TL; DR – IT DOES NOT LOOK LIKE A NIGHTSHIRT GOD DAMN IT.

Sorry, there’s a story behind that TL; DR, which is the story behind this dress. I was seeing these lovely pleated shirt dresses all over my internet feeds, like this one, from Marina Rinaldi:

I’ve been asking around in various sewing groups on FB and elsewhere, but there wasn’t a size-inclusive patter that did this. So I decided to hack my own.

I decided to use the Filippa shirt dress from Fibre Mood. It was already oversized, so I didn’t nee to worry about the sleeves and neck being wrong because I used a larger-sized pattern. I made up the dress in an old bed sheet, and then “clipped” pleats into it. I had done some basic math and figured I could do about 14 1″ pleats, but I had no idea where they should start or end. Hence, the clips. I ended up with 13 pleats – 7 in the back and 6 in the front.

I then marked the fabric for the pleats, making sure they were all the same width and height, and that they were equal distance apart, and sewed it up. I then measured the distance the first and last pleats were to the center, edges, and top, and transferred the pleats onto the pattern piece. I had decided that the front pleats were too close to the button placket, so I moved the measurements over a bit in the transfer.

And then got out my nice fabric, this lovely linen blend from Joann’s (RIP). I discovered that, despite my best efforts, the pleat lines weren’t straight, and so having straight lines on the dress helped me fix that. Unlike the dress in the example, this pattern didn’t have grown-in sleeves, but I liked the non-gathered version of the sleeve included in the patter.

And then, because I was so proud of how it turned out (I mean, LOOK AT IT!!!!), I went to one of the FB sewing groups to share what I had done and how I had done it. The VERY FIRST COMMENT?

“You should change the sleeves next time so it looks less like a nightshirt.”

I’m not proud of this, but I wrote a REALLY snarky reply, posted it, and then deleted it, all while choking back tears. That one really hurt.

But anyway, next time, I’m going to get rid of the hidden placket (the fold-over is annoying and won’t stay folded over), and I might yet add some grown on sleeves. Overall, I am pretty chuffed, as they say, about how this one turned out an I can’t wait to make it again and make it better!