Happy Monday everyone! I’m coming to you from Chicago where I’m pretending today is another weekend day and spending the day with my aunt, cousins and her 2 and a half month old baby girl. Before I left for Chicago, I had the chance to take some photos of my new Kalle Shirt that I finished up at Stitch Sew Shop last week.
This pattern was a must-sew for me because it is named after Kalle from Stitch Sew Shop and all us Stitch girls have to all have one! Plus, I’m a Closet Case Patterns addict – so I couldn’t miss it!
I chose to sew up the tunic length version with the popover placket and inverted pleat in a black tencel twill from Stitch Sew Shop. I love this fabric – it is so drapey and comfy to wear. Until I sewed up my Silk Cami last month in tencel from Indiesew, I had never sewed with tencel before. While I really loved the Indiesew tencel, the tencel from Stitch was even more drapey and washed up beautifully.
While I normally opt for the prints and the bright colors, I chose to sew this up in black and I love it – I wore it to Chicago on the plane on Friday and it was such a comfy travel shirt.
One of the things I love about this shirt is how many different versions you can make. It has multiple placket options – full button placket, hidden placket or popover placket. You could make a crop top, tunic or dress. For the collar you could do a band collar or a traditional collar stand. And if that isn’t enough, you have two pleat options – a box or inverted pleat.
While I thought I wouldn’t like the stand collar, I actually want to make my next version with the collar stand. I love the pop over color that lots are people are putting underneath the collar.
Instead of using the tencel for the bias tape I went for a fun pop of color with some Liberty pre-made bias tape. You can see it because of the shirt tail hem, but I think it adds a bit of me to the shirt!
When I make another one, I think another thing I’d like to do is shorten the shirt both in the front and the back. As I am pretty short, I think it would make it be less like a dress in the back.
I used really beautiful vintage buttons from Stitch Sew Shop. Because I’m terrified of buttonholes, I added just two buttons, but think next time, I might try to do three. I had to wear a tank top underneath my Kalle to make sure you couldn’t see in between the buttons. PS I used this amazing tool to place my buttons!
I really love that Heather does a sew along or tutorials for the majority of her patterns. For the Kalle, she’s doing a full sew along. If you’re planning on sewing one up, make sure to check out Heather’s posts – for me, it always helps to see pictures in addition to seeing the drawings in the instructions!
Kalle Shirtdress Tunic Summary:
Size Made: 8
View: Tunic Length with popover placket and inverted pleat
Fabric Used: Black Tencel Twill from Stitch Sew Shop
Notions Used: Sewing Gauge for Button Placement, 2 vinage buttons
Ease of Construction: It’s got all your typical shirt construction components – so it doesn’t come together super quickly, but with the instructions and the tutorial you have all the tools you need.
Fit: It was a great fit on me. It does have a lot of ease, so I’m glad I stayed with my “normal” size for Heather’s patterns.
Repeatable? Absolutely – I want to make another tunic version a little shorter and with the traditional collar.