Blue Ponte Shirtdress

I cut this dress out back in February.  It was supposed to be part of my winter/early spring work from home wardrobe. I finished it in February except for the buttonholes and buttons and it sat until this weekend. When I finally broke down and added them to the dress.

Truly it's sad this beautiful dress sat so long...but it be's like that sometimes.

I'm going to stop calling this the Myosotis Dress going forward. I've changed the pattern up so much that only the silhouette resembles the pattern. Now that there are several maxi dress patterns with this silhouette on the market, you can choose one that contains the changes I've made and use instead.

Here are the changes I've made to the pattern:

o Added a collar

o Added a button front opening in the skirt - so the entire dress has a button front

o Changed the length and removed the bottom ruffle

o Removed the ruffle on the sleeve

o Lengthened, shortened and removed the sleeve

o Added a cuff to the sleeve 

o Lengthened to a fuller sleeve

For this version, the fabric is the primary player. It's the first time I've used a midweight ponte to make this pattern. It affected the way I handled some of the construction. 

- Notably, I clipped more to remove bulk from seams. 

- I used interfacing on both sides of the collar pieces to give it a firmer hand and hold.

- My topstitching is done with the three step stretch stitch - Stitch No. 5 on the Janome 9450 using a 5 stitch length.  I love that stitch because it allows the topstitching to pop on the thicker fabric.

- The gathering was done using a wide and long zig zag over coated dental floss, so I can maximize the gathers to emphasize the drape of the fabric.

Supplies ~

3 yards blue rayon ponte from Mood Fabrics - purchased over five years ago but there's plenty of ponte on their site.

11 - 3/4" blue enamel and gold buttons purchased recently from Pacific Trimmings

Interfacing from Steinlauf & Stoeller

There were no other changes made to the construction of this shirtdress that hasn't been documented in other posts.

A Few Pictures ~

The reason this dress is midi length is because I ran out of fabric. At first I was annoyed because long maxi dresses in spring & summer is truly my thing.  However, I remembered how much I liked this cotton one so I went with it. Also blue is my favorite color and this purplish blue is one of my fave shades of blue!

I have this maxi shirtdress and one more coming to the blog. After this, I'm retiring the pattern for awhile. I'm not saying that I won't ever use it again...just that I own enough versions of it now. There are so many different maxi dresses patterns calling my name that I really want to sew.  So other than the fact it took me about two months to add the buttons to this dress, there isn't much else to say.  This is one more dress to add to my spring wardrobe.

A Parting Shot ~

Me and Joshua who is 6 years old now!

...as always more later!