Shirt dress by night.

Today the sun is so impossibly bright I have resorted to deep shadow, and lo! I caught a breeze:

Burda 06-2008-108




I fell in love with this piece of silk satin when I saw it at Centrepoint. Originally I thought 'tunic' but the thing about tunics is that they do shorten your legs, which is not so good when you are short already. So then I thought, "it's just got that nerd appeal of a shirt dress, but it would have to be one without too many seams, because I don't fancy matching that check."

Because I purchased the fabric first, and counted on making a tunic, I did not have enough to make the dress and match the check at the side seams. That's when I said to myself, "this will be a lesson in "good enough" sewing, because even now, even before I cut it, I know that with mismatched side seams it can never be perfect."

It's not just mismatched side seams - it's mismatched everything - I didn't even have enough fabric to single cut the facings - they are all joined by a centre back seam.

We'll call this "considered rebellion" - a mis-confluence of lines and patterns. It adds to the nerd appeal by being slightly disconcerting.

Despite the mismatch of lines, I did make this rather carefully - I hand sewed bias strips, hems, and collar stand. I hand basted sleeves and collar into position. I used tissue to stabilise the buttonholes and very carefully placed the buttons to ensure the front lines met.

Making sure the front lines meet:


hand sewing all the hems and edges:


( I figured in the long run hand basting would save me time - think of all that unpicking I avoided when I got impossibly wonky seams from such slippery slithery fabric.)

I used buttons from my box of a thousand buttons that I bought online. I never thought I'd have occasion to use these ochre ones, not being a colour I usually use, but they look just right with both this and the previous dress.

And so now my imperfect dress is done, and I'm perfectly happy with it. To quote Voltaire, the enemy of the good is the best.