Summery Pauline Alice Cami Dress

My tartan version of the Pauline Alice Camí dress that I made for the Autumn of 1000 Shirtdresses is undoubtedly one of my favourite creations from last year, and I wore it a lot when the weather was still all wintery. So it's no surprise that when spring arrived I started to get the urge to sew another more summery version - and here it is!

Truthfully, the seeds of this dress were planted some time around the beginning of the year when I found this dotty cotton half price in the John Lewis sale. It was part of their 150th anniversary collection that they released last year, and I'd already used a different print from the same collection to make a Lilou dress for my Mum, so I knew it would be great to work with. Throw in pretty dots, a lovely teal colour and the fact that it was a bargain and I was sold, and from that point on it was pretty much destined to become a Camí.

For version two, I stuck with exactly the same size and modifications that I used for my first version (size 44 with 1.5 inches added to the length of the bodice and 3 inches to the skirt, and an extra button due to the added bodice length). This version seems to be slightly closer fitting than my first one, which I think is because there's slightly more give in the tartain/plaid than this crisp cotton, but they both fit nicely so it's all good.

In this version, I had a slight problem when I was attaching the collar - somehow my collar stand was too long for the neckline. I don't remember that being an issue on my first version so I think I must have been slightly imprecise when I was cutting out my fabric or something. There wasn't a massive difference though, so with a lot of pins and easing, and some ever-so-slight reshaping of the ends of the collar stand, I made it work! 

As luck would have it, I had a piece of teal poplin left in my stash from one of my very first dressmaking projects (I've learnt a lot since then!) which was an exact match for the dots on this fabric. You could call this a happy coincidence, but I think it's more likely to be an indication that I'm repeatedly drawn towards the same colours! I'm not complaining about that though, because it meant I could use the poplin to make perfectly matching covered buttons and a cute little bow belt (using a combination of tutorials from Tilly and Lauren).

The eagle-eyed among you might have noticed that I don't have a button or button hole on the collar. I could claim that this was entirely intentional because I know I would never button the dress right up to the collar. That is partly true, but the main reason is because I only had 6 self-cover buttons left in my stash and I was too impatient to wait to get more! At some point I might get some more buttons and add one on the collar, but part of me thinks it isn't really necessary because it would never be used and I think the dress looks fine without it.

Given how much I liked my first version of the Camí, it's hardly surprising that I'm pretty pleased with this version too! At the moment I'm not convinced by the bow belt - I love how it looks but I think it might be a bit annoying to wear. I've still got some of the teal poplin left over though, so I might think about making another covered elastic belt instead. The dress itself is a definite success though, I'm looking forward to wearing it again! What have you been making recently?

Pauline Alice Cami & the Autumn of 1000 Shirtdresses

While I love a sewing challenge or sewalong, I've been trying to stick to my own (admittedly very vague) sewing plan recently without getting distracted by other temptations, but when I saw that Mary from Idle Fancy was hosting the Autumn of 1000 Shirtdresses I knew I wanted to join in as I'd been thinking of sewing myself a shirtdress for a while. I'd been admiring Mary's various iterations of McCall's 6696, but you'll probably notice that what I have to show you today is not that pattern. You see, I'd had my eye on the Pauline Alice Cami dress for a while, and I thought I'd prefer a shirtdress that only buttons halfway, so that's what I went with.

The Cami is a lovely pattern featuring a fitted button-front bodice (which also has a side zip) with a classic shirt collar, full gathered skirt, pockets and two different sleeve options (the 3/4 cuffed sleeve that I made or short sleeves).

Cami is rated 2 out of 3 for difficulty, which I think is probably accurate. Obviously a shirtdress has certain features such as a button band and collar which make it a little more tricky than a basic dress, but the most complicated bit about sewing Cami for me was entirely self-inflicted - my fabric choice. Not that there's anything wrong with the fabric itself, quite the contrary (it's a lovely cosy brushed cotton from Calico Laine), but trying to match up the tartan/plaid/check pattern on all the various pieces that a shirtdress entails did cause me a bit of a headache, and I think it probably took me about three times longer than usual to cut this dress out because I was being so careful about what I cut where! I also found that the layers of material where shifting a bit as I sewed, so I quickly hand basted most of the seams before sewing them, which helped keep things lined up nicely.

I'm glad I took the extra time to make sure everything lined up as I think it makes a massive difference on a project like this and I'm really happy with the end result. On that note, excuse any wrinkles in the photo above - I realised I'd forgotten to take any back shots when taking the rest of the photos but I'm pretty pleased with how the back collar lines up with the back bodice so I had to take this photo when I'd already been wearing the dress for most of the day.

In terms of fit, I made a straight size 44, which is the largest size in the pattern - so not it's not the biggest size range. It fits me nicely, with just the right amount of ease in the bodice for my liking. I don't like shirts or shirtdresses to be too tight or I get paranoid about gaping between the buttons, but I have no worries about that here.

I did add quite a bit of length to the pattern - about 1.5 inches in the bodice and 3 inches in the skirt, which isn't a massive surprise because Pauline Alice patterns are designed for an average height of 5 ft 5, and I'm 3-4 inches taller than that and have to lengthen almost all bodices. As I'd added extra length in the bodice, I also needed to adjust the button placement, and actually ended up adding in an extra button as that was the spacing that seemed best for me.

I toyed with various different button ideas, and spent quite a while one Saturday afternoon sat on the floor of my local wool shop comparing how different blue, red, white and green buttons of varying sizes looked on an offcut of my material, but in the end I opted for some small, plain navy buttons from my stash - sometimes simple is best, don't you think?

I really enjoyed sewing Cami - yes, I may have regretted my fabric choice slightly when I was in the middle of all the pattern matching, but the dress itself sewed up really nicely and the instructions are thorough, clear and easy to follow - and there's a great sewalong if you need a helping hand with any of the steps (I got a bit confused about how the collar was meant to be attached, but a quick consultation of the sewalong soon cleared that up). I think the finished result looks quite professional too, which is always nice!

I'm really pleased with how this one turned out, it was definitely worth the effort I put into the pattern-matching and the dress feels lovely to wear. Plus as an added bonus, it seems that there's a lot of tartan/plaid in the shops at the moment so I may have accidentally sewn something 'fashionable' as well as it being something I like! Now that Mary's extended the Autumn of 1000 Shirtdresses until January, I'm quite tempted to try to sew another Cami. Will you be joining in with the challenge?