Corduroy seems to always find a way into my Fall sewing plans and I can always count on Anthropologie to have a offerings to inspire me. When I saw this shirt dress on their website, I had to have a new corduroy shirt dress of my own.
I’ve made a couple of shirt dresses before using a variety of Big Four and Indie patterns (here, here and here). I decided to use a new pattern, McCall’s 7575 for this dress, because I loved how the bodice was shaped by long darts.
I also love shirts with back yokes and two piece sleeves. View C was my choice because it’s tunic length, easily modified to a dress.
My corduroy was purchased at Fabric Depot. It has a soft hand and a touch of lycra, which makes a form-fitting dress sooooo comfortable to wear. The rust color caught my eye, a must have!
I followed the pattern but modified as follows;
- I lengthened it by six inches.
- I added a very wide self tie to the side seams (8” wide to allow for turning the edges under for a clean finish) . Positioning this was a bit tricky. The Anthro waist tie rides a bit above the waist, and it took a few tries to get it right. Also, I think the Anthro waist tie is faced so that you don’t see the wrong side when it’s tied, but I didn’t have enough fabric. I think it looks okay one-sided with an edge stitched finish, but if I had to do it over again, I’d buy more fabric.
- To recreate the close-fitting look of the Anthro dress, I lengthened the bodice darts (both front and back) so that they extended the full length of the dress. Then I top stitched them down to give the look of french seams.
- I added French seams on the side, back yoke and on the sleeves and topstitched them all.
- The Anthro dress doesn’t have pockets, but I added a couple. I’m not sure that was a wise choice ( ??) as the tie overlaps over the pockets. The pockets might be a bit of a distraction from the lines of the dress. Opinions welcome…
I love this pattern and will definitely add it to my arsenal of shirt patterns! I always feel ready for Fall when I’m wearing corduroy, a throwback to the days when I bought corduroy skirts to wear to school, I suppose. It’s so funny how that ritual of getting ready for the first days of school still dominates my Fall mood in spite of the fact that my family is beyond that stage of life.
When I’m taking photos for a blog post, I always try different shoes with a dress because as long as I’m at it, I might as well see what the options are, am I right?
As you can see in the photos, I tried the dress with booties with tights, booties without tights and tall boots. I think I like the tall boots best, although I’m not sure the mustard tone of my tall boots is really warm enough to go with the rust color. Opinions welcome!
Happy sewing and thanks for stopping by!
Did I tell you all that I’m headed to France in September? I’m beyond excited. We’re headed to the Dordogne region followed by a visit to Paris which will definitely include some fabric shopping. I’ve started a packing list and this dress is versatile enough to earn a place in my suitcase.
