Kalle shirtdress

The Closet Case Patterns Kalle shirtdress pattern has been all over the instagram and blog sewing circles, and with good reason: it’s an excellent breezy summer dress, tunic, or top, and comes with a lot of mix-and-match collar and placket options to make it your own.

I picked up this thick, drapey, slightly loose-weave cotton (possibly a blend?) from the Textile Center‘s annual garage sale a couple weeks back, and I instantly set it aside for a Kalle. I originally wanted to make the dress, but I only had just enough fabric for the tunic length.

I made a size 18 graded to a 20 with a 1.5″ FBA, resulting in a side dart. You can see here the amount of ease I ended up with – while I like the shaping the dart gives, I think there’s actually a little too much ease around the chest, so I plan to bring that in a little on my next one. The dart placement is also a little tricky, because the style means the shirt shifts around as I wear it, but I think I’m going to bring them up a little, combined with a forward neck adjustment (shifting forward the shoulder seam line) to try to take care of the way the collar falls back as I wear it.

I like the ease around my hips when I’m walking, but it does catch a little over my butt, because, you know, butt. I might give just a little wedge of extra space there, but the problem might also be mitigated with a different fabric.

I am going to also give a little more space in the arms; I added a little but I definitely want more ease, as it does pull when my arms are down. As you can see, I decided to forgo buttons in this version, just sewing the popover placket closed halfway up, and I love the simple, monochrome look.

That was a lot of notes on fit, I know! I do really love it despite the things I want to change for my next go around, and I know I’ll reach for it this summer as a good breezy option. I have my mind on a raspberry-colored linen for version #2, probably in the dress length.

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