Liberty Carline Shirtdress

At the minute it feels like all I've been making is shirtdresses, but a look back over my posts has proved me wrong.  There have been a lot of blouses and shirts, so maybe it's just all those buttonholes.  Anyway,  this most definitely is a shirtdress, and it's a beauty, even if I say so myself!

 

This dress is all about the fabric, which is Liberty Carline.  I've seen so many gorgeous dresses made from this fabric.  I was going to link to some but there are too many, so here's a google image link which includes some of my favourites.  I have to mention these two dresses (here and here) as my two recent favourites though.

 

 

My fabric was bought on the internet last year and was sold as red, but when I got it, it was most definitely pink.  I was a bit disappointed as I'm not very fond of pink, but I absolutely love this print, and there are enough red tones and green in it to counteract the pinkness.  Also, I was a bit concerned that it might clash with my red hair, but I decided to embrace the clashing in a devil-may-care style!

 

Having drooled over the above-mentioned gorgeous makes, I knew that there was no point in using a pattern with detailed style lines, as they would get lost in the print.  So I went with my shirtdress bodice, and used the full skirt from good old McCall's 6696.  The collar and neckline is a follow on from this blouse, because I loved how it turned out.  I cut the upper collar in two pieces so I could get the small flowers on the front collar edges, but forgot that my hair won't cover that back seam just now!

 

Sewing it up went well, the only thing I stalled on was the buttons.  I had wanted buttons to match the colours in the flowers, but they turned out to be difficult to get.  The buttons I used were the only ones that I could find.  When I went to do the buttonholes, I decided that I didn't really love these buttons, and thought cream buttons would be nicer.  Cue another button hunt, but I ended up going back to the pink buttons.  They are a bit too small though, and therefore fiddly to do up.

I absolutely love this dress, and would be very happy to get my paws on some of this fabric in red.  I've also seen some dresses made up in purple, so if anybody knows where I can get it, please share.

 

Thanks!!

Lynne