I felt like whipping up a new dress this weekend.  I have been wanting to make the Alder Shirtdress by Grainline Studio.   I pulled out some voile from the Robert Kaufman fabric line named London Calling.

The pattern is great.  The fabric is great.  My dress turned out great.  Then I had my hair dyed pink.  Although the dress has pink in it, it reads as orange when you see it in person or in pictures.  I wanted to get some pictures of the dress to show on my blog, and I dislike every photo taken.  It just flat out clashes with my new hair color!

I used pearl snaps instead of buttons.  I love snaps – so easy to apply and they make it fun to undress at the end of the day.

I made my usual armhole gap fix on this dress.  I have slim arms and a narrow chest, with larger boobs.  To fit around the boobage, I usually end up with gappy armholes on sleeveless garments.  I fix this by essentially making a casing in the armhole binding about 3 to 4″ each side of the side seam, and inserting a shorter piece of 1/4″ elastic to draw up the excess.  Works great for me.

I usually wear my hair blonde, so the color of the dress is a short lived problem.  In reality, though, this is not a shape that is flattering on my body.  I am too curvy for a an a-line shirtdress.  The Alder Shirtdress is an amazing pattern, but I am heading back to a more tried and true shape for me.  Stay tuned for my next dress…