If I could live in a single garment for the winter months, it would be a flannel shirt. My love for flannel knows no limits and if I had one flannel shirt or shirt dress for each day of the week, I’d be entirely satisfied.

P.S. I think it’s a family thing. I buy my brother flannel shirts for christmas each year and he proceeds to immediately wear them through a 40 degree Australian summer, as his love for flannel is evidently even more deeply entrenched than my own!

That undying winter-time flannel love affair is what motivated this newest version of the Olya Shirt Dress by Paper Theory patterns.

I’ve made the Olya a few times before, both as a shirt dress and as a shirt. For me, it’s a fantastic pattern. Interesting details, great for stripe play, nice roomy arms and a great fit all over. I had been tossing up a little whether to try the Fibre Mood Rya, but decided to stick with what I know and go with the Olya for this flannel goodness. It was just too much of a risk to try something new with this precious fabric. I also wanted something more “shirt” than “coat”, so there seemed no reason to mess with a good formula.

My Olya Shirt Dress

My Olya Shirt Dress is a size 12, but with a few modifications. As set out in this post, I have changed the shape of the dress a little to be slightly more A-line and replaced the hem line with a curved hem based on the Kalle shirt by Closet Core Patterns. In fact, this version has the exact same modifications as the one in the below shot, it’s just 18 centimetres longer.

You know, just in case you want specifics!

I made some minor changes in order to maximise the use of the print. I wanted patch pockets, rather than the concealed ones, as I like the look and wanted to play with the angle of the check. I also found the patch pockets a useful device when my pattern matching didn’t work as well as I had hoped along the front yoke and I wanted to disguise it a tad!

I also didn’t use the separate button placket piece and instead made the placket grown-on to the front piece and the front yoke part of the yoke/sleeve piece. This just created one less line where I would have to think about pattern matching.

Pattern matching challenges

So let’s talk about pattern matching.

What are your thoughts on it? Is it absolutely essential or only for special projects?

I try to do it, but, well I’m not always great at it! My recent Merlin Coat was a real triumph for me, in this regard, but I haven’t been able to transfer it to this project quite as well.

First, I made the crucial error of painstakingly lining it up so the check would flow perfectly from one front piece to the other across the centre front, without realising until it was too late that I had set it up so that the pattern flowed perfectly if the fabric was placed edge-to-edge. But, of course, when worn, the two front pieces are never edge-to-edge but are overlapped at the buttons.

So, face palm, pattern matching fail!

And right down the centre front too!!

Also, the Olya shirt dress is a difficult pattern to try to pattern match checks because of the unique shape of the front yoke and sleeve being combined together, means that it just isn’t possible to match things up everywhere. Further the front yoke seam is subtly curved, meaning you can’t match it perfectly consistently all the way along.

I find the best approach in this kind of situation is to pick your most visible seams and ensure matching in the most visble parts. Beyond that, I recommend just learning to let the rest go.

I also had some areas of just simple pattern matching fails on my part. When I placed my front yoke and front piece together, I hadn’t lined them up vertically they way I thought I had. I must have gotten confused when I flipped by pattern pieces over (I did cut everything out on a single layer and was trying to do so intentionally, but, yeah, sometimes I just make mistakes!).

Also, you will see that my side seams match horizontally on one side and not the other. No explanation for this other than I must have managed to cut one of my front pieces off-grain.

So, yeah, at the level of pattern matching, this flannel Olya Shirt Dress is not my finest work.

But, you know what, I still loooooove this garment so much.

It is probably one my favourite things I’ve made. As a dress, but also as an oversized shirt worn open, I just feel equal parts cosy, laid back but put together.

This is the kind of clothing I need to get me through the perpetual darkness of winter!

Seriously, I may not take this off until summer!!!!

Flannel love

On this note, I want to point out that I find it really difficult to source good flannel in Europe. You know, the nice thick chunky kind!

Any fabric store owners out there reading this – MORE FLANNEL PLEASE!!!!

This fabric was actually purchased from Blackbird Fabrics, with all the taxes and import duties that implies! Although I think it is currently sold out.

When I have tried to purchase flannel in Europe before, I have ended up with very light “brushed cotton” which do not provide the coziness I seek and, accordingly, is still sitting in my stash!

I was lamenting on instagram recently about why it’s hard to get good flannel, when someone pointed out to me that Faberwood in the UK has a great selection of Robert Kaufman mammoth check flannels. I’ve ordered myself some in view of the fact that, at the time of writing, the beginning of December 2020, we still have no idea whether import duties will be applied to packages from the UK in the new year.

Whatever happens in the new year (surely it can’t be worse than 2020??), at least I know that the soft sturdy reliability of cosy flannel has my back!

This is going to be my last post for 2020, so hope everyone out there welcomes the new year with sewing and making and all things nice.

If you want to see more of my sewing adventures, you can find me on Instagram here.