Sally Shirt Dress

I have finally finished my Sally Shirt Dress from Serendipity patterns! 

Kay looks great wearing the dress on the front of the pattern, and even though I am not as slim or petite as her, I think it looks good on a bigger lady too. This is the first time I have ever dared to wear horizontals, but hopefully the chevron will be WOW enough and nobody will notice the wide expanse of fabric. 

I didn't add the fabric trim on the hem or sleeves because I couldn't get green fabric to match.

I have written a review onto the Pattern Review website if you're interested.

I really like it, and am happy with the pattern and with the fabric. I think I will use this pattern again.

What fabric would you suggest for me for next time?

P.S. It is supposed to be summer, so the summer flowers and grasses are all trying their best, but it is still raining!

Sally Shirt Dress

In the pattern for this dress, Kay gives a good tip for easing in the sleeves, she suggests putting the sleeve fabric closest to the machine's feed dogs whilst having the material for the body of the dress on top. This is to allow in a bit of 'ease' to the dress.
I wish I had read this tip before I sewed the two front panels of the dress, as the bottom piece (the facing) is stiffer and doesn't move about, whereas the top piece did move a wee bit, and as you can see in this photo, bubbled up a bit, you can even see I have already unpicked my stitching and am having to re-do it because of the wave of fabric in front.

At least I've learnt a new idea for next time!

Sally Shirt Dress

Saw this pattern on Serendipity blog and wanted to give it a try!

Love the grey chevron fabric (by Riley Blake) but it isn't available yet, so I've bought the green chevron instead.
After reading so many blogs about making a trial-dress first, I cut up an old bed sheet and sewed the two fronts to the back and began doing the waist pleats. What do you think?
Because of my ample bust, I decided to do 3 pleats on each front piece, each of them one inch, which gives my bust plenty of room in the front.

That meant that the back only had 3" remaining to be tucked into some pleats, and I think it looks a bit sparse. So in my real dress, I will add some extra fabric into the back piece, so that it will flare out more around the hem and so that there is more fabric to be pulled into more pleats. 5 back pleats would look better.

Here's how I have laid it out onto the fabric - I've left the neckline the same, sitting at the fold, but have just swung the paper pattern out a little bit, away from the folded fabric.
I have no idea if this will work or not, but I've cut it now so I'm hoping that it does!