Diary of a shirt dress: The reveal!

And it's finally done! And I love it!

I sewed in the remaining buttons while on vacation in Italy and took photos.

Diary of a shirt dress: Days 7&8

It's Wednesday and I actually have some evening time to use on the dress. It might seem it's not much left on it, and piece-wise it's true, but it's mostly pieces that require a bit of attention to detail.

Today I worked on the button panel running down the center front. I didn't have enough of the same fabric to make the right and left panels, so I only have the right panel (the one that'll be on top) cut out of the main fabric, while the left panel is cut out of the same green cotton sateen I used for the inner waistband. Well, it'll be mostly invisible anyway. I interfaced both.

But oh no! The right panel isn't long enough! Improvise...improvise! OK! A piece from another part of the main fabric will have to do. I measure this out, cut it and interface it. This one goes on the bottom, the planned bit goes from the neckline as far down as it reaches and I stitch both in place. Then I fold the bottom bit to make my panel piece, then fold the seam allowance to wrong side, and top stitch the edge catching the inner part. I also top stitch the folded edge.

At the place where the planned panel meets the unplanned little one, I fold the planned one in a triangular shape much like a tower placket. At least this way people might think it's a design feature 😄! Then I fold the planned panel in half, press the inner seam allowances to inside and also top stitch the inner part in place. But here I also top stitch down the triangle side and up again on the folded side in a continuous line, again...to strengthen the illusion of a design feature.

The left side panel is long enough as is, so this is simpler. Just sew it as normal.

Next it's the collar stand. I'm unsure how this will behave if I only interface the outer one, so I do both. Then sew it as normal: Sew them right sides together along the top and sides, turn right side out and press, then sew the outer bottom seam to the neckline, fold the seam allowances of the inside stand to wrong side, pin in place and top stitch from the right side.

I've considered out of laziness, dislike of buttonhole making and lack of matching buttons in my stash to go buy some snaps. But got lazy even for that especially that I didn't have much time to spare on trips to the fabric store, and ended up biting the bullet and making those detested button holes. I made those from the collar to the waistband on Wednesday.

I decided to use large crystal beads for buttons, and Thursday started with me sewing these for the buttonholes I made yesterday.

Now I could close the dress around the waist and decide on the length. And hem the dress. Then do the remaining buttonholes below the waistband. This added up to 21 buttonholes in total 😬. Did I sew the remaining buttons (and move the waistband button as this ended up off the correct place)? Of course not. I packed buttons, thread and needle together with the dress. I'll do that in Italy...

Diary of a shirt dress: Days 5&6

The week has started and I’m back to using the evenings for not only sewing but also studying/researching for my business.

I didn’t mention my business before? No?! I’m working on getting myself ready for starting an online fabric store beginning of next year. My base product is Egyptian cotton fabric, in all possible variations (Woven, jeans, knits, name it!), but I'll have more than that. So, if you’re interested, watch this space 😊
Some extra info and a survey that'd really help if you fill are available here.

There’s of course a lot to get up to speed with relating to laws, rules, and business in general, which leaves me little time to do other things in the evening, but I do sneak in some sewing/crocheting/knitting/embroidery every now and then.

Monday has come and I took some time for that. Today I connected the bodice to the skirt. I applied interfacing to the outer waistband.

Then gathered the bottom of the bodice and stitched it to the top of the outer waistband.

I then gathered the top of the skirt and stitched it to the bottom of that same waistband.

And that was it for Monday. On Tuesday, I was actually on an evening course until 8 in the evening so there wasn’t that much time to achieve anything. But I did the inner waistband! I stitched the top of it right sides facing with the top of the outer such that the bodice ends up sandwiched in between, then turned the seam allowances of the bottom to the wrong side, pinned to the bottom of the outer waistband, pressed, and stitched from the right side along the existing (bottom of outer waistband and top of skirt) seam.

Then went to bed…Tomorrow is a new day. Good night 😊

Diary of a shirt dress: Day 4

Sunday is here and the dressmaking is continuing again. After doing the skirt side seam, it's time to insert the pockets. Which was what I did first today.

Diary of a shirt dress: Day 3

Yaay! It's the weekend and I can finally continue working on my dress!
I have most of the design details figured out now, so I'll just start cutting.

The natural place to start was of course the skirt. This will be where most of the fabric goes and where the print really comes to life. I spent some minutes first tying to lay the fabric as straight as possible. Now I've already figured out earlier (on day 2 😄) that the skirt will be made of two triangles 75cm wide x ~105cm long. Technically this is not very true as the front will be split in 2 because of the button closure.

But starting with the back of the skirt, and taking into account 2cm for the hem, I marked a rectangle 110cm long (105 + 2 for hem + 3 as error margin) by 75cm wide, and cut it taking into account seam allowances on sides and top edges.

Diary of a shirt dress: Day 2

Oh! I just so hope I don't mess this project up! It's be a shame.

By now it's clear that the day count doesn't correspond to actual days. Some days I don't sew. Today I won't actually sew either, I'm going out soon. Friday night!

But I did do some preparation work:

Diary of a shirt dress: Day 1

The reason I decided to write about this dress in the form of a diary is the amount of excitement around it. I've been psyching myself up to it for quite a while now. I was hoping to get it done before the summer to wear it during the summer but so many other things got in the way, especially things I promised to sew for others and that ended up on a schedule because of travel plans etc...Well, better late than never.

So today after getting back from work and putting the finishing touches to the blouse I've been working on (coming soon to the blog of course), I started thinking about this dress again. Now I'll make it! And will take it with me on vacation in 2.5 weeks time!