Kalle shirtdress - turquoise (drafted Aug 16)

 Wisdom gained: Even if think I know how to do something; take a moment to rethink. I learned how to improve my buttonholes! Read on

As I said, I really want to love Closet Core'e Kalle dress; everyone else does, and their work looks, for the most part, gorgeous. So why, mid-way through sewing this version (shirtdress with normal placket) did I think ‘this looks like a really nice lab coat?’

Now that it is done, it is not getting rave reviews from the live-in daughter; (maybe its time that she lives out?!) I personally need to let it grow on me before I decide. I have worn it a few times, and it was super in the heat wave!

When I went to the big-box fabric store to buy something to use as an underlining in the Marta dresses, there was a big clearance, and this turquoise rayon-linen mix caught my eye as underlining for my Marta dress (still in the planning stages). I decided to buy a couple of metres, thinking that maybe live-in daughter might like a dress. In the end I decided to use it for this project: Kalle, shirtdress version, using a matching silk sari for contrast.

I have a small collection of saris purchased in India about 30 years ago during an exchange. I had even bought a gold coloured one with a pink embroidered border which I made into my wedding dress. I have hung on to these saris long enough, it was time to put them to use. I had assumed that this one was silk. And who knows - they told me it was silk, but they could have meant artificial silk, or it could be silk. I must try the burn test... one day!

I decided to use French seams. I don’t have a serger, and thought I should up my game from my zigzag finishes! I plan to make this, or other finer finishings more habitual.

The button placket

After doing cutting gymnastics (calculations) to make the underplacket from the contrast colour, I read that I could simply trim both fronts and cut out two plackets. Now why did it look like it was more complicated than that?

I made two other small additions. I added an inseam pocket and added a thread chain belt loop and created a belt - a belt designed to only be worn to the back, to add some shape to what I think is an overgenerous back.

This pocket was easy enough, except that I wasn’t sure how it would work with the French seams. I did not look this up, but coincidentally a video about a technique to work in-seam pockets into a French seam showed up on my feed (after the fact, though). Google really does read my mind!

The collar:

I discovered the thread-pull method to turn a collar in my possibly-wearable muslin, and am a convert. Check out the pointy collar corner!

It worked well for the first corner this time; but I hit a snag with the second corner. The threads had been sewn into the seam, and even though I had test tugged them to make sure they were in the right place, it turns out they weren’t. I poked around and found where they were caught, pulled them out (leaving them around the corner thread, and threaded a needle with both ends to push them through. Voilà! another perfectly turned corner! Thanks Heather-Lou (at Closet Core) for this trick!

The chest pocket

I made the pocket, pinned it in place and decided that it was not going to work. I lined the pocket piece with my contrast, figuring that I could just turn it inside out and the curved shape of the bottom of the pocket would be perfect. Not so. So I abandoned it!

The sleeve cuffs

This was another area where I was very grateful to the extra explanations in the sewing tutorial - it was not clear to me  from the written instructions exactly how they went on; and it turns out there is a right and a left cuff! I had read in a review of this pattern that some people found that the cuffs did not fit properly. I found it hard to get them just so, and there is a small pleat in the garment edge, but this was my own coordination, not the pattern at all!

The button holes

Button holes are a challenge for me. Invariably I can’t get them straight, and then I don’t line up the buttons properly. My one-step buttonholer is easy to use, unless there is the most minor bulk - which there was not here. The problem with the result is that one direction is always less dense than it should be.

I decided to read the Closet core tips on perfect buttonholes , and the only lesson I could apply immediately was to carefully read the sewing machine manual. Which is in German. (I bought my machine when I lived in Germany; my German is passable, but limited, and not technical!) I noticed one thing - set the tension at 3. So I did that, made a practice button hole - the most beautiful I had ever made.  Perfect. (I have also just read that someone uses two threads for the top... I have to try that too!)

When I sewed the first button hole, it jammed at the second bar tack and made a huge mess. I swore, then tried another practice on a scrap and got the same result: the needle did not go to the next step. I turned it off, reset the buttons, etc. No change. One site I glanced at on the internet kind of suggested a bent needle. This was a new needle for this project, a microtex for delicate fabric. I figured what can I lose; changed the needle (even though the other one looked fine), and once again got a beautiful button hole! Yay. Now I just need to work on getting them straight, and lining up the buttons. (In fact, I probably should resew at least one button!)

Overall

So the question is - will I wear it? Probably! (Since drafting have worn it several times) It looks pretty good worn open over jeans and a t-shirt; it looks okay as a dress, although live-in-daughter thinks it looks like a nightgown. She says I should just have made a shirt - which suggests a third Kalle in the horizon? (Indeed, one is in the works).

(And I don't know why some paragraphs are more spaced out than others. There is some automatic formatting going on there that I have no control over.)