Seasonally Inappropriate Nautical Shirt Dress

Since Mary extended the last day of Fall of 1000 Shirt dresses, I managed to finish this M6696 in time. When I bought the pattern, I had some lovely polka dot cotton fabric (hello, January Sewcialist theme!!!) in mind for a nautical version of the dress. I picked up some red and white striped cotton for the contrast. Although, sadly didn’t pick up enough and didn’t get my dream of having the striped for the button band and waistband. Instead, I used white cotton from my stash.

Of course, the dress is incredibly seasonally inappropriate.

Look at how thin that fabric is! I likely won’t be wearing this outside until the weather really warms up in May.

Here she is inside out, right-side out, and styled with a red tie (not sure how I feel about it, but it was in my closet….so….). I did my usual french seams on the dress and hand-stitched the button bands, collar facing, and waistband on.

Instead of pleating the skirt, I gathered it. I used self-made bias tape for the armholes and made button tabs for the shoulders. This picture is before I put on gold buttons (same buttons from my gold/pink Jenna Cardi):

All of the red and white striped fabric is cut on the bias, except for the details in the collar.

I did a small FBA (1″) on the bodice and graded the waistband up a size (extra 2″). I still think the top needs a bit more in the FBA department and I might go up another inch to reduce the pulling in the button band completely.

Not much else to say about the dress. I adore this pattern. I might make it once more before Spring, because I have some lovely purple flowery cotton and purple/white gingham for contrast that is calling out to me… “Andie, make me into a shirt dressssssssss…..ignore the piles of dishes and the floor that needs to be vacuuuuuumed…..Aaaaaaaandieeeeeeeeeeee.” Man, that fabric is persistent. 😉

  

Since it’s super cold here, I did this photoshoot last night in my sewing room and created a disaster zone there. I am still working on indoor lighting, but I am pleased with the result, especially with the lighting in the top two photos. That is much closer to the lighting I want.

Of course, this seasonally inappropriate dress got me dreaming about tropical paradises and suddenly….

 

 

 

Yes, those are sequined and feathered pineapples. Yes, I had this lying around my house (lying in our costume bin….yes…we have a costume bin).

 

 

In other news…….

 

Jane Eyre now has a Rochester!!!

My wonderful fiance who is wonderful and does wonderful things for me wonderfully researched sergers for sale on kijiji and came across a wonderful Janome MyLock 204D! And it’s mine now! I need to seriously clean it out and oil it, but it’s mine! The woman who sold it also gave me a bunch of thread, too:

 

You can’t really see very well, but other than white and black, she gave me forest green, blue, and purple. 29 cones in total, including the ones in the machine already. And she gave me the machine threaded so I can just do the trick Brooke taught me and tie the ends to the other ends for the cone.

I’m so very happy. Thank you to my wonderful fiance! He’s wonderful! I think I’ll marrrrrry him.

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