Ask someone to imagine a shirt and they’ll no doubt picture a white button down work shirt. On the surface, they can seem a bit ‘samey’. But delve just a tiny bit deeper and we can see the shirt holds so much potential. I’ve sewn a fair few shirts and shirt dresses from independent sewing pattern brands, so here’s a round up of my top tried and tested patterns…
Saraste Shirt and Shirt Dress from Named Clothing
This pattern is from Named’s book Breaking the Pattern. The book includes 10 patterns and each one has a number of variations. It’s a stonker of a book, well worth investing in.
I’ve made a couple of versions of the Saraste shirt dress, and used the collar on a different shirt dress (the Honeycomb from CocoWawa Crafts). The construction is so clever, with continuous pieces right the way down the front of the dress, with gathered skirt sections either side. A totally unique way to reimagine the classic shirt dress.