Striped Shirtdress

Here is a recently completed "unfinished object" (UFO) that I started sewing over a year ago. I had originally intended to wear it myself, but when it did not fit me very well, I hung it in the closet, where it stayed until my sister asked me about it months later. "Are you ever going to wear that striped dress?" she said. Rolling my eyes, I replied, "Are you kidding?"(meaning, of coarse, that the answer was "No"). "Well, good!" she said. "Maybe I can wear it!" I told her that she could try it on and was surprised to find that it fit her perfectly!




For this dress, I used McCall's 4769.The fabric is a navy blue and white seersucker with an 1/8" stripe. I turned the skirt panels on the bias to create a chevron pattern, eliminating the button placket on the skirt and sewing a center front seam there instead. This caused me to change the order of construction by completing the entire bodice first, save for the left side seam and the buttons/buttonholes. In order to compensate for the shortened placket opening, I inserted an invisible zipper in the left side seam:

I also cut the button placket on the bias, as well. I didn't use the pattern's sash piece; my sister cut one out using her waist measurement, and I helped her sew it together. The fabric's stripes aren't particularly clear in the first two photos, but the details are clearer in the picture below, which I took before the dress was completed.





All that was required to finish this dress was making the buttonholes, sewing on the buttons, and finishing the hem. Now that it's actually done, I'm happy with how this pattern turned out, and I'm glad that my sister can wear it so that the project wasn't a "waste," after all!