Threadcount 1607 Shirtdress

There is something very satisfying about making shirts, In fact as much as I love a quick and dirty project I love a slow project as well and shirts are an awesome slow project, lots of top stitching, lots of ironing and lots of construction!

Anyway this time the shirt pattern I went for is for a shirt dress, its Threadcount 1607 and it came free with Love Sewing Magazine  whilst I love sewing magazines I only buy them when I really like the pattern otherwise I'dd just end up with loads of patterns that I'll never use. Anyway I was really really drawn to this shirt dress because of how simple it is. I immediately started thinking about how well it would work for both summer and winter!  

Anyways I actually cut this out about two months ago so I could sew it up and wear it on our honey moon then I promptly forgot about it in the panic of OMG I'M GETTING MARRIED and only found it when I was trying to reorganise my house.

Here's how it turned out. I used a white cotton that's covered in little tiny dots from the craft cotton company I can't find it on the website now though. The cotton did behave beautifully and I sewed the whole thing up in about two days.

I have honestly never been so proud of something I've made, I mean seriously everything just slotted into place perfectly. I did meet a few snags though,

I forgot to add interfacing to the collar stand so it was all kinds of floppy and gross [that sounds ruder than I thought it would] But I had an absolute genius moment and stitched some gross grain ribbon to the inside to stiffen it up [also sounds filthy! I wonder if these innuendos are in anyway related to the fact I'm watching magic mike right now!]

It sorted the problem right out and I'm so pleased I manged to bypass my own stupidity. 

Now the button holes went in beautifully including the one of the collar stand which is usually a beast! But I had another idiot moment and lost one of my buttons, now I did have 12 buttons and I'd already done 10 button holes on the front placket and 1 per cuff and then.............I lost one. I spent a good half hour crawling on my floor trying to find it but sadly no luck which left me with 12 button holes and 11 buttons!

Its a good job I think feature buttons are cute right? And its an even better job that I like the sleeves rolled up better as well!

Now pattern wise its pretty cool, I cut as size 12 and everything fits pretty well apart from the collar which looks a bit big even when its done up. And I must have taken I good 5/6 inches off the length? It was a massive chunk either way and now I can't decide if it was drafted for super tall people, OR if I'm super short OR If I'm just a bit trampy and like wearing my dresses too short?

Construction wise I inserted the sleeves in flat and did the side seams and shoulders on my over locker the rest is done on my regular machine. Including all the top stitching.

All in all I really like it, its a very simple shirt, It doesn't even have a yoke, actually I kind of wish it did have a yoke just to fancy it up a bit? I loves a good yoke , I think it makes for a better fit. Speaking of fit its pretty good apart from the collar issue but its is just an aline shape so it looks much better belted! Its got no other darts or shaping.

And the instructions are pretty clear and I did follow them pretty religiously for most of it, Until I reached the home stretch and then I just made it up. 

Now my last disaster was by far the worst! I put it on the day after I made it and low and behold I got pasta sauce on it and then as I was blotting the pasta sauce I also noticed I;d managed to get some gloss paint on it!

I don't think I'm really describing how frustrating it was to stain something I;d just finished so here's the little rant I had in transcript [Note: I have changed all of the swear words to various fruits and vegetables for those of you who are of a more delicate disposition, those of you who aren't can have fun deciding what words you would have used] 

Frankie: Oh for broccolis sake

Rikki: What?

Frankie; I've got pasta carroting sauce on my new Banana shirt and its going to leave a Apple stain!

Rikki; Oh

Frankie: Oh mother Potato

Rikki; what now?

Frankie; Its got kiwiing cauliflowering gloss paint on it as well, that's never going to swedeing come out! Its ruined! Its pomegranated! I can't believe I did all that beaning top stitching and now I've pearing ruined it!

Rikki: If it helps I didn't like it anyway..........

Frankie; Well your just a lettucing idiot then aren't you?

Frankie:MUSHROOM!

So yeah as you can imagine I was chuffed to bits...... 

Anyway the pasta sauce stains have come out and the gloss pone has faded a lot and I have high hopes that maybe it might fade over time?

Any ideas on how to get rid of it?

Much Love

Frankie

Two Shirts into One Shirt dress Refashion

I LOVE refashioning shirts! There are so many refashioning possibilities from one garment.

 I do find it hard to find nice shirts for refashioning though, I'm not a huge fan of trawling through the rails of my local charity shops [think less quality shirts and more tracksuits with juicy on the behind]

So instead I have to look to either Rikki who wears the same size shirt as me or my Dad [He doesn't wear the same size as me............]

Luckily for me my Dad was getting rid of a few shirts...... because I made him. And even luckier two of the shirts were exactly the same. FYI shopping with my dad is absolute hell so he must have REALLY liked these if he ended up with two!!! 

  

They are good quality shirts that require cuff links, made from cotton and have DEHAVILLAND written in the label which means nothing to me!

To start off I laid my shirt flat and got out my Lilou bodice pieces. Next I lay the pattern piece so the fold line went along the centre of the buttons on the button placket [I decided to use the button placket as my opening]. Then I transferred the pattern marking and flipped the pattern piece so I could do the same on the other side. If I were to do this again I would leave myself a bit more room for gaping, so I'd go from one side of the buttons instead!

Next I cut of the single layer of my shirt front and cut straight across the back yoke where to make a halter neck shape. 

Then I chucked it on my mannequin to check my theory worked. 

And then used what was left of the back to cut out my back bodice pieces [I omitted the seam allowance on the back centre seam and cut them on the fold.] 

The skirt was made by using the second shirt and simply cutting a straight line from the bottom of the arm to the bottom of the other arm. then simply I gathered this and added it to the bottom making sure to match up the button plackets and side seams.

I used the arms of the shirt to make bias binding, which I used on the arm holes and the back. And I don't want to excite you too much but I didn't even have to hem it! Just used the original shirt hem! 

I've gotta say I really love how it looks! I could do with a bit more ease in the bodice but I am carrying a little bit of Easter width! Those pesky chocolate bunnies making me eat them.

I love the cut out back detail! It's so cute, I finished the edges of this with bias binding as well!

The pinstripes on this are making my eyes go west! It's kind of a white and darkish brown colour palette? Typical business man shirt sort of thing.

The bodice fits better open, in fact a slightly different bra might help? Jeez its hard being a lady so many things to think about!

I think I'm going to be wearing it with this belt a lot for a lil bit of waist definition. The belt is also thrifted from a skirt! 

All in all I really love it, I've been wanting a shirt dress for ages and I love the relaxed style of this, it's pretty short but I think I can get away with it [please excuse my pasty skin I don't tan]

It was so lucky that I had two of these shirts to make this with although it might look cute with two shirts in different colours and doing some colour blocking. It could also help with adding some length! 

In other news, Lil man is back at nursery and I'm not pleased because he was fine over the two weeks! Not so much as a sniffle and then one day back and he's coughing and spluttering! Who are these germ infested children! And why aren't they keeping them away from the healthy ones!!!

Anyway I guess that's just what happens when you get large groups of toddlers together, and on the plus side if he passes it on to Rikki then they have to go on bed rest and I'll have lots of time to sew!

Now I just need to decided what to make next, this was pretty spur of the moment!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx