Made by a Fabricista: Spring is for Shirtdress

I love shirt dresses! My pattern collection reflects this (I may or may not have eight shirt dress patterns) but somehow my closet does not. I have just two DIY shirt dresses (Mimi G's Katie dress and Simplicity 8546) and maybe two RTW versions. So it's high time that I added some to my wardrobe.

This polyester blouse weight twill by Milly has the perfect weight and drape for a relaxed shirt dress. If you prefer a more structured look, stick to a cotton shirting or light weight sateen. I loved this fabric and print so much that I grabbed both colorways. Unfortunately this fabric is sold out, but you can browse other shirtings and blouse weight fabrics here.

This fabric has a somewhat slinky feel, but isn't truly slippery. There's also a slight sheen without being shiny like a satin. It was easy to cut and sew, but I did get a few snags when pinning so make sure you use sharp pins and a fresh machine needle. I serged my pieces before assembling the pattern because as most twills it is also prone to fraying.

I chose to sew McCall's 8030 mainly because it's the newest shirt dress pattern in my collection. Also because it was a more relaxed style with dolman sleeves. In my opinion details like the sleeve cuff and collar would be lost due to the graphic nature of the print so I chose view B. I did change the hem because I love the shirttail hem of view A, but prefer the length of view B length. To make this modification I traced the curve of hemline the view A onto copy paper and then traced that curve to the hemline of view B.

I love sewing firsts and this is my first D ring belt! There's nothing difficult about it. It's basically constructed the same as any tie belt, but you need to interface and loop one end around two d-rings and stitch.

I am in love with the dress and so happy that I still have the yellow version to use for another project. Can't wait to end social distancing so I have somewhere to wear it too. Stay safe!

See you next month,

Tiffany of TipStitched

#stayhomeandsew

Made by a Fabricista: Structure

Hi everyone! I can’t believe the year is nearly wrapping up already and this is my last post for 2024! You may have noticed but the barrel silhouette has been very much in right now from pants to sleeves. To be honest I was a little bit hesitant about hopping on to the trend. One I was not sure if the proportions would work for my body also I considered would this be a long lasting trend to keep incorporated in my closet? But after a few seasons the barrel seems to stay in many variations, I think exaggerated proportions are such a thing now. I saw this Cult Gaia x Gap denim dress collab with the barrel sleeves and wanted to remake it. When I saw this brown distressed denim twill I knew it was perfect. I had been debating between making cargo pants but I wanted to try to do something different and went for the dress once I saw the inspiration. I used McCall’s pattern 8139 as my base with the following modifications. Instead of...

Made By A Fabricista: A Wool Pinafore for Winter

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