I know that I’m on a winner with a make when even my husband gets it. It was like that with the Kalle shirt dress from Closet Case Patterns. He took one look at it and said “so it’s supposed to look like you just got out of bed and put on your man’s shirt that was lying on the floor”.

Exactly!

 

Well, done Heather Lou of Closet Case Patterns.

If even my husband gets it, we’re doing well.

There is a special kind of magic going on with the Kalle shirt dress. It is kind of shaped like a sack. But it still makes me feel sexy. That’s no mean feat! There really is no other way to say it: I  LOVE THIS DRESS!

Taking the time to enjoy the process…

I  really enjoyed this project. It was one of the first things I’ve done in a while that felt like real sewing.

I have been on a bit of an instant gratification, results-oriented sewing run lately.

But I felt a bit of a sigh of relief when I sat down and prepped this project. I smiled when I saw all the pieces and options.  I knew that I was committing to something a little more technical. That I would need to be deliberate and careful to get good result.

This is one of my favourite things about sewing. We really have  complete freedom. We decide, depending on our mood, our level of exhaustion, which way the wind is blowing, whether to commit to a detail-oriented project or whether we just want results fast. So not only do we have complete freedom as to what we produce but also the production mode!

For me, this Kalle shirt dress was my first real “slow fashion” moment in a while and I enjoyed every minute of it!

OMG, I’m just like so so (sew) in love with Closet Case Patterns…

This is my second time sewing with a pattern from Closet Case Patterns. The first was my Bombshell Swimsuit. While I had some suspicions after the Bombshell,  Kalle confirms it! I have a new favourite indie pattern designer!

Hopefully, this doesn’t start to sound too sickening, but I  want to gush about the Kalle shirt dress pattern for just a moment.

It sounds goofy but the process of making this dress made me feel inspired.

I felt excited. And constantly giddy.

You know that feeling – it’s one of the best things about sewing. When,  after each step, you are like “oooh, I really like that” or “aahhh, that’s nice”. But, at the same time, you try to restrain yourself from dancing around the room prematurely. Because it’s sewing and there’s always time for something to go wrong….

That nervous excitement is how I felt almost all the way through sewing this pattern.

For me, the design, the instructions, the feel of Closet Case Patterns, really hit the mark. The instructions aren’t cute or full of pretty colour photos but they are clear and well thought out. And the sewalongs on the website are truly top notch – the Kalle sewalong being no exception! In sum, I feel that Closet Case Patterns treats me like a fashionable, intelligent, grown-up who sews. And who doesn’t want that?

 

So what makes for good pattern design?

After enjoying both the Kalle shirt dress and the Bombshell swimsuit so much, I reflected on why. If I had to give a one (hyphenated) word answer I would say: well-designed.

I think that these patterns are so cleverly designed because they  take nothing for granted.  There is no feeling of: “OK, next we just do this, because this is conventionally how it is done”. Rather, every step demonstrates a detailed analysis of what processes and techniques work best for this specific design and for the type of sewists who are making fashion-oriented indie patterns.

You  see this in the plethora of options available. It’s  not just a shirt or shirt dress, but your choice as to whether your prefer a traditional button placard, a popover placard or a hidden placard.

And this applies equally to the little things. For example, the passing observation that if you usually wear your collars open, you might be better off top stitching the collar stand from the inside, rather than the outside.  Of course, that makes perfect friggin’ sense. But it  takes a special designer to think about these tiny little details and lay it out there for us.

I felt like there wasn’t a single step of the process at which Heather Lou wouldn’t have been able to entirely justify exactly why she had made a specific choice. This level of attention to detail  shines through everything. It makes sewing the pattern a really enjoyable experience.

Oh and speaking of good design, I have this theory that I can tell if a pattern is well designed based on how much mess I produce while sewing it (very scientific, huh?)! An organised pattern makes for an organised sewist! And so I am pleased to report that the Kalle shirt dress resulted in very little mess!!

And a quick shout-out to the cabinet of graphic curiosities…

Which is great because less mess means less wasted fabric. Great when your fabric is this lovable!

This lovely cotton gauze I used is the newly released Terrazzo Night from Atelier Brunette and it was perfect for this project. Although I did keep having these little moments while sewing the popover placket when I kept thinking, doesn’t this splashy effect look a  little bit like my Dad’s old work shirt that I used to wear as an art smock in high school…

Constructing my Kalle

My Kalle shirt dress is sewn up in a straight size 10. I chose to sew the popover placard for two reasons. First, this was a chance to try a new technique for me. Second, I hate button holes so the fewer the better!! I also went with the  2 piece collar because I think this is essential to the man-shirt look which makes this dress look  sexy. I also did the pocket, although it’s not very visible in my fabric. Finally, I went with the inverted pleat at the back.

The only thing that I agonised over was whether or not to modify the pattern to pull it in a bit at the waist and make it slightly more dress, less shirt.

I even got the hubby involved on this question and he was equally torn.

On one hand, I really liked the pattern exactly as designed and felt that the man-shirt vibe was a strength of the design. On the other hand, more of a waist is more flattering on my body. But one thing I often worry about as a sewist is that if I modify everything in accordance with my  favourite design tendencies,  everything in my wardrobe  starts to look the same.

In the end, I took it in a little at the waist to make it a bit more flattering for me but (hopefully) without losing the overall original vibe. Just to give you an idea, this is the sort of shape change I ended up making:

Oh and I really enjoyed finishing off this curved hem with bias binding. I love self-bias binding. So supple and powerful. Strong but flexible. Like the Superman of sewing…

And bad mistakes … I’ve made a few …

The only regret that I have with my Kalle shirt dress is that I didn’t go with a contrasting top stitch. I think that a pale pink might have looked great, adding a soft feminine contrast (just like the curved hem itself does…).

You see, I hate top stitching. I never have the patience to do it properly. And no top stitching is  better than bad top stitching, right? So I was pretty confident at the beginning of my Kalle shirt dress that I wouldn’t actually be doing much top stitching …

But that’s the thing about Kalle. Something about her made me actually want to concentrate on the details and do right by her! Me! The laziest stitcher of all time…

If I had known in advance that Kalle would actually enable me to overcome my top stitching impatience, I would definitely have gone for contrasting thread.

Oh well, at least this augers well for the future. Maybe I will be able to contemplate a pair of Ginger jeans at some point, after all…

The other sign that there was something special about this dress is that it made me not hate my iron! As a lazy stitcher, I often avoid a lot of pressing (or at least save it all up for one big chunk).

Kalle made me want to take her to my ironing board regularly. To  press her lovingly and see exactly how every little seam looked when properly steamed. Because even though the overall aesthetic of Kalle is effortless, these perfect little details do need a perfect little press to pop. So your iron is your friend for this project!

So props to me… (but mostly to Closet Case)

I know that this dress only turned out well because the Kalle shirt dress is a fabulously designed pattern. But, it somehow also managed to make me feel a little bit proud of myself.

I’m already plotting my next one – I have my eyes on this lovely pink linen from Guthrie & Ghani.

Oh, and the combined magic of both Kalle and my Bombshell swimsuit, have left me eager to slowly sew my way through the entire Closet Case Patterns collection.

To belt or not to belt…

And, finally, for something a  bit different, I’m going to finish off with some shots of the Kalle shirt dress belted. My husband and I disagree on this one. He insists “no, it’s a sexy man shirt, you can never wear it belted”. I insist that even if it’s a sexy man shirt most of the time, every now and again it could be something a bit different… Surely, this is 2017, we’re not so constrained by categories and labels…

What do you think?