McCall's 4769 - Liberty Highway Shirt Dress

 

Summer is shirt dress season in Lindnerland, and I love this particular Liberty Tana Lawn design - it reminds me of highways.  Even a sleeved dress worn on a sunburn-inducing sunny day feels incredibly cool in this fabric.   Perfect fourth of July dress!

It's made with McCall's 4769 - even though I love a good shirt dress with deep pockets, which this provides, I'm not a huge fan of this pattern.  I never feel like I can get the collar right - the instructions for that part of the construction are maddeningly vague.  I have some other shirt dress patterns I need to try (and a pal just gave me a few yards of super-cute fabric) - I'll keep you posted! 

Any shirt dress pattern recs?  Do tell!   

Sencha by Colette, Two Ways

 

I bought Colette's Sencha blouse pattern on a trip to Portland - local company=ace sewing souvenir.

I liked the pattern booklet and instructions (though the multiple explanations of staystitching could have been replaced by something more complicated and apropos - a flat-felled seam, for example.)

Problem is, when I put it on - it looked and felt like a tightly fit hospital gown.

So I flipped it around, added some bias binding, and wore it as a button-down.

 

Next up, a floral number in some recycled fabric.  

 

I decided to give it another try, the way many have online - by altering the neck.

Here's a glimpse at the facing piece and the resulting v-neck.

Much more comfortable!  

Next up - some Sencha pajamas.  Seriously!