Jaime's Alder Shirtdress

There was no question in my mind of what I wanted to do with this beautiful navy lawn fabric: an Alder Shirtdress!

Pattern: Alder Shirtdress by Grainline Studios, View A
Fabric: Cotton and Steel Lawn, Sunrise Indigo Metallic Copper by Alexia Abegg
​Size Made: 4
Alterations: Unintentional modifications were made (oops)

Oh man... this fabric! I can't say enough about it. Alexia Abegg has really been blowing it out of the park with her designs for Cotton + Steel, and this new one is a real masterpiece. It's a soft, indigo cotton lawn with lovely metallic copper mountain/eye print sparsely decorating it. Gah! My extreme love of this fabric makes me a little sad that I made a major mistake when sewing this dress that ended up making it a bit too small. Insert sadface emoticon here.

I had made this dress before and I have to say, it was a total win and is one of my favorite garments. It has plenty of room and I wear it all the time. I managed to make my first Alder without any mistakes..so its weird that I would mess up my second one. I guess I had a little too much confidence going into this project and just didn't read the instructions thoroughly. I sewed my button placket on incorrectly which resulted in my dress being a bit too small. It looks fine, and is very hard to notice, but that button placket should only be an inch wide and its about 1 1/2" because of my mistake. I didn't realize, of course, until I had completely finished the dress, button holes and all, and tried it on. I was so confused as to why it fit so differently when I made it the same size and it took me a bit to realize my mistake. Oh sewing.

I had a make it work moment. I took off my buttons and re-attached them at the very edge of their placket to give myself an extra 1/4 - 3/8". It helped. I can totally wear the dress and most people don't notice, but it definitely has some fit issues that didn't exist in my first Alder. I will still wear it because I love it. I will also still make Alder's because it is a favorite pattern and next time I will pretend like I had never made it before and read the directions.

I still love this dress. We have these copper-colored shell buttons I used to finish it that just work perfectly with this print. The dress is so light and airy and is perfect for spring and will be great for summer as well. I'm thankful for the lovely weather we've been having and a chance to wear this and photograph it outside.

Happy Spring Sewing! I hope this inspires some new garments in your wardrobe.