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.
Love that bias tape 😉
We were making the same thing this weekend! I made up my muslin Kalle this weekend and have to say mine did NOT turn out as beautiful as yours! In fact I tossed the pattern right afterwards. It didn’t suit me and I did an FBA and a forward shoulder adjustment) which turned out to be really awkward with this pattern because the sleeve continues from the neck and the FBA meant it ended up pulling for some crazy reason through the back. I was heartbroken because I do love Closet Case too and just loved the finished pieces I’ve seen including yours which is gorgeous and I”m sure will inspire many to give the pattern a try which is why I thought I’d just give people a warning that this is not a pattern to fiddle with. Make it as is!