Dark Blue Viscose Midi Shirt Dress

This is another chapter in my eternal quest for the perfect shirt dress. Not bad, but not perfect nor definite. 

I got inspired in my local shop, a lady was wearing this gorgeous black and green shirt dress and I decided to copy it. I found this Églantine and Zoe viscose print perfect, although now I see it wrinkles too much with wear. 

For the pattern, I used an old commercial dress of mine. I cut all the pieces separate and use them as pattern, elongating the skirt panels, and giving them some evasée lines, about 2 cm at the bottom of each 8 of them. I also made longer sleeves. 

I self-enclosed all seams and made the centre front button and buttonhole plackets, folding the central panel in itself. 

The result is quite nice, but not as good as I projected. The fabric was really tight, and now I have doubts about mores flared skirt at the bottom would have been better.

In my mind, a princess-lined shirt dress with a shaped waist and a flared skirt should be perfect. I have made many attempts at it, but I still have not found what I am looking for in terms of pattern and fabric. 

I will keep trying. 

Denim Mini Shirt Dress

 ...or how to get away with 1.5 square meters of fabric, haha!

Well, that fabric had been in my stash for a couple of years, with the idea of making some jeans... but then I thought it was too thin for that, and when I finally decided to give it a go and put the jeans pattern on it, I saw it was totally not enough, thanks to the unusual 1.5 m width instead of 1.70. No jeans, not even pirates could be made out of it... so I got the inspiration while wearing this other dress, which is a pattern from Burda Style magazine that I almost threw away at the beginning of the season due to lack of shoes-to-go-with-it inspiration. I literally rescued it from the waste bin when I mentally matched it with combat boots. 

I had to perform a massive hacking in that pattern. First, I transformed the princess seams into darts going up and down from the waist band, which I added. I then made a typical denim dress yoke, drawing it by hand in the paper pattern, both in the front and back bodices. Finally, I added a couple of cms in the armscyes bottoms to compensate to the lack of sleeves. I used the same collar and collar stand, which were perfect, and I made some belt loops for the waist band. 

I looked and looked in my remnants stash (the little pieces of fabric I keep after making a project) until I found this stripped red and white seersucker fabric, which became a perfect match. 

The final result was so lovely, I was surprised. The perfect fit. Very happy with it. 

Black Printed Cotton Summer Dress

This is the first of my London fabrics I have made into a garment. Gorgeous Swiss cotton with a very nice print.
I chose a pattern from the "Patrones" magazine, because I wanted a shirt dress not cut at the waist. I also liked the darting and the neckline, which goes slightly up the neck. I had doubts about the sleeves, and I still have, haha!

Well, nothing fancy in the construction process... only the self-enclosed seams at the sides, and the interfaced and faced neck line. I made the buttonholes with the machine, and I stitched the buttons with a zigzag stitch with 0 length. I love sewing buttons with the machine, you save a lot of time, and the result is even better that when we hand-sew them.

All in all, it is a nice dress... but I am  not convinced about the rufled sleeves, about the neckline, which has a tendency to gap, and in general, about the fabric-pattern combination. In this sense, the fabric lacks some body for a pattern like this. On the positive side, the not-cut waist, the front and back darts and the shaping of side seams are really fattering to my figure and comfortable to wear.
For a possible future version, I make a note here to change the sleeves and use a fabric with more body.