I must say that as many parts of the world emerge from a COVID mindset, it is rather nice to see indie pattern companies again releasing pretty dresses.
What the hell, I’ll just come out and say it, I’ve had enough of loungewear!
The new Taika Blouse Dress by Named Clothing immediately caught my eye. And despite the fact that I have 23 shirt dresses in my closet – oh how I wish that was a glib exaggeration, alas, it is not – I felt compelled to give it a try!
Now before I get into this blog post, I want to make a few disclaimers. I did not make a muslin.
I should have.
Due to my own choice not to make a muslin, this dress does not fit me as it should and, as a result, I don’t like it all that much. None of this is the fault of the designer, it is squarely my fault.
But, seriously, please don’t feel the need to lecture me about muslins and tell me what a terrible sewist I am for not making one. Of course, friendly comments from all those diligent muslin-making sewists out there are totally fine. But every time I share a garment that very evidently would have benefitted from a muslin (which is actually not that often, most of the time, my non-muslin slapdash style works out just fine), either in blog comments or over on instagram, there is often that person who feels the need to berate me for being bad at sewing and ask me how dare I have the nerve to display my bad sewing on the internet. I’ve been told before that I have an obligation to not put my ill-fitting sewing out there for all to see. As though we are all required to be walking advertisements for the products we use. Capitalism gone mad.
News flash: I proudly show my sometimes-not-great non-muslin sewing on the internet because I use this space to share my sewing experience.
And if ending up with muslin-regret is sometimes part of my sewing experience, chances are there are others out there who can relate to it.
So, the fact that this pattern doesn’t fit my body well is not the fault of the designer, but I’m still going to share my experiences in the hope that others may learn from it.
My Taika Blouse Dress
My Taika Blouse Dress is a size 46. I selected the size I needed based on my waist measurement, whereas my bust and hips were one size smaller.
The sizing for the Taika Blouse Dress caters for a maximum hip size of 142cm (56 inches).
The Taika Blouse Dress is a shirt dress with blouse details at the bust. It has v-neck, is fitted at the waist and has a flaring multi-piece skirt. It also includes interesting sleeve details.
For the record, these sleeves are lengthened by about 15cm from the design as I wanted something longer to give it more versality for days when the weather is not quite in bare limbs territory. Which, in the Netherlands, is pretty often. The length I added was dictated by available fabric and it has therefore ended up neither short nor long. This sleeve ultimately looks a bit confused, not sure if it’s going up or down.
It’s the “Grand Old Duke of York” of sleeves.
Also, I didn’t notice until it was too late that the Taika Blouse Dress didn’t include any pockets, which is a bit of a drawback. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough fabric leftover to add any!
The fit bit
I usually find that Named Clothing patterns fit me very well, right out of the box, which is part of what gave me the confidence to launch muslin-free into a new dress pattern.
Well, this time, that just didn’t work out.
Although, according to the finished size chart, this size should have only given me a centimetre of ease around the waist, mine ended up being oodles too big.
I took the dress in at the top of the back skirt – basically creating darts by taking in the seam where the centre back skirt panel meets the side skirt panel, and adding extra gathering at the back bodice to account for this, in order to try to give it a bit more shape in the waist.
This helped (you should have seen it before!), but it is obvious that this modification was not enough and this Taika Shirt Dress still doesn’t fit me well.
It is way too big at the bust. Even though I put on the only push up bra I still own for the purpose of this photo.
The bust darts are not hitting my body at the right place.
And there is still too much waist ease.
At the level of bodice fit, on my body, this is a bit of a droopy mess!
As this design really relies on good fit around the waist and bust to look pretty, this one has turned out to be a bit of a miss for me.
Again, all my own fault!
To try to test wearability options, I’ve played around at belting it, but it looks odd, since the front bodice starts right at the bust, so the belt is cinching things in at the wrong place!
The sewing experience
Apart from my fit issues, it was a pleasure to sew the Taika Blouse Dress.
It was an easy sew, the notches were all where they should be, the instructions were fine. I quite like the simple clean neck line.
I also really love this print. It is a crepe viscose from the latest collection by “Une” collection by Stragier. The print is “Gauguine” and is available in several colourways. The fabric is beautiful, but it’s a bit on the delicate side. The sewing process (even using microtex needles) created some runs in it.
Still, the fabric is just so pretty, that I will put in the effort to salvage this dress.
I’m still undecided as to whether I will do so by taking it in at the waist – either doing it the proper way and unpicking things or maybe whacking in a couple of fish eye darts at the back if I’m feeling lazy.
Or, alternatively, I may concede that perhaps this neck to ankle look is just a tad too much of this pretty fabric and I may cut it into a maxi-skirt instead.
The verdict’s still out, although I’m probably more inclined towards the skirt transformation.
Either way, I’ll keep you informed.
I don’t normally do muslins either, for most things I know the main adjustments I need. I choose my size from bust to hip and grade between since I don’t match a single size for all my measurements and if it has darts I need to drop them as I’m not as high slung as most patterns cater for. I certainly wasn’t built for the Regency era, that’s for sure! Still working out the adjustments for bloated and slightly overweight midriff though; possibly because in my heart it doesn’t feel like I’m that shape.
I love reading about your lack of muslining, occasional fit issues and general honesty about your sewing. This is really gorgeous fabric. A maxi skirt sounds like a great idea. But whatever you end up doing I look forward to reading about it!
I sympathise. I just tried to make a dress using the “free” M7969 that Minerva are giving away at the moment. I used some luscious John Kaldor viscose challis – made what I thought would be reasonable adjustments to the bodice ie dropped the apex point by 1.5″, did an FBA and added to the cross over wrap top to make it less boobilicious, It was a disaster – I looked like a baby elephant wearing curtains. I used the voluminous skirt pieces to make an Angela Kane Classic Shirt and just attached the sleeves from the M7969. It’s now a lovely shirt blouse which I feel great in. However I should have made a muslin and I might still do that, undoing my ‘reasonable adjustments’ and starting again. I wasted about 1.5m of expensive fabric though – grrr. We live and learn. I do agree with Rachelle above – best to go by your high bust size, add an FBA if you need one and grade out at the waist and hips. This way it will at least fit you better at the shoulders. Lovely fabric.
Great fabric! I am just about to cut this dress out. I think I will go by the bust / high bust measurements for size.
Thanks for your review!
I also just refashioned a maxi skirt out of a dress that was too much pretty fabric. Worked well!
Hilarious, i will use that in the future: baby elephant wearing curtains…
Let me recommend Jasika Nicole’s Try Curious blog for why she doesn’t engage with the people on the internet who tell her what and how to sew (no link because I’m pretty sure that’d toss me into spam but easily googled). You might be a lot happier too deleting those comments instead of responding.
As to this dress, it looks just fine, great print and looks cool. A bit of time may allow you to enjoy it more as the memory of the adjustments fades. Just think, you could have done all the same things to a muslin and still not have a dress đ
Thanks, I adore reading her blog, so Iâll have to check out that post. The wisdom to just let other peookeâs shit go is indeed something I need more of!!
I couldn’t quite see the bust darts but I am assuming from what you said they are too high.
I need to drop them down about 2.5 inches in most patterns-so I get it
When I had a similar issue on a similar dress, I added a piece at the top of the shoulder (like a mini-yoke or saddle shoulder) which lowered the whole front and took material out at the bottom of the armscye…I think I ended up adding an underarm gusset to make up the difference.
Another option is to add another seam at the low waist. Mirror the underbust shape. Then take in only the “waistband” It will look a little like a corset waist
Or as M-C said above, the dress looks cool. Give it some time.
BTW: 23 shirtdresses! Wow! All those buttons and buttonholes!
Luckily I quite like sewing on buttons!! Thanks for all the ârepairâ tips!!
The fabric is gorgeous and that blue is just delicious. I also think the sleeves are spot on. Ignore the negative voices, honestly! Itâs not worth your time and the rest of us benefit so much from reading about the wins and the not-quites.
Hi Beck, I just wanted to leave a note to say that as a very new sewist I’m so pleased to have found your blog! I’m interested in a lot of the patterns you’ve made and documented – your (gorgeous!) photos and observations are SO helpful. This is a fantastic source of inspiration and knowledge, so thank you very much for sharing your experiences đ
Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know. Itâs always good to know itâs useful! Good luck in your sewing journey!!!
I am so glad I found your blog and this post. I have been looking for shirt dress patterns, and found only one, stylearc, but of course want more new ones, lol. Of course going to purchase this one.
About your dress having lots of ease for your liking, that has happened to me right now too. And I am too lazy to open the seams up and remove from the sides. So it is sitting there needs buttonholes but I am not motivated to finish my dress. I am contemplating putting an elastic in the back, but I know sewing it going to be challenging and it might not sew straight. Yes, it is so annoying when the finish product does not come out to our vision and exception, lol.
Anyhow, so glad to found your blog, and so glad you are still posting, since I saw a dress you made back in 2018 in pinterest that got me here, and then got real happy to see this new dress of yours. Great job by the way. LOVE it.
Those colours look great on you!
I think there’s a lot to be said for the “this isn’t a bodge-job, it’s a design feature” approach to fit problem-solving. I also rarely make a muslin because I have little enough sewing time as it is.
In fact, I think it could be argued that you are doing the sewing world a great service by showing a non-muslined-fit-on-the-fly garment. I love following sewists who share my size/shape because it gives such good insight into how a particular pattern might work for me; even better when the adjustments are more visible.
I’d probably go the maxi-skirt route, but with a wildly high waist, because I love those long vertical lines starting under the bust. The fabric is beautiful, too. Terrific movement. Personally I like reading about garments with space to improve as much as perfect ones, if not more. That space is where the learning is!
Couldnât agree more! I can just hear my Grandmaâs voice saying âwe learn more from our mistakes than our successesâ. Although this dress is still currently just hanging up next to my sewing machine trying to will me to actually get around to fixing it!
I was reading through the Taika Dress pattern with a view to cutting out and making up the dress today. I was bothered by the size chart and the finished garment measurements, as they did not appear to be even close to my body measurements anywhere. I know the Named Clothing patterns are designed for a height of 5’7″-5’8″ and I’m 5’5″, so was prepared to shorten where I needed to, but I was so perplexed with the measurements given that I decided to Google other dressmakers’ experiences. Hence I found your blog. Thank you. You’ve saved me. This pattern is going to the charity shop.
I’ve just read this post after reading your Phen shirt review (thank you, I’m about to make that shirt). I never make muslins. I’ve been sewing my own garments for 35 years and I’m yet to make one – SHOCK, HORROR!!!! Anyway, I so appreciate your reviews of patterns and I too have occasionally ended up with something that didn’t fit very well but I have also learnt from that experience and usually it’s still wearable, just not perfect, and I’m fine with that. I actually really like this dress on you and was tempted to make it until I read about the issues. I’m an impatient sewist and just love to dive straight in with my fabric. Thanks again for all of your great pattern reviews!