April 2025 (DECADE: 60s)
Alice Dress
DOWNLOAD Alice Dress YOUR PAST CREW LIBRARYChannel your inner bohemian!
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Meet #ClosetCoreAlice!
This Month's Issue
BLOG POST
Meet the Alice Dress!
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Fabric Ideas for Alice
SEWALONG
Sew Alice With Us in Our Complete Video Sewalong!
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How to Add Embroidery to Your Me-Mades›
BLOG TUTORIAL
How to Use Border Prints
BLOG TUTORIAL
Tips for Sewing Gathers
MEET THE MUSE
An interview with musician Alice Coltrane
60s SPOTIFY PLAYLIST
Heather's Favourite Trippy Psychedelic Grooves
Shop Our Samples:
Fabric Suggestions From Core Fabrics
What You’ll Need:
FABRIC REQUIREMENTS
The Alice dress will shine in a variety of light- to midweight wovens with moderate drape.
- For a flowy and ethereal effect: rayon challis, viscose, silk crepe, chiffon, charmeuse, or georgette
- For more body: batiste, voile, lawn, chambray, broadcloth, poplin, shirtings, double gauze, or linen
ADDITIONAL SUPPLIES
- Lightweight fusible interfacing, 0.25 yd (0.25 m)
- Matching thread
- Long string, safety pin, or tube turner (for turning the ties right side out)
This fabric came with a lot of flaws/dropped stitches and holes in the selvages. I havent seen this before in all my years of buying fabric. In addition to serging the raw edges before prewashing, I also sewed a line of stitching down each selvage to the inside of the flaws prior to prewashing. They did not spread or get worse after washing, and this fabric washed beautifully. I am a little concerned that I may have gotten a bad piece because most of the other reviews are so positive. Hopefully it sews up ok!
For context, I have made several classic button-ups and I’m quite experienced with shirt making. Since i made the cropped version, i will not comment on features that anre only on the longer version like the curved hem and gusset. I used Liesl & co Classic Shirt methods for assembling the yokes and bodice, attaching the collar bands to the neckline, and sewing the sleeve plackets.
What I appreciated: the oversized style made it very easy to fit. I’m 5’10” and I added 2” to the sleeve length. I have broad shoulders and the only adjustment I made was to grade from size L bust to M waist to get a good shoulder and upper chest fit.
* The pattern is well drafted; the deep yoke and hand loop were nice style elements.
* The seam allowance made it very easy to do flat fell seams for the armscye and side/sleeve seams. The inside of my shirt looks so clean! This shirt definitely has the prettiest insides of all the shirts I’ve made so far.
* Previous patterns I’ve used only trimmed the curved seam allowance of the collar stand to 1/4” while this pattern trimmed to 1/8”. The extra trimming made such a big difference and I’m so pleased to now have that tip in my shirtmaking bag-o-tricks.
What could have been better: * Instructions for collar stand curve and sleeve cuff were not very useful friendly or detailed enough. I think I would have had a rough time if this had been my first time making a button-up.
* The sleeve placket opening was a bit too long and it made it hard to keep the sleeves rolled up, so I shortened the opening and the sleeve placket by 1/2”
* I’m not sure what happened but my sleeve cuffs were about 1/4” to 3/8” wider than the sleeve so the dots didn’t quite match the edges of the sleeve plackets. This was not a big deal because I just so used the notch to align the sleeve cuffs to the sleeves and stitched along the edge of plackets.
Overall, this was a lovely pattern. Highly recommend.
This bundle is amazing for creating a well constructed and fashionable wardrobe of staple garments you can wear again and again. The well-thought-out finishing of these patterns makes them look high-end, but without the fuss of being overly complicated to construct.
The fit and drape of these is lovely, I made a pair in a medium weight linen and I'm so happy with them. The zipper install video that goes with was the easiest I've seen and I've started sewing all zip flies with this method. Will definitely be making another pair of these soon!
The pattern is drafted really well, the instructions were very clear and well written, and overall I just love how the entire project ended up!!
