TL; DR – I did gathers! Struggling with ease! Still fun!

I got a whole bunch of vintage fabric from my local buy-nothing group, including this kinda beige, muslin-type fabric with a lovely floral embroidery at the bottom. It was a narrow fabric, paired with the large motif, it made it hard to know what to do with it.

Enter a tiered, shirt-dress pattern, Avery by The Fabrics Store.

I love a good shirt dress, and I love the detail of the tiers. I had some red quilting fabric I had gotten for a steal which I decided to use as a contrast fabric, and make up what I was missing from the embroidery fabric.

I messed up the collar, but that is (again) my inability to sew straight OR curved. But I wasn’t sure how the dress would turn out given the fabric, thinking it was more of a wearable toile, but I’m pretty happy with the results. The sizing is a bit weird, and I’m not sure making it a size smaller would have had enough ease, versus this size, which seems like too much.

I did do some contrast top-stitching, but I also made the button holes too big for the buttons, so they don’t stay closed. This is all on me, not on the pattern. The holes ARE all centered and on the same line, so there’s that. I’m going to make this one again, but with a different kind of fabric, maybe without the contrast. Or maybe with!

I do feel like I should be singing in the Alps or something when I wear this dress.