C's of Confusion

Modern spin on the shirt dress:

$325 at Saksy Fifth

From Net-A-Porter, a 70's Halston styled shirtdress.



Red 70's vintage shirtdress with front placket





I think I have gone "C"razy with this "c"heetah fabric!

Pattern Description
"How hot is this fantastic dress style? Smoking hot! We love this modern-classic Shirtdress, designed for luxe knits like silk, cashmere or merino wool jersey, or even rayon or viscose knits. Slim-fit Shirtdress has a gentle A-line flare, long sleeves with plackets & cuffs, and a classic shirt collar with stand. Shirtdress has a shoulder yoke, center back seam and front placket closure, and an optional tie belt. The ultimate in understated luxury, this classic Halston-inspired Shirtdress makes for an elegant daywear staple in any solid hue. The self-tie can be worn belted at the waist or fastened cravat-style at the neck. Try this fashionista favorite as your perfect LBD, or dress it down for daytime over a polo neck with boots and a messenger bag."

Size
Multi-sized 6-26. I sewed a "12".



Fabric
Polyester jersey from Fashionista Fabrics. I made this dress before my BWOF knit top in the same fabric.


Favorite Features
*The drafting is a very good reincarnation of the 70's Halston shirt dress. This style is also reminiscent of DVF shirt dresses. The collar came out larger than the HP illustration.

*I like the yoke and forward shoulder seam details.


Not-so-favorite features
*Without the tie, the dress looked like a night shirt due its volumnosity.
*The method to apply the sleeve and front plackets baffled me.
*The buttons tended to slip from the concealed buttonholes. I should have had made the buttonholes a little smaller.


Directions
Walk this way, sew this way...
For me, satisfactory (except for the placket construction) with vague illustrations. I very much agree that directions are very much suited for sewists with the stated skill level (intermediate) of this pattern. It would be very helpful to include shading or otherwise to distinguish between the right and wrong sides of the fabric. The illustrations served as cues to me, because they are not as detailed as those found in the big 4 patterns.

Before sewing the main pieces, the directions started with optionally interfacing the collar, collar stand, cuffs, and plackets and constructing the collar with stand. Although I used lightweight fusible interfacing, one end of my collars encountered just a tad of extension beyond the collar stand. I would not want to know what would happen if I had skipped interfacing. I definitely recommend the interfacing just in case, to add more stability to the knit.

Then came preparing the concealed buttonholes strip, the front bodice plackets, and the sleeve plackets. After "working" the concealed buttonholes on the left placket, I topstitched its left and right edges (with a 3/8" seam allowance pressed under) to the the right of the top placket. To be on the safe side, I indented 3/8" from the raw edge of the placket. The illustration did not show how far from the right edge on which to sew the strip with the concealed buttonhole.


Don't Sleeve Me This Way...
The explanation of the method to apply the sleeve placket was impossible for me to decipher. Was I supposed to cut 2 pairs of the little rectangular pieces instead of one pair? The illustrations did not really help, but just added to the confusion. I could not figure out where to place one piece after I pressed each edge except for the bottom 3/8". I stared at this section long enough and decided to use an alternative method that I'm familiar with (a la Kwik Sew??). I cut a strip of fabric, sewed it to the the slit, right sides together, turned to the inside, fold the raw edge under and topstitched. Then I mitered the corner at the apex of the slit.


It Wants to Be a Part of It, New Yoke, New Yoke
HP mentions to sandwich the back between the back yoke pieces. As I looked ahead at the directions, I asked myself, "What's next?" There was no mention to sew the layers together. I did not understand the subsequent illustration with the back folded like an accordion with the caption of scrunching the back? I just did not get it. Using "intuitive sewing", I sewed the bottom edge of one back yoke, right sides together with the upper edge of the back which has a center seam. I sewed the right side of the other back yoke to the wrong side of the back. Then I raised the yoke sections together so that one acted like a facing and aligned them before I sewed them to front of the dress at the shoulders. An illustration to show this step would have been helpful, especially if sewing this dress for the first time.



Got Brass on Placket, Am Gonna Sew It....
As for the bodice placket, the directions mention to use the method to apply the sleeve plackets. Uh oh.....

Have you done something using a desperately familiar approach only to realize later that there's a "slicker and better" method? I used a workable method (not necessarily a sleek one) to make the front bodice placket and decided too put aside by embarassment to share it with you.




Close-up picture of front plackets.

In preparing the concealed buttonhole strip, I topstitched it (with seam allowances pressed under) to a front placket piece 3/8" from the right edge. HP was not clear on the placement. Before attaching the collar stand, I sewed one end of each placket to the front, right sides together, folded each in half and slipstitched the edge to the inside.

I overlapped the wearer's right front over the left front plackets to form a 3/8" bottom seam. From the inside and with a lot of finger pressing, I sewed the unifying seam to the lowest edge of the front opening, which allowed me to skip topstitching the lowest portion of the plackets. Not a sleek way, but it worked for now.

I researched the internet and found directions for applying a sleeve placket which would be great for the front bodice placket! Where was this when I really needed it? I went through each step and had several "a-ha" moments. Then I referred back to HP's version and was able to relate its steps to the online tutorial. I plan to use this method next time for something that requires plackets.

Detailed tutorial for "fearless placket" construction. I wish I had this handy!


Modifications
*Shortened the dress 2" so that it reaches about me knee level.
*Changed the method to finish the sleeve slits and to construct front bodice plackets previously described.


Conclusion
I recommend this pattern if you like the 70's styled shirtdress. However, the dress needed the tie belt or any workable belt to pull the look together, eliminating the sac-like silhouette! Just be prepared for some sparse directions and possibly referring to other sources to assist with for things as collar construction and applying the plackets.

It is at least comfortable for some disco dancing!