A couple of weeks ago I posted about project pictures and people left some really interesting comments – thanks so much for sharing! I meant to follow this up much sooner. One thing a few people mentioned was that they like to see detail shots. It made me realise that I really like those too but for some reason I never take any. I don’t really know why. They’re quite timeconsuming to get looking even half-decent, but I enjoy the process of fiddling around trying to catch the light.

Anyway it’s lovely and sunny this morning so I tried to get a few of the Death Star shirt dress.

Here’s the collar stand and buttonholes from the right side. I am showing you the best buttonhole. The rest are horrible. I followed Burda’s instructions and didn’t interface the dress placket which is why they’re such a mess. I can see why Burda didn’t interface; their dress is made out of chiffon so it would probably have looked odd. Although how you make buttonholes in chiffon without any stabliser is beyond me.

The instructions have you make a fairly narrow hem. This is the inside; it’s a little hard to tell on this fabric because the print bleeds right through to the wrong side. Again I suspect the width is on account of the original fabric being chiffon, but I like the shirt-like effect.

I overlocked the seams to finish the edges. No flat fell seams for me. They’d have been lost against the print anyway.

The cuffs are very simple. No button; just a strip that you sew onto the end of the very narrow sleeve. It does mean you can’t push the sleeves up which is about the only thing I don’t like about this style. And I seem to not have pressed this cuff very well because the short edge seam has rolled to the outside. Not that you can tell from a normal distance.

I’ve worn the dress to work a couple of times now and it’s standing up OK to wearing and washing despite the lack of interfacing. If I was making it again I’d definitely interface, and also make the sleeves a little less narrow. I have another shirt dress pattern cut out and waiting to be sewed up which will be an interesting comparison because it’s a vintage pattern – older than I am!