Completed - Wenona Shirtdress

Here she is! My very own, much anticipated Miranda Kerr inspired shirtdress!! It feels so good to finally have made the thing that has been floating around in my head for the past year and a half and just in time for summer too!

As discussed in my previous inspiration post I used the Named Patterns Wenona Shirtdress as the basis for the dress but with a couple of adjustments (obviously!). I love this style of dress so much I've ear-marked some fabric for a two-tone long sleeved autumn/winter dress... is it ok to be hanging out for winter and its not even summer yet?! Its so hard to see all you inspiring northern hemisphere bloggers sew up snuggly knits and awesome coats while us southern hemisphere bloggers try to get psyched for summer, only to be oogling all your gorgeous summer stuff once we get back to winter!! ;-)

Close up of the button and collar detail

Anyway, before I get into all the nitty grittys of my dress there is one thing I'd like to point out to anyone thinking of sewing their own Wenona Shirtdress. This pattern has a lot of ease, and I mean, a lot of ease! I'm not to sure why this is or if this was the look they were after although just looking at the model from the pattern its not super obvious the dress is so loose, so I'm not to sure what happened there.
Either way, I'm normally a size 10 to 12 with every single one of the Named patterns I've used so far but (having done some sneaky pre-sewing research and finding excess ease was an issue) I ended up using the finished garment measurements and found I just fit into the Size 0 category... bahahaha... not even close to size 0 in real life but I'm not complaining!! Thankfully I picked this up before I printed off the PDF or else I would have had to print off and tediously tape together two lots of pattern sheets.
This shouldn't, however, discourage you from sewing up this pattern. I know I tend to go on and on a little bit about this pattern company but I'm seriously impressed with how well the pattern pieces fit together and how clear the instructions are. And I especially love the little details that take this from homemade to another level. For example, this was my first attempt at sewing a collar and collar stand and I've heard some horror stories when it comes to sewing a neat, professional collar and stand so I was very impressed with how mine turned out (being first time and all) thanks to the detailed instructions.



My poor attempt at the 'Angelina Jolie leg' pose


Great, now that that's out of the way I can get back to the nitty gritties.
I made a couple adjustments to the pattern to get the look I was after:

• I removed the sleeves and bias bound the armhole, I didn't change the shape of the armhole as I thought I would have in my inspiration post
• Added two 2cm darts in the bodice back and two 2.5cm darts in the skirt back to counteract the unsightly bagging thanks to a combination of excess fabric, a swayback and some stiffer than expected cotton fabric (I think I need to fabric soften the shit out of this dress before it will hang the way I want it to)
• I removed the point in the collar back, opting for a sleek curve instead (the whole thing was starting to look at little bit too 'Little House on the Prairie' for me)
• Added around 50cm to the length of the dress to take it from knee length to maxi dress length
• reconfigured the button placement to ensure there would be no gaping around the boob area as things were looking a little bit snug

The other little details which I think kinda make the dress are:

• charcoal grey topstiching the seam lines, collar and collar stand
• the same charcoal grey colour buttons and buttonholes
• a belt! Not handmade but it sure does provide the much needed contrast and takes the dress to modern rather than the before suggested LHOTP look.

At the end of the day I'm over the moon with this dress. I expect it will get a lot of wear this summer thanks to the cool cotton fabric and the maxi length means I can dress it up or down depending on the occasion. The fabric is my biggest bug bear at the moment as, for some reason, I was expecting soft, drapey rayon not stiff cotton. I'm hoping a couple washes in some fabric softener and white vinegar will help with the hang and drape of the dress, but if not I guess you live and learn. The joys of being so caught up in making a dress similar to the inspiration that you end up having limited fabric choice.



Named Patterns Wenona Shirtdress
Size 0
Fabric composition: Cotton