Hi Friends!
Long time no see! I’ve been in a bit of a sewing funk lately with a lack of sewjo. It may be because it’s summer and the heat and smoke from the wildfires are killing it or that my husband is off for the summer (he’s a teacher). Or …. maybe I burnt myself out with sewing multiple projects before our trip to New Orleans in June. Whatever it is, I haven’t been in my sewing room very much until recently. I do, however, have a backlog of garments that I have made and have not shared yet and this is the first of them. Fingers crossed that my sewjo has returned as I plan to be sewing later today. 🙂
Source: Colette Patterns
This dress is the Colette Penny shirtdress pattern. I’ve loved this pattern since it was released, but wasn’t so sure I actually needed it as I have many shirtdress patterns, including vintage 1940’s and 50’s patterns that the Penny is inspired by. However, I eventually sold myself as I love the little details and generally love the fit of Colette patterns and decided that this would be my most recent project for The Confident Stitch.
I just love the buttoned sleeve cuffs and used some vintage buttons from my stash for both the cuffs and the shirtwaist bodice. I did cut out the bodice pockets and sewed them, but when I pinned them to the bodice, they just didn’t look right. It was a shame as they were cut on the bias and I thought that they would be cute, but I was reminded again that shirt pockets just don’t work for me. I probably should have pinned some on that are “invisible” and matched the gingham to see how I liked those, but I didn’t have the energy to do so.
Although this pattern does come in my size, the store didn’t have the pattern in the upper size range, so I sewed the 0-16 version and sized up. I am not a big fan thus far with the Colette plus-size block used with their woven dress patterns, so I was happy to use the smaller block as I prefer the fit on the earlier Colette patterns. Aside from grading up, the only alterations I made was a full bicep adjustment on the sleeves and a swayback adjustment to the back bodice piece. Next time I would shorten the bodice, which was something that I pondered while I was in the fitting process, but I left it for this dress.
I chose this lovely Riley Blake navy and white gingham from the The Confident Stitch for this dress. They don’t currently have this colorway in stock online, but they do have the red gingham. I’ve sewn with a lot of gingham fabrics and this one is the best that I’ve ever encountered. This is also the second blue gingham shirtdress that I’ve made. I’m actually wearing that one as I write this post.
There is a snap placket on the skirt which has a tendency to pop open, so I’ll be adding a couple of hooks and eyes to ensure that I don’t have a wardrobe malfunction. I also made a mistake with the skirt placket and accidentally serged some of it. Fixing it wasn’t an option from where my serger cut the placket, so I had to fold some of it over it topstitch it down to make it look acceptable. Before the accident it looked 100%, so I was pretty miffed at myself to make such a mistake.
The pattern has a back yoke with two pieces like a proper shirt. I skipped the inner one as I didn’t feel that this dress needed it. I do wish I would have cut the yoke on the bias, but it didn’t even occur to me when I was cutting this pattern out.
A neat surprise with my package from The Confident Stitch were these cute little labels (the other one said: “I made this.”) This dress really did take forever, BTW. There are a lot of pattern pieces to cut out and I think my general sewing malaise was starting to rear itself.
I also made a self-fabric belt cut on the bias with a covered buckle. There’s a tutorial on the CSC that I created when I made this belt.
Colette has stopped producing paper patterns, so if you prefer paper patterns like I do, The Confident Stitch still has them!
Disclaimer I received both the fabric and pattern for this dress from The Confident Stitch at no charge in exchange for a review. This post also includes affiliate links.
Happy Sewing!
- Dress: Colette Penny in cotton gingham, made by me
- Shoes: Sam Edelman
- Earrings: Luxulite
- Sunglasses: Modcloth
- Lipstick: Besame 1939 Tango Red
Hello Mrs. Hughes,
love your blog/website! Can you share the source of the fabulous rounded-square blue buttons for this project? Sewing my own wardrobe is my favorite form of creative self expression; looking forward to seeing what you cook up in future!
Hi Darnise! Thank you! I think I got those buttons at Hancock’s when they went out of business.
hello Tanya, glad to find your blog. u looked pretty in the blue gingham dress. I am a novice in sewing dresses, so i am so impressed to see people managed to sew beautifully. I am a size 18 upper side and size 22 below part. I am not sure how to upgrading the skirt as this pattern is not a one piece pattern. Could you help me a bit? Thanks in advance!
The dress looks fantastic, I hope you get your sewjo back quickly! I love gingham in summer dresses, I wish my girls had the same appreciation!
Oh man! This is awesome. I have a blue gingham that I wanted to make a shirtdress out of. Reading this post is prompting me to think seriously about getting it cut out. I have several patterns, but I think I want a Harrison bodice with short sleeves and a circle skirt attached.
Oh I love gingham and this navy is the perfect shade. Lovely dress for the end of summer 🙂
I went to tanyamaile.com and clicked on the blog post and was able to read the whole thing. It was definitely worth the extra keystrokes! BTW, love the styling, the gingham, and the buttoned sleeves. Nice little touches. Looks like some serious mojo.
Beautiful dress! So summery!
I can see them all and am most impressed. Perhaps all of those events and conditions have contributed to your lack of sewing lately, Tanya. But this has surely made up for it…it is one gorgeous dress and I was quite taken with it when I opened up the page. You look great in it; it is so summery, and the perfect fit. Love the colour on you as well. I will also have to get a paper copy of it, as I do not care for downloadable patterns either. Thanks for the information on this and also the wonderful pictures of your latest project.
FWIW, I can see your photos just fine. (I’m on Firefox on a Mac.)
The only photo I see here is the pattern photo, presumably–I am not seeing anything of yours or photos of you or of the fabric you mention. Am I missing something, or are they not here?
I can see the photos on both my laptop and my phone, but they didn’t show up when I tried to pin one on Pinterest. Might just need some time to propagate..
Okay. I’m on a laptop and usually have to click through to your site and then it works, but the one from Colette is very big and clear, and the others didn’t happen yet nor show gaps which i often get. I’ll try again and let you know.
So the update is that when I click through from the email that notifies me of the post, it gives me your site and I see all photos EXCEPT the Colette one, which shows a broken link. When I go to the post on the WP Reader here, it shows ONLY the Colette photo and not even any spaces for your photos. Technology does what it wants, I guess. I’m glad that I at least got to see your dress, which I really like. I like the dark blue of the check especially.