TL; DR – DO NOT GET COMPLACENT, transfer the pattern marking onto the fabric FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.

This is my second Kalle shirtdress. I did my first one early in my sewing journey, and it took some time, given all the various skills I had to learn (collar, placket, bias tape hem). This time, I came in thinking, this will be easy, I am a pro now! I wasn’t doing anything different, in terms of length, finishing, etc. This shirt dress comes in three lengths, two different hem finishings, and two different fronts (placket or full buttons), and I even have the sleeve extension. But I wanted just another shirt dress, just like the first, because I wanted an easy sew.

And then I tried to sew the placket to the wrong side of the dress.

The challenge of sewing with shirting fabric is that the front and back look almost identical. I put sewed the placket on initially the right way, but somewhere in the folding and the sewing it got turned around. I sat there for an hour trying to figure out how to make it work, and then what I had done wrong. I had sewed and topstiched everything, so I sat there for another hour or so unpicking it. And then once it was all back to square one, I realized my mistake. I felt kinda stupid. But at least the placket looks good now.

I still had to consult with the Kalle tutorial on setting the collar, but it went much easier this time, and I think it looks amazing.

But for whatever reason, I couldn’t set the cuffs properly. Why do I need to mark the pieces, I thought. I’ll just line up the shoulder and under-arm seams and…

I swear to god I have never had this much difficulty finishing a sleeve in my short sewing life. I was swearing at the fabric. The first problem was that I didn’t follow the seam allowance at the curved underarm, so I had to fix that so that it all fit. And then, well, I had to go back and mark the pattern markings on the cuffs so I could line them up. And then it worked.

I guess I never should have not done it, but for the life of me, I still don’t understand why two little cut marks made that much of a damn difference. But they did.

And, I also did a fantastic job lining up the stripes. And spacing and centering the button holes. I mean, look at it! The shoulders even line up! The yoke in the back isn’t perfectly aligned, but that’s so hard to do with a pleat. So while it might now have been an easier sew than the first one I did because I got complacent, it’s a much cleaner sew because of my experience.