Saturday 27 June 2015

Summer shirt dress inspiration

What a week! It's been a crazy school week full of many meetings and a massive pile of marking. 128 GCSE mock papers to mark in less than a week? No problem. On the brighter side, I have just found out that my temporary promotion is becoming permanent, which means I have now firmly entered the realms of management. Eek!

I've not found nearly as much time to devote to sewing this week. Aside from a few snatched half-hours of patchworking, I've been finding that I'm too tired in the evenings for sewing.

The good news, however, is that pay day was last week and I'm now in the market for a new dress pattern.

I've been hankering after a shirt dress pattern for ages! I have a RTW shirt dress from H&M that I bought a few years ago. Whilst I love the style, the cut is all wrong. The buttons at the front mysteriously pop open, despite the bodice fitting, and the skirt is way to short. I've only worn it in the winter with a vest and leggings. I've wanted to make my own version for a while.


One of my favourite RTW shops is Joy and whilst perusing their website I found myself drawn to these dresses. I love the buttons of the white anchor dress and the collar of the blue dress. I liked the final dress because of interesting pleats.

There seems to be loads of different versions of shirt dresses around on blogs at the moment and I've spent a lot of time searching around to find the 'perfect' shirt dress. Here's my shortlist:

Shirt Dress Patterns. Clockwise From top left: 1. McCalls 6696, Collette Hawthorn, 3. New Look 6587, 4. Sew Over It Vintage Shirt Dress, 5. McCall's 6503, 6. Pauline Alice Cami. 
I love all the patterns on my short list and am finding it really hard to decide on just one pattern to buy! I don't like the pleats on the skirt of the McCalls 6696 - I know from past experience they don't suit me. My ideal shirt dress would have a simple collared neckline and a gathered A line skirt. I'm definitely vying between the Pauline Alice Cami dress and the newest pattern from Sew Over It The Vintage shirt dress. They both have a different take on the shirt dress and I'm finding it hard to choose between them.

Which patterns are you lusting after at the moment?

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4 comments:

  1. Beth28 June 2015 at 22:39

    dolly clackett has sewn quite a few versions of mccalls 6696 and they all look really good :) i have mccalls 6503 in my pattern collection but i found the collar really difficult to sew...ashamedly that dress has become an unfinished object! at the moment i am lusting after half the patterns ever released by deer and doe and the ultimate trousers from sew over it...hopefully i'll be able to pick up a copy soon in london! :D happy sewing x

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    1. Fiona3 July 2015 at 20:36

      I was thinking about attempting some trousers too ... I have the Gertie Sews Vintage Casual book which has a basic trouser pattern, with lots of info about fitting. I'm quite scared to try though! It'd be great to see how you get on with sewing trousers. :-)

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  2. Kristy - ScientificSewing29 June 2015 at 13:48

    ive only heard good things about the McCalls 6696 - could you not just gather the skirt rather than pleating it? I do love the Sew Over It one though, and everyones versions look so different!

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    1. Fiona3 July 2015 at 20:38

      Thanks for your post, Kirsty - I did finally buy the Mcalls 6696, a great idea to gather the skirt instead of pleats.

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