Vintage Shirt Dress

Done, plus a few more details!

Here it is, all finished and ready to be worn to school:


Obviously, this isn't the most exciting garment, but it is comfortable, makes for easy dressing on busy school mornings and has some unique small details. We've already looked at the buttons and cuffs, so let's look at a few other details starting with the pockets.

Pockets are a definite requirement for any work/school clothing that I make, and this dress is perfect with a pair of in seam front pockets. I used stay tape to reinforce the the pockets edges like I did with the bubble dress. The pockets are very well hidden within all the gathers, and I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not. At least they're not obtrusive!


The waist area is reinforced with a waist stay. The waist is sewn first to the bodice and is included in the seam that joins the bodice and skirt. The waist stay is cut on the grain, and I decided to cut it on the selvedge edge for the most support. Because it was a bit wider than I had first realized, I folded the edge down over the completed waist seam and stitched it down. This covered the seam and further neaten the interior of the dress. In the picture below, you can see the stay folded on the left, but still unfolded on the right.

This dress has a side zipper, which is not at all unusual for this style. I decided to hand pick the zipper - it's hard to see in the first photo below, but that's the bottom portion of the zipper area. I ended up using this method for several reasons. First the zipper is not set into a side seam of the skirt; it is for the bodice, but a seam does not fall on the side of the skirt. This rules out using an invisible zipper. The zipper opening on the skirt is a faced slash - you stitch the facing to the skirt in a V shape and then cut down the center of the V and turn the facing to the inside. You can see the facing and bottom of the zipper not quite finished in the second photo below. The zipper must either be top stitched in or hand picked. For me, it is easier, and almost faster, just to hand pick the zipper rather than wrangling the entire dress in an awkward spot under the presser foot of the sewing machine and hoping not to catch unwanted layers of skirt into the seam, etc.

Lastly, let's look at the hem. On skirts this large, I almost never hand hem. Once I trim the skirt to the correct length, I make a twice-turned hem. First, I stitch a row of stitching half of the hem's total allowance away from the edge of the fabric. For example, if I have a hem allowance of 1 1/4", then I'm going to stitch a line of stitching 5/8" away from the edge. I then take the garment to the ironing board and turn up the hem right along that line of stitching with the stitching just to the inside. I then go around a second time and turn up the hem again, the same width, with the edge of the fabric in the new fold. This saves time, because I don't have to use my ruler every 6" or so all the way around the hem to make sure the hem is even - the stitched line is my guideline for turning. Below, I've unfolded the hem you can see the stitched line, and where the fabric has been folded up twice. This method works great for straight hems of any sort or any width. As long as that first row of stitches is a consistent distance from the edge (the guidelines on the sewing machine make that easy!) you'll end up with a nice, quick hem.

Only an "A" today: Danke to all the German literate readers who responded to my query regarding the UHU product! They all agreed that the product was a starch of some sort, and as Tini informed me, the ad indicates it is "perfect for petticoats".

Parting Shot: Kiwi has been a busy kitty today! I came home to find the following mess. Although some toliet paper has ended up in the litter box, I'm not sure that Kiwi has used it for its true intended purpose.