The Kalle shirt and dress pattern from Closet Case Patterns needs no introduction. Prior to this current foray, I had already made two Kalle shirt dresses, one short sleeved and one using the sleeve extension pack. So Kalle and I are, indeed, firm friends.

But when I saw that Kalle was the March pattern for the SewMyStyle2018 challenge, I couldn’t resist giving it another go. And this time, I particularly had my eyes on the Kalle shirt versions.

Bonus Prize time?

So, do I get a bonus prize for having sewn every possible option in the Kalle shirt and dress firmament?

I have now sewn view A (cropped shirt), view B (tunic-length shirt) and view C (dress). I have sewn the band collar and the regular collar. The box pleat and the inverted pleat. The popover placket, the hidden placket and the regular placket. The bias bound hem and the hem facing. Long sleeves and the regular short kimono sleeve. Pocket. No pocket.

I think this is perhaps the first time I’ve ever enjoyed a pattern so much that I’ve been eager to explore every variation of it. It is far more typical that there is one particular  view that attracts me. So it’s a nice feeling that the Kalle shirt and dress pattern has left me eager to branch out and explore them all.

So what have I learned from sewing #allthekalles?

First of all, in my opinion the inverted pleat wins hands-down over the box pleat. I just adore its drapey flow goodness! I’ve gone inverted pleat on all except one of my kalle shirts and dresses, so I have used it for all 3 in this post, knowing that this was one thing in which I had a clear preference.

Hmm, what else? The only step that I have found a bit tricky, across all my Kalle shirts and dresses, with all of their options, is neatly attaching the hem facing on the cropped shirt version. I found this hard to do with the necessary precision. And, since you will inevitably end up with a visible line of stitching at the top of your deep hem facing – a couple of inches above the bottom of your shirt, you need to make sure this visible line will work with the style of your shirt.

Another new personal revelation is that I love love love sewing hidden buttons plackets!! The accordion-folding feels like magic! And it removes one of the key challenges that I hate about sewing button holes – ensuring that they are all perfectly lined up. It doesn’t matter when they are covered by a placket anyway!! Really, it doesn’t even matter if your buttons themselves even match at all!! Plus, I was surprised to see that it’s actually a really easy technique – more details on the Closet Case Kalle sewalong if you are interested in exploring this technique for yourself.

 

Kalle shirt: my versions

My blue Kalle shirt is the view A, the cropped version, but lengthened by a couple of inches. The floral shirt, is view B, the tunic version, but shortened by a couple of inches. For both of these Kalle shirts, I cut a size 12 but I used some personal modifications I made after my very first Kalle dress to add a little more shaping at the waist. While I like the very fluid loose shape of the Kalle shirt and dress in  very drapey fabric, in more structured cottons, I prefer the way it looks with a bit more shape.

The denim tencel Kalle shirt dress is a size 14 and is made without any modifications, straight out of the envelope. It was made as a gift, so I decided it was safest to stick with the pattern as designed. Plus the boxier design is lovely for such soft, drapey, tencel goodness. As you can see, I’ve also added a waist tie to the tencel one as I loved the way it looked with this!

Busting it

Fabric-wise, I was also happy to have done a bit of stash busting with this Kalle shirt batch sew! The Nani Iro floral cotton sateen print and the light blue cotton (which is actually ever so slightly brushed) are both from Miss Matatabi. They have been in my stash since the end of last year. Which isn’t a huge time lapse, I know, but still, at least I didn’t buy any new fabric .

But the tencel has been in my stash for well over a year. It was an impulse purchase from a “coupon” table in Lille. These are often the kinds of purchases I feel most guilty about. Sometimes I am just so excited to have found a fabric store – especially one with a well-stocked coupon table – that I buy the best thing there just because I feel the need to make a purchase. But not because I am necessarily really loving the fabric or because it fulfils a particular need. So I have basically felt vaguely guilty ever since buying this. Now, that guilt has been totally assuaged by the fact that it has become a beautiful garment!

Plus, the first ever Kalle dress that I saw (and which made me squeal with delight) was Sallie Oh’s denim tencel version, so I’ve basically copied it !!

Batching it

So let’s talk about batch sewing for a minute.

If you are contemplating making several of the same garment within the course of a year or so, it is definitely more efficient to cut them out at once and sew them as a single batch. In this particular case, the fact that all three Kalle shirts had coordinating colours made it very feasible to batch sew  – I used the same thread colour throughout, including for top-stitching. In addition, the fact that each of my shirts had slight design variations ensured that the process didn’t become too routine.

Plus, this time around I definitely mastered one of the key lessons of batch sewing. I only learned this lesson after failing to do it with my Odgen Cami batch sew – only invest the time in batch sewing once you know a pattern works for you. Iron out any fitting issues before embarking on a batch sew.

In addition to efficiency, I definitely feel like batch sewing really cemented some techniques. My brain evidently responds to the process of repeating something over and over again. For example, after 5 years, I finally found the perfect stitch length and width for my machine’s buttonhole setting. And, I got the sharpest collar corners I’ve ever had by following the technique of sewing in a loose thread and tugging out the corner, as set out in the Kalle Sew along. I’d actually tried this technique in my last Kalle and messed it up, so having multiple chances to practice, really helped to cement it in my brain (hopefully!!).

But, whilst the logical part of me wants to embrace batch sewing, and I’m sure I will continue to do it, it just doesn’t feel quite as, well, fun. While I’m super happy with the end result, the batch sewing process just feels a little more like work and less like play. For me, when you get to your twentieth button hole, there’s a moment when you think “Really, I’m not finished yet ……?”

What do you think of batch sewing?

Selfless sewing problems

As I said at the beginning, the tencel Kalle dress was sewn as a gift. But, I’m not sure if I am actually going to give it, for a few reasons.

So let’s just talk about selfless sewing for a minute here.

I actually do virtually no selfless sewing. Sewing is my selfish habit/hobby. What’s more, I am entirely OK with that. I do plenty of selfless things in other aspects of my life. It’s perfectly fine to have this one thing that’s all about me.

But I was excited, for a change, to make this Kalle dress as a surprise gift for someone. But, as I made progress, I started to feel conflicted about the idea of gifting it, for a couple of different reasons.

On the one hand, I started becoming attached to it. Let’s face it, sewing is a creative hobby – that’s why we like it. Even though we may be using patterns, each garment we make is something of a personal artistic project. When I decided to include a visible under collar of my favourite silk or sew on some super-cute little buttons, I’m pouring my own aesthetic into the project. These garments are my creations and I started to feel a knot in my stomach at the thought of giving it away. Also, it turns out, I would just really love to have a denim tencel shirt dress in my own wardrobe.

I feel like the only way I can avoid this kind of “creative over-attachment” in the future is to not sew garments for others that I would personally want to wear, which doesn’t sound very enjoyable!

But there was also a second element that started to permeate my thinking. And I promise this isn’t just a self-serving way for me to justify the fact that I want to keep this Kalle shirt dress for myself.

I started to feel really self-conscious about its imperfections. When I’m sewing for myself, I really could not care less about wonky top stitching, slightly wonky collar, dodgy looking ends of the hem or some slight wrinkling where the cuff attaches to the sleeve. But, when I was sewing with the idea of gifting it in mind, these minor imperfections suddenly started to scream “home-made” and “amateur-hour” to me. As did the question of fabric choice. Ok, so tencel creases a lot. That’s fine if it’s for me, but what if I’m gifting it to someone who hates creasing with a passion? And while I know, intellectually, that no-one that I care enough about to give a hand-made gift, is actually going to care in the slightest about these things, I started to feel really self-conscious and embarrassed about gifting something that falls so short of that vaunted standard of “perfection”.

So, in short, I am still in two minds as to whether I will gift the tencel Kalle shirt dress as planned. And if I do, I know the recipient won’t mind at all that I wore it briefly for the purpose of photographing it for this blog!!. So, in sum, I set out to be a selfless sewist for once, but I’ve ended up feeling more guilty than ever. I am very seriously contemplating keeping this gift for myself and that just makes me feel like the worst human being in the world!!!

What are your experiences with sewing for others? How can I avoid these kinds of issues – both the attachment kind and the insecurity kind?

Bounding out of the comfort zone

Finally, before finishing (on that note, how have I managed to write 2000 words about a pattern that I have previously blogged about twice already – my capacity to crap on just has no end!!), I just wanted to give one final shout-out to Closet Case Patterns. Yet again, Closet Case has unexpectedly pushed me out of my wardrobe comfort zone. Case in point: view A, the cropped shirt. I don’t wear anything cropped. Ever. When I sewed the Inari cropped tee, I lengthened it. And here, I did still lengthen this view A Kalle shirt by a couple of inches.

But I have been so pleasantly surprised by how much I love this view A version. It is possibly even my favourite of all the five Kalle shirts and dresses I have now sewn! The minimalist look created by the hidden placket and band collar, but combined with the interest of the curved hem remind me of the kind of well thought-out simplicity that I love in Japanese fashion. With high-waisted pants, the view A cropped shirt feels very flattering and put together, whilst still being comfy and relaxed. At the moment though, I only have one pair of high-waisted pants in my wardrobe, so it seems I will have to expand upon this. Hmmm, exponential growth of hand-made wardrobes can be a bit problematic, right? Sometimes it makes me feel a bit like the old lady who swallowed a fly.

If, even one year ago, you’d told me I would be aching to wear high waisted pants and a cropped shirt, I would have responded “you’re dreaming”. But I feel like my sewing journey is taking me to all kinds of unexpected places and Closet Case Patterns have a lot to do with that. I have made several of Heather Lou’s patterns in the last year that are totally outside of what I thought was my comfort zone, but I have turned out to love them. Like the Ebony dress and a god damn Bombshell Swimsuit. Not to mention Ginger Jeans.

Closet Case really is really the one indie pattern company which pushes me in unexpected and wonderful new directions. I feel like I am now sewing and dressing more like a “grown up”! So three cheers to feeling more comfortable in our own skin and style…

 

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