Vintage Shirt Dress

I love this sort of 50’s style dress, I have a similar store bought dress that I’ll take to the grave and hope I can wear for many more years to come. I definitively need to make more of these, maybe with a fake button placket and in a swingy-er fabric.
The dress does not have any darts, just pleats, if you dislike sewing darts it might be a good option for you. When I tried the bodice on the armscye was a bit to long on the front shoulder, so I took a small slice of fabric off to adjust it before sewing on the sleeve. I think on me the waist is a bit short at the front and long at the back and I’ll change it for my next version. The skirt could also be a tad longer, the pattern recommended a 4cm hem, I went with 6mm and I wish I could not have made a hem at all.
Pattern review:
Instructions – really simple and to the point. I usually bypass all the typical sew over it instructions, that refer to their particular preferences in construction and aren’t essential for the final product. Sew over it usually recommends zig-zagging or overlocking all pieces before sewing, yet I prefer to do this at the end and reduce seam bulk in one fell swoop. Sew over it patterns also don’t use topstitching, instead they prefer to understitch all pieces. But I do like a topstitch, so I skip on understitching and just topstitch the edges.
Fitting and alterations – I made a size 12 (a size smaller than the recommended for my measurements, yet the final dress size is still larger than the measurement), without adjustments, other than the armscye and hem, as I said before. I also changed the construction order a bit, so I could leave the side seams to the end and adjust there if needed.
Fabric – fabric is a simple cotton shirting, I didn’t add a lining but I use it with a slip to reduce static. I used almost 3m of fabric to make the dress with 3/4 sleeve.
Difficulty – Adventurous begginers to more advanced sewers, or having some expertise in garment sewing (collars are allways a bit tricky to master). https://umacrafterportuguesacomcerteza.wordpress.com/2017/04/10/vintage-shirt-dress/