Monday, November 8, 2010

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.

22 comments:

  1. You are a WONDER! Great dress, love all the handstitching. Your sewing is an inspiration!

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  2. Hooray and welcome to the world of mismatch & considered rebellion. Love the shrit dress!

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  3. "Good enough" is my motto. And despite my long list of urgent things to sew, you keep nudging me toward the "shirtdress".

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  4. Maybe that's why Turkish rugs alledgedly always have a deliberate mistake in them. The attempt at perfection seems to thwart its execution and for whatever reason the less thought out things for me, often work the best. I think it's a big success and it really suits you.

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  5. Oooooh, I LOOOOOOOVE IT!!!!!! You look so cute! There as a dress very like this, on the anthropologie website a few seasons ago, similar checked material, I nabbed a pic for inspo but never made anything like it... oooooh I want your dress!!!!!

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  6. It looks great and you look great in it! I like it with the boots you've got on. I think the check is so wild and busy that it is impossible to see if it is matched or not anyway. Certainly, no pattern mismatches jump out at my eye. I just look at it and love the colour and shape, and feel a tiny bit jealous :)

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  7. I don't know how you do it! I am dead scared of shirt dresses and of checked dresses as I just can't get past school uniform. Yet you've managed to make a CHECKED SHIRTDRESS that looks funky, cool and nothing like a school uniform. I don't know how you do it!

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  8. It looks awesome! I'm a big fan of good enough myself. Where I did my medical training, the surgeons all liked to say that the enemy of good was better - who knew they swiped it from Voltaire??

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  9. I love it! I would never have noticed that any of the plaid didn't match, I think the matching across the front is perfect and really, the only part that people notice!!! And yay for using those ochre buttons! Your dress looks fantastic!

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  10. Superb. Great fabric, lovely execution.

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  11. Oh my! The Shirt Dress by Night is fantastic! Great combination of fabric, pattern, and breeze!

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  12. The matching across the front looks Very Expensive and tricky to do, and the dress itself looks terrific.
    I love the sleeves.

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  13. What a fun shirtdress, I like seeing the things you make. Such pretty fabric, I feel like I've seen it before.

    Those big packs of buttons are great.

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  14. It's a little thing, but I love the way the sleeves have been done. Great dress!

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  15. Very spunky dress! All that beautiful stitching has paid off. The check matching at the front is spot on. The Voltaire may be a little too deep for me, but I love the dress.

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  16. I totally agree with you! Hand sewing saved you a lot of time and frustration. LOVE the ochre buttons.
    The boots and belt look just as good with this dress as they do with the calm blue version. Gorgeous!

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  17. With all that pattern going on, I'm sure the mismatched seams only serve to make it "just like a bought one". Anything more would have been far too superlative and you would never have been able to fit into the everyday crowd.

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  18. gahhh- SO GOOD!
    i love both of your shirt dresses- especially the sleeves.
    beautiful.

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  19. What an amazing dress! That fabric is perfect for a shirt dress. Bravo!

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  20. Wow, this is one fun shirtdress....and those words are usually not in the same sentence. fabulous use of this fabric.

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  21. I absolutely adore your fabric. Your dress looks soooo lovely!

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