Saturday 14 March 2015

Maxi Shirt Dress

I didn't think a shirt dress was really my thing but when the Wellington Sewing Bloggers Network (WSBN) started throwing ideas around about a shirt dress challenge, some of the patterns really got me inspired.  I did look at a few patterns, but kept coming back to one already in my stash.

Butterick B5920
Butterick B5920

However this pattern needed some modifications to replicate my vision....

I really like the neckline on this pattern and the front gathers that don't extend around the hips - uh-hm I don't need to make them any bigger than they are! I wanted the front placket to extend the full length of the skirt so I could wear it unbuttoned to just above the knee. I also wanted the back of the skirt to replicated the front by having gathers that didn't extend to the side seam, rather than the full skirt the pattern provides.

I'm pretty happy with the final look ... that neckline is just so pretty!

Maxi Shirt Dress

Why BLACK??? The February challenge over at The Monthly Stitch was solid colours, and of course it had a twist.  Miss Bossy said we had to use a colour that the initials of our first name or last name  matched to in the colour chart and both my initials matched to black!

I had this black voile in my stash that has a checkered pattern running through it, also in black but not so obvious in the photos. I picked it up at the Arthur Toye closing down sale for just $5p/m. I had 2.3m which wasn't quite enough, so had to use some solid black voile (from the stash) for the facing and the arm bindings.

Maxi Shirt Dress

Lengthening and manipulating the skirt was pretty easy ... I look the skirt pieces from the Ama Dress as a template (the length and fullness have made that dress a real pleasure to wear).  I kept the shaping at the hips in the original Butterick pattern piece and transferred this to the back pattern piece as well.  The gathers at the back were a bit of a guess and in the end I just used the width of the Ama Dress back pattern piece - I measured the front pattern piece to know how far away from the side seam to begin the gathers.

Maxi Shirt Dress

To finish I hammered on some antique brass snaps and to add some colour I wear it with my orange Jenna Cardi.

Maxi Shirt Dress

As we move into Autumn this is the perfect transition dress.

More photos on my Flickr -->