without :code:`use_strict_order` won't construct a list of it's items,
+    allowing you to serialize large dictionaries
+
 v2.7
 ----
 
diff --git a/docs/usage.rst b/docs/usage.rst
index 06145a5..26d67c9 100644
--- a/docs/usage.rst
+++ b/docs/usage.rst
@@ -87,5 +87,6 @@ There's also a class available for encoding. Use it like you would a normal Pyth
 and sort them before dumping them to binary output. By enabling this feature you guarantee
 that identical dicts, serialized by identical Pythons will have the exact same binary representation.
 
-
+So take care when serializing that with large dicts, :code:`use_strict_order` will construct a list
+of all it's items, while serializing a normal dict won't.
 Only then strict order will be guaranteed. Your keys must be comparable anyway.
diff --git a/minijson.pyx b/minijson.pyx
index 4cc6240..6bd155b 100644
--- a/minijson.pyx
+++ b/minijson.pyx
@@ -514,13 +514,18 @@ cdef class MiniJSONEncoder:
                     cio.write(b'\x12')
                     cio.write(STRUCT_L.pack(length))
                     length = 5
-                items = list(data.items())
                 if self.use_strict_order:
+                    items = list(data.items())
                     items.sort()
-                for field_name, elem in items:
-                    cio.write(bytearray([len(field_name)]))
-                    cio.write(field_name.encode('utf-8'))
-                    length += self.dump(elem, cio)
+                    for field_name, elem in items:
+                        cio.write(bytearray([len(field_name)]))
+                        cio.write(field_name.encode('utf-8'))
+                        length += self.dump(elem, cio)
+                else:
+                    for field_name, elem in data.items():
+                        cio.write(bytearray([len(field_name)]))
+                        cio.write(field_name.encode('utf-8'))
+                        length += self.dump(elem, cio)
                 return length
             else:
                 if length <= 0xF:
@@ -537,13 +542,16 @@ cdef class MiniJSONEncoder:
                     cio.write(b'\x13')
                     cio.write(STRUCT_L.pack(length))
                     offset = 5
-
-                items = list(data.items())
                 if self.use_strict_order:
+                    items = list(data.items())
                     items.sort()
-                for key, value in items:
-                    offset += self.dump(key, cio)
-                    offset += self.dump(value, cio)
+                    for key, value in items:
+                        offset += self.dump(key, cio)
+                        offset += self.dump(value, cio)
+                else:
+                    for key, value in data.items():
+                        offset += self.dump(key, cio)
+                        offset += self.dump(value, cio)
                 return offset
         else:
             v = self.default(data)
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index 64b684a..8a68a91 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # coding: utf-8
 [metadata]
-version = 2.7
+version = 2.8
 name = minijson
 long_description = file: README.md
 long_description_content_type = text/markdown; charset=UTF-8