I had a very glammy boss a number of years ago. I remember I'd picked up a shirtdress in town one weekend only to find next week at work she was wearing something very similar. Not wanting to look too enamoured by her wardrobe and all round authority I decided to save mine for social events only. Last week I got a promotion at work, and with this in mind I decided it was time to level up my wardrobe to match.
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Hacking the McCalls 7575 pattern into a shirt dress has been on my to-sew list for a while. This fabric was a find upstairs in Abakhan Manchester on another sewing trip with Charlotte from Scenes From the Sewing Room. The almost golden stripe in it was exactly what I was looking for and the fabric was the perfect weight and drape to give me a bit of swing! I decided on some gold buttons and D-rings to take it up to the next level of majesty.
I based the new shape of the shirt entirely on that of my ready-to-wear dress. By matching the paper pattern underarms to the dress I measured the dress to be about 11.5 inches longer than the sewing pattern, so I literally just extended the front, back and placket pieces by 11.5 inches.
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The shirtdress needs to flare out a little more over the hips to allow for movement and to ensure the plackets don't gape when sat down, so I really gradually graded out the side seams from the hips, adding on a few cm to front and back pieces at the new hem (I need to add about 1.5cm more to the paper pattern as I freaked out that it would be too small and cut a little extra in at the cutting stage).
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The RTW dress is actually completely dartless (inspiring me maybe to have a bit of a play around with a men's shirt at some point maybe?), but I decided I wanted to keep the shaping at the bust. I omitted the bodice darts on front and back as I planned to draw the waist in instead with a belt cut from the same fabric.
To make the belt I just cut a stip of fabric the same length of the belt on my RTW dress x 9cm wide, so when I folded it lengthways, right sides together, stitched with a 1.5cm seam allowance then turned right sides out- I was left with a belt 3cm wide.
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To make the belt loops I cut two squares 5xm x 6xm wide (carefully cutting them on the fabric so no stripes were visible in hopes they would sort of just blend in). Folded and stitched, the belt loops were then 1cm wide. I turned under 1cm at the top and bottom of each and pressed. When I stitched these to the dress I stitched very close to the edge of the belt loop with little stitches so that the belt would run through them effortlessly.
There weren't really any other changes to the design which was a relief. I cut the dress from 2.5m of fabric but still have some left over maybe for a little shirt or something. The main issues I had to tackle with this project was this fabric is VERY prone to laddering. One little prick and the threads pull like crazy. To try and combat this I selected my sharpest machine needles and made sure all seams were sewn with them. I found my pins to be less trustworthy though, with one or two mis-pins resulting in some thread pulling. Very annoying! But luckily the threads are quite fine so you have to get up close to spot any damage. Pal, you shouldn't be standing that close to me anyway!! I also found hand stitching lead to a few ladders too.... I held my breath slicing open those buttonholes! Fingers crossed no further damage - I won't be wearing this dress to er, anything spikey any time soon! This was also a nightmare whenever I had to unpick anything... Remember those belt loops I spoke about that I attached with loads of really tiny tiny stitches? Yeah, I sewed them on in the wrong place in a mad bid to get the dress finished before I went to bed and had to unpick the lot...!!! There were pulled threads, but luckily with them being right on the side seam I was able to take just a little more in on the seam and hide most of the damage. Lesson learned- always measure twice and then once more for luck!! Especially if you are using fabric that hates you.
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Interfacing-wise, I chose a lightweight interfacing in black- I interfaced the entire plackets but cut away the seam allowances before fusing to reduce bulk later on. I interfaced both sides of the collar stand so that the weight matched that of the plackets, and also added two layers of interfacing to one of the collar pieces, again so they were the same weight. I found layering up a lightweight interfacing was a more reliable way of strengthening my fabric without making it too stiff. I only added one layer to the yoke as I didn't want to restrict any potential stretch across the shoulders.
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In terms of pattern matching, as their were no horizontal stripes I just made sure everything was cut as symmetrically as possible. I'm super happy with my pattern placement with those plackets!
So happy with my "I'm leaving you for better things" dress - I'll be wearing it to my leaving do for sure. It was exactly what I pictured in my mind well before I'd even picked the fabric or hacked the pattern.
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Has anyone any tips on fabrics that snag easily? I think I'm going to buy myself some super fine pins to use for next time to try and reduce the risk, is there anything else I can consider?
Much love,
x
Location: Halifax Hall, Sheffield
Currently listening to: Death II, Pulp
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