So with the sewing machines, also arrived the tripod for the camera. This means that I can take the pictures of the projects I finished while still in NY. As with the Preen skirt and the Jadigan/Cardicket, I was already sewing with a warmer weather in mind as I new I was going to move to Haiti. This shirtdress is something I had in mind for a while, I looked everywhere online and I couldn't find what I was looking for. Of course now, shirtdresses are everywhere...
The pattern is a combination of different things, for the top I used the basic shirt from this japanese book.
I changed the undercollar to account for the technique described on Kathleen on Fashion-Incubator. I made the shirt in muslin, put it on my dress form and added a band for the waist, a tiny pocket and gathered rectangle for the skirt (but with pockets !!).
For the construction I used different techniques : Pam's tutorial on Collar points (which works great but I'm not sure it should be used in combination with the smaller undercollar described on Fashion-Incubator...), and a lot of reversed engineering from my nicest Ann Taylor and J-Crew shirts (especially the plackets).
I used french seams of the shoulders, set the sleeves in flat (stitch overlocked and then partially topstitched as per JCrew) and then closed the side seams and sleeve at once (well twice because it's a french seam again.
I had the buttonholes professionally made Jonathan Embroidery in NYC, such a relief to not mess everything up right at the end. The fabric is a very nice "coton piqué" from Mood and the buttons are from M&J Trimmings. The lightweight interfacing (collar, collarband, plackets and waistband) is from Guide Fabrics.
The waist dart is doing all the shaping for the front and therefore it is quite wide. I took some picture while sewing it at the "french waist dart". I don't know a proper word because this is not a french dart, it's more of a waist dart sewn as a french seam. If anybody know how it's actually called, let me know !! I'll try to make a tutorial out of the pictures I took.
I really love this dress, it's super comfortable (I spend a good portion of my days hopping in and out of 4x4, I realize that I need my skirts quite full to perform this task) and warm weather friendly ! The only problem is probably with the whiteness... I don't know about you but the lighter is my outfit the more I spill stuff on myself!! I am strongly considering a version out of chambray, stay tuned!