I actually don’t think this dress is tacky at all – I think it’s kind of kitschy & cute! Landon however, hates the fabric – “that looks like a set of curtains my mother had” – which means that I’ll be wearing this dress a lot around him, just because. I’m a terrible person.
ANYWHO let’s talk about this pattern for a minute. This is Simplicity 2458, a sweet little 1958 shirtwaist pattern that includes a few different options. I went with option 2, but I cut the sleeves & hem significantly shorter than indicated by the pattern – the original hem came down to my ankles. Total frumpsville! I tried to take a picture for lols, but I couldn’t get the tripod far enough away to capture the true essence… so just trust me on this one. Anyway, the pattern was lovely to work with, although some of the instructions were a little dicey. A dress like this uses a LOT of fabric – I think I used close to 5 yards! Fortunately for meeee, this fabric was part of one of my ‘fill several giant bags full of fabric and pay $5 for all of it’ flea market finds, so this dress ended up being cheap 🙂 I’m actually surprised at how well the pattern fit straight out of the envelope – the only sizing adjustment I made was to add about 1/2″ at the side seam under the bust dart. Everything else fits great! There are 10 darts in just the top of this dress – 4 vertical bust darts, 2 horizontal bust darts, and 2 vertical neck darts in the back. There are actually 2 darts in the skirt as well, but you can’t see them for all the ~soft pleats~ hovering at the waistline. Also, I think this dress really needs pockets. I’m not the kind of girl who things pockets belong in all dresses or anything like that, but I feel like this dress would have benefited from some deep side seam pockets. Maybe next time!
I actually really hate the buttons on this thing – I think they are tacky as hell & they make the dress look really cheap. I really need to find some nice turquoise buttons, but these’ll do for now – they were what I had in my stash (and I actually went to the store in search of buttons but WTF why are buttons so expensive?! It was like $3 for two buttons – and now I’m seriously regretting that I passed up all those pretty antique Czech glass buttons at the flea market last month. Dude wanted $1 a piece & I thought that was way too high, but looks like I was wrong. Ok enough with the button tangent.) The off-white belt is my attempt to pretend like the buttons were on purpose. That is all.
Dress with belt:
Oh, do you see where the button placket on the skirt is kind of sinking into the folds? I clearly used much too heavy of an interfacing down there, and it is weighed down as a result. It’s a fairly sturdy, mediumweight sew-in interfacing – worked beautifully on the collar (so crisp!) – but it really doesn’t belong on the skirt. Especially since I’ll probably never unbutton those buttons.
This is me running back into my house because I realized it might be a good idea to lock the door.
The skirt looked a lot more full in real life, argh.
Also, I found a caterpillar 😀
(sidenote: someone made a snide comment about my septum ring a couple of posts ago… good for you, lady, I hope this picture grosses you out lol)
Instead of a button at the waistline, there are hooks & eyes. This keeps everything nice & flat without gaping! Sorry about the yellow smudges – I tried to edit them out best I could. This is my tip for getting hooks & eyes positioned so they actually latch closed – sew on the eye, and then rub chalk all over it until it has a layer of powder covering it. Close the garment and press down slightly where the hook should go… when you pull the garment open, there should be a little dot of powder that is exactly where you need to sew the hook. So helpful!
That’ll be all, folks! 🙂
Since you save so much on fabric, you must be spending it on shoes! Good choices
Hehe, these shoes are actually from Target! But I’m not opposed to dropping a wad of cash on a nice pair of shoes… gotta take care of my feet 🙂
I like the fabric. Great dress Lauren!
So cute! I’ve always been scared of shirt dresses..and button holes, but this is just so dang pretty! I agree with the ludicrous price of buttons, might as well drill holes into actual money and sew them on, it would be cheaper!
Ha! I would totally wear money-buttons! Someone find me a proper drill bit!
This is SO cute. I love the cuffs on the little sleeves, think the buttons add to (rather than detract from) the look, and am kind of surprised by how much I love the NON-curtain-ey fabric! Nice work (as per usual). 🙂
Fantastic job!
I love everything about this dress: the fabric, the style, even the buttons don’t really bother me (although I agree that turquoise buttons would be even better). I forsee a shirtdress in my future…
I love the fit and style of this dress. It is perfect and classic! You are churning out finished projects like it’s going out of style — I can barely get them started much less finish them but I definitely have a dress like this on my list 🙂
Katrina
Ooooo I love. Good choice to shorten the sleeves and hem. Way too dowdy! You need to show those knees!
I really like the way this pattern turned out. The cuffs are adorable, and it fits you gorgeously. I do agree that the buttons should be changed out. I think I would like the fabric better if there were some beautiful buttons overshadowing….whatever it is going on in that print. 😀
I think its so fabulous! The style and fit look positively charming on you! I actually LOVE the fabric – such a retro touch, even if Landon does think it looks like curtains. I would like to take that up a notch and say it looks like vintage curtains! So cute! I love it. I love how the skirt has pleats instead of gathering as I’m seriously have hard times with gathers at my waist and would love to try a shirt dress with some sort of “frilly” something at the waist. Great idea! Stellar creation Lauren – as ALWAYS! Love this!
xoxo, Sunni
Lovely as always!!! Is there anything that doesn’t look cute on you?
I agree tha button prices are crazy stupid high if you want something nice. Bummer!
Hi Lauren, I love it! even more so without the belt….I’ve just found your blog recently and I’m amazed by everything you have made. I’m new to sewing and have found all your creations really inspiring 🙂
Duuuuudeeee soooooo freaking cuuuttee!!! Stop it! Just stop it!
…no don’t. LOVE this dress.
p.s. I think your septum ring is RAD and it makes me wish I still had mine 😦
I have those shoes in the dark brown- now I need the dress to go with it, right? Lovely work- not a curtain in sight.
Love the fabric AND the buttons!
Your yard is so pretty and green, looks like spring!
Ooh, I love a shirt dress. Looks good!
I love this – I love shirtdresses and I think ‘that looks like curtains’ is actually kind of a compliment – but then I like quite loud and tacky prints, myself. Also, how adorable are you? (a lot) x
Oh, this is way cute! I like the print a lot, actually! And it fits you so perfectly!
What’s up with online haters? Don’t they understand that we’re just supposed to be pouring on the compliments all willy-nilly? It’s like 0.01% of the bloggy world doesn’t get it and wants to pee on our lovefest! Lame!
Gaaah now I need to add a shirtdress to my ever-growing list of things I just must make! I actually really like that print, and who cares what other people say, but then I am also always wearing prints that my husband is skeptical of, so there you have it. Also, trolls need to get a life!
Your dress is ace! I like the buttons (but I reckon the right red could be cool too) and the septum ring. I wish I had the kahunies to do something like that… Crazy how different the dress looks with a petticoat.
Love it! if you can’t find turquoise buttons, i would go for a magenta colour, but then again I love contrasting (some would say clashy!) buttons
I did consider magenta when I was on the button-hunt, but I couldn’t find a perfectly matching shade. The hunt continues!
I have to admit I was skeptical about the fabric at first, but I actually really like it! It turned out really nicely. I suppose the occasional superficial negative comment comes with blogger territory, but fortunately that lady doesn’t speak for all of us. I think your septum ring is cool and if I were badass like you, I would have one too:)
Oh I love this Lauren, I’m a little obsessed with 1950’s shirt dresses at the moment and this one is just extra fuel for my shirtdress fire! I agree about the lengths on vintage patterns being frumpy, I had to just hack off 6 inches from a 1950’s pattern to get it to knee length! Beautiful finish and fit too, I LOVE lace trimmed hems. x
Beautiful! I love the shape with the petticoat! Plus your shoes are GORGEOUS!
Love the fabric, love the pattern, ADORE the shoes and am in favor of the Eeevil Master Plan to Irritate Landon, LOL!
always hate to hear that people leave snide comments on blogs…don’t really understand the necessity to ruin other peoples day with stupid opinions.
ANYWHO–dress looks amazing as per usual. i live in Asheville NC not too far from TN and short sleeves right now are a must! i might need to actually make myself a dress too.
always love your blog 🙂
OOOH Asheville – I’m so jealous! That’s such a lovely area 🙂
I love shirtdresses and I love this, it looks great on you. You always look like you get great fit on your projects – I’m a little jealous! 🙂
Love the dress, great fit…also at thrift stores I keep my eye out for old cheap clothes with cool buttons… New ones are so pricey!
That’s a beautiful dress! It in no way whatsoever says ‘curtain’ to me!
Great job! I think you wear this fabric wonderfully! Admittedly, on its own it’s unremarkable, but on you and in this style it’s positively charming! 🙂
The alterations you made really capture the innocent, feminine spirit of the style of dress well 🙂
What about self fabric covered buttons? I know they’re not cheap but having got the fabric for such a song, maybe it’s worth a splurge? 🙂
Not tacky at all. I really like it, fits you superbly and is so flattering.
OMG, how sweet is this dress!?! I lurve it so much and predictably the fabric is right up my street, despite what your boyfriend thinks! I’m so glad that we don’t pay too much attention to our b/fs comments ;o)
This is so cute. You have such a great eye for fashion.
I’ve been looking for a pattern like this for all eternity and still can’t find one in my size. WAH WAAAAH.
Aw, what’s your size? I’ll keep an eye out for ya at the flea market 🙂
This is really cute! I love the fabric. I just got Simplicity 2246; and it’s pretty similar. Now I just have to find some cute fabric. Just when I promised to stop buying fabric, I see this!
This dress is adorable! Great work, like always.
Really cute, dress, I agree though, different color buttons would make it look better, I have been tempted to try a shirt dress, but hemming it scares me, I don’t think I could get it right, got any tips for that?
Oh, I am probably the absolute worst person to ask this question to… I don’t make too much of an effort to ensure my hem is straight lol. Just flip it up & hand-stitch it down. The skirt started out as a rectangle (as in, it’s not a circle skirt), so the hem didn’t require any easing if that’s what you’re asking?
I just love shirtdresses and this looks FANTASTIC on you!! Hehe… I also really love the fabric … pfft! Curtains… silly boys…
Someday I’d like to get a handle on interfacing – I still feel likes its a bit of a mystery to me. Lately I’ve been using some random silk organza I’ve had around as interfacing and I’m shocked by how light but sturdy it is! But really… I’m not going to keep tons of silk organza on hand just for interfacing so I’d really like to be able get a handle on the fusibles and other varieties out there…
I love using silk organza as interfacing, but you’re right, it’s not really feasible to keep a bunch of it on hand – it’s so expensive! I really want to try the stuff at Fashion Sewing Supply but my budget constraints mean I have to wait a few months, boo!
I don’t want to talk smack about your boyfriend but he is wrong, this dress is fantastic, and everyone needs to know that. Also, woman who was anti your septum ring, what the hell? People are the worst. I like it. I think you look beautiful. And I love this dress.
Great dress, I really like it. 🙂 Not curtainy at all.
Nuts to that lady who thinks she has the right to tell you what to stick in your nose. 😉 I like it.
Damn, I’m jealous – I always think that sort of dress will suit me and look pretty, but I end up looking all frumpy and middle aged (yes, I AM middle aged but I don’t want to shout about it!!)
I also wish I could get cool stuff from my local markets/charity shops – they are all somewhat lacking…
s for the septum ring – really? Who the hell goes on a sewing blog and complains about that? She should be looking at the pretty dresses FFS (but it is pretty and I wish I had the guts to do it..I just have one in the side of my nose instead 😀 )
Your dress is so beautiful!
Ooh, love the tip for hooks/eyes. Brillz! And the dress, of course.
This is SO cute!! I love the fabric,and thanks so much for sharing the lovely little detail shots 🙂
Gorgeous, lady! Shirtwaist dresses are so awesome, I really must make one. Love the little rockabilly collar and cuffs. And the caterpillar 🙂
Great dress! The pattern is perfect, with the pointed cuffs and pleats. And the fabric kinda just works with this pattern! Good fit also.
Hello??? I don’t think you are capable of sewing anything I DON’T like!!! Gorgeous. Your Pastille tipped me over the edge to buy the Colette book.
I love this dress! The print is great, I have no idea what Landon is talking about. The pointed cuffs are the bomb.
Another fantastic, beautiful dress. I’m scared of patterned fabrics but you’ve shown me AGAIN how brilliantly they can turn out. Thank you for the inspiration.
I heart this dress, so cute and not tacky at all!
I like the dress, but think that in shortening it as much as you did, you lost a lot of the character of the pattern. However, I think down to the ankles would have been to long. It should be midcalf, IMHO.