RTW Rub-off Dress

Back in Dec 2020, I bought a RTW shirt dress. At the time, this felt like an extremely bougie purchase – $300 for dress? Yikes. I liked the dress so much I bought it in another colour way the following year. This brand clearly designed for a shape larger than a B cup – because this button up shirt never gaped, ever. And when it started to come apart at the seams, it was an easy decision to cut it up and turn it into a pattern to replace it.

I first reached for a delicious reversible pink and white cotton fabric to recreate this dress. Purchased from Mendel Goldberg quite a number of years before.

But unfortunately, the length I received had a permanent crease line down the centre of the length, also also a number of faults in the fabric – neither of which I saw until I had started to cut out the fabric. I tried to place the faults along the waistline so they’d be hidden by the tie, but alas, I couldn’t cut out the sleeves around the fault line… and then I realised I had a fault that was highly visible on the front bodice piece. So it was game over for that, and an expensive lesson learnt to better inspect my fabric before cutting into it – which I feel I shouldn’t have to do when I’m buying notably expensive pieces of fabric.

But also, the original RTW dress was made of a heavy but drapey 100% tencil fabric, and I think the structured nature of the pink cotton meant it ultimately wouldn’t have worked as well for this style. This partially constructed dress remains on a hanger in my sewing room, where I’m contemplating how I might save it and make it a short sleeve blouse somehow? We’ll see.

My second attempt made it to the finish line! I used a very poorly behaved silk twill (all twills are badly behaved to sew with, lets be honest), that I underlined with a white silk CDC. Which is honestly making things about as hard as it can get for myself. With much frustration and on-the-fly problem solving, this dress turned out ok! The combined weights of the silk together make it feel like heavyweight silk, which is honestly such a beautifully tactile experience to wear.

The original RTW dress ended up ripping along the side split, so I’ve done some extra re-enforcing at this seam junction. One of the challenges I have good photos of is how much more the silk twill dropped under its own weight as compared to the underlining, which required a rather large intervention of unpicking the basting threads, and re-attaching to remove the excess fabric.

It was also the first garment I sewed on my brand new sewing machine – a belated 40th birthday present! So the new machine and I were slowly getting to know each other, and I became only more and more impressed with it as we went along. But especially – when it came time for buttonholes! I can’t believe I genuinely thought my 15 yo base model Janome would do better button holes? I was schooled – the slippery fabric got stuck in my old Janome’s feed dog, and it could barely finish a buttonhole. It only made me more impressed how well my new machine handled this tricksy fabric:

The mix of the silk twill underlined with silk CDC makes it an absolutely delight to have up against one’s skin. The two dresses, side by side:

Yeah I really need to find a better shoe match, and also not take photos in an orange dress after doing a workout so I’m not so red in the face. Dubious lighting in my work end-of-trip facilities aren’t doing me any favours here either (I swear the colour on me isn’t this hideous IRL!).

Onwards!

I did really need one more shirt dress in my wardrobe to have a comfortable number of garments in circulation. This Nani Iro Linen (“as it is” print in the pink/yellow/orange colourway) from Miss Matatabi had been a contender for my previous shirt dress pattern (McCalls 6891), but I was super nervous it wouldn’t be heavy enough or drapey enough to give the shape I so loved about the original Tencel version. Come to think of it, a wool crepe would likely work wonders! Other stash contenders all required underlining and that was something I want a long and proper break from for now.

I cut this one out over the Christmas break with the intention of sewing it up late January on a scheduled few sewing days with my Melbourne Couture Group.

I’d been very much influenced by a lot of Zoe Kratzmann rtw garments lately – they have many lovely details like matching cotton lace, eyelet, embroidery and – fagot trim. Also known as bridging, laddering and Entredeux trim. I couldn’t quite get a colour match I was happy with, but ended up including some of the white ladder trim on the sleeve and the collar.

This version came together with far more speed and enjoyment than its predecessor. And here it is, finished:

I’ve got one more new shirt dress to show you – which means my day-to-day work wear wardrobe is now replenished for the remainder of this season. Which means I can move onto a few more ‘fun’ separates that have been waiting patiently in the wings!