I love stripes.

And I love shirt dresses.

And midi-length.

And linen.

So when all these things come together, it’s just a big ‘ol moment of sewing joy for me.

Olya Shirt Dress by Paper Theory

The Olya Shirt and Shirt Dress by Paper Theory Patterns is a really interesting design that feels a bit like origami coming together. I’m not really sure how best to describe it but it’s as though it has armholes at the back but not the front?

The front arm and front yoke are all a single pattern piece, making the Olya Shirt and Shirt Dress just perfect for one of my favourite things – mixing horizontal and vertical stripes.

This slightly slubby striped linen comes from Meter Meter. Cuz there’s nothing better than mixing my two favourite fabric families – stripes and linens, into one lovely beautiful mess.

My Olya Shirt Dress

I sewed a straight 12, one size down from the size recommended for my body measurement, as I wanted a little less ease. I also cut a little bit of waist shaping into the side seams. 

Which I know isn’t the ‘right’ way to do things. 

But it’s good enough for me.

The Olya Shirt Dress actually has some really cool pockets which are hidden inside, hanging from the front yoke. But I replaced them with simple patch pockets, adding a closure, as I really wanted some more visible stripe play.

I also took about an inch out of the width of the sleeve and added an extra pleat at the cuff to narrow the overall look of the sleeve.

It’s still super roomy but you should have seen it before!!!

The only other modification was adding in-seam pockets to the side seams. I always treat chest pockets on shirts as being for aesthetic purposes, rather than functional use. Cuz a set of keys or a big rectangular phone pressed up against my boobs is just not a good look or a good feeling!

The Olya Shirt Dress does come with a pattern piece for a self-fabric belt. I decided it wasn’t necessary as I like the way it looks with this one.

The instructions

The instructions were good and, overall, I was impressed by the quality of the pattern. There were, however, a few occasions in the instructions where I could have done with just a little bit more hand holding, such as when sewing the sleeve placket. It wasn’t entirely clear to me what needed to be folded where.

The technique for assembling and attaching the collar was not my favourite, for example and there was one step where I just couldn’t wrap my head around what I was supposed to be doing (I’m looking at you 7G, grrrrr!).

None of these problems were terminal level and I managed to muddle through without too much swearing or frustration. But, whilst nothing is impossible, I think you will find this pattern much easier if you’ve already got a few collared shirts under your belt to guide your understanding. In this regard, the pattern has a few more intermediate level skills throughout like sewing perfect right angles and top-stitching ‘in a tunnel’, so a little bit of prior shirt-making is just going to be helpful in dealing with it all!

And, speaking of those right angles, I know I’ve mentioned this before but how much fun are they to sew ????

RTW Sewing vs. Home Sewing

There are also a few areas where the designer’s RTW background might be coming through. For example this Olya Shirt Dress was the first time I’d seen a sleeve placket with the pattern piece in two pieces instead of one.

And the center button placket as separate pieces which you attach, rather than grown onto the front pieces.

These are, of course, perfectly legitimate choices to make but I get the impression that these may be techniques that are seen more often in RTW, whereas home sewing patterns might tend towards less pieces and grown-on pieces where possible to make it slightly easier for the sewist?

Or maybe it’s just me? Or that there is a totally reasonable reason that I’m not thinking of.

Not that this is a criticism – it’s just that the pattern did keep me on my toes enough and I couldn’t muddle through on auto-pilot!

My kingdom for a button!!

Let’s talk buttons for a second.

Has the following ever happened to you?

You scour the entire wall of buttons at your local fabric store.

Nothing really fits the vision you’d had in your head of the “perfect button”.

But you eventually finally find one which is acceptable, you pull out the tube, only to find there is only 1 button left in the damn tube!!!! Grrr!

This had happened to me so often that I’d almost resolved to just start putting identical transparent plastic buttons on everything!

But, instead, I did a little stock up on bamboo buttons in different shapes from Arrow Mountain!

Hoping these will last a while.

This Olya Shirt Dress is the first project I’ve used them on (and, at 15 buttons with my version, it’s pretty button intense!!!)

And speaking of buttons, I actually experienced a major ooops moments in attaching my buttons. Honestly, getting all those 15 buttons in there felt like it took forever. And I discovered, after doing so, that I’d somehow made them really, really wonky and my dress was like an inch longer on one said than the other. It was (is) a mess!!

But I could not contemplate spending another half a day messing around with buttons! My machine had been giving me major buttonhole grief throughout. For some reason, although I hadn’t changed any of the settings or even touched the buttonhole foot, it kept sewing the buttons at inconsistent lengths. So some would be fine, but every third button hole or so was too small for the button to fit. So then I was trying to re-do new button holes on top of old smaller ones.

There was plenty of swearing involved.

So when it came time to sew the buttons, I think I must have been tired and frustrated and probably messed something up in aligning the dress, as a result of the unusual shoulder seam situation.

All of which meant major wonkiness in the end.

You can see in the photo below that my left and right sides are actually about an inch off.

I went downstairs to my husband in dismay, lamenting at the disaster.

He said “who cares”. “No-one but you will ever notice it”.

And with that advice ringing in my ears, I cut off the excess fabric on one said and it was done!

No-one but us will ever know, right?

And I tell myself that the dress is long enough that I could always take off all the buttons and re-do it all and cut off a bit of length as necessary.

Anything’s possible, right?

An accidental summer coat!

The other unexpected discover I made is that I love to wear this Olya Shirt Dress as a summer “shirt coat”. This came about totally by accident.

I couldn’t finish my Olya Shirt Dress because I was waiting for my buttons in the post. But I was so excited with it that I couldn’t wait.

So a coat it became and I was surprised how much I liked it!!!

I’m really becoming a bit of a Paper Theory fan girl. I’ve now sewn ALL of Tara’s patterns – the others are here, here and here. And I’ve liked all the results! The classic minimalism vibe they give off is pretty unique in the sewing community and I can’t wait to see what’s next!

In a now very busy indie sewing pattern market, Paper Theory is slowly creeping up there with Closet Case Patterns for me as the company who’s next pattern release I most eagerly await!

What about some pants, please Tara????

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