Red Gingham Vintage Shirt Dress

 

Well, to be short: lovely fabric, shitty pattern. 

I bought this gingham in Ray Stitch, London, for a blouse, but at the last moment I decided the pattern I got in Lisa Confort's shop in London would be perfect for this fabric. With very clever maneuvers I managed to squeeze the Sew Over It's Vintage Shirt Dress out of 1.20 m of fabric. Just like a small miracle. It was a pity not to be able to make pockets or a face mask (a pandemic must), but the dress was possible, so there I went. 

What a disappointment! I do not usually buy these expensive individual patterns, but I have some of them, and the Agnes Top had proved to be awesome, so I thought it was a sure bet. Nothing further from reality! Obliterating the fact that I hate patterns with seam allowances included (which include the extra work of transferring them into paper and then taking the seam allowances off), this pattern has major major flaws: 

• The waist cut is way too high. Regretfully my seam allowances were very sparse (fabric saving!) and I could only add a couple of cm, so it is still too highly placed.
• Armholes are way too big, specially in the underarm. I could repair it, maybe, but I was in a hurry, so I left them like that. Not gracious at all. 
• Waist is way too big. I had to deepen the 4 waist darts 1 double cm each (So I subtracted a total of 8 cm and it still has a lot of ease). And I have an inverted waist, so this makes no sense at all. Deepening the waist darts resulted in too big ungracious darts. 

Well, as you can see, these are all major issues that make a pattern useless. I have quite a few of better options if I ever want another shirt dress. And now I've lost my trust in Sew Over It forever. 20 euros for a total mess. 

Although it is not a masterpiece, not by far, the dress is still wearable, comfortable and practical to work in the school. And the fabric still is awesome.