Saturday, August 28, 2010

Summer Shirtdress

I needed a break from hand sewing on my jacket. As I was browsing through the August issues of the foreign sewing magazines that I subscribe to, this dress caught my eye. I thought the cross hatched tucks on the skirt was interesting and the rest of the dress was a style that works well on my body type.



The pattern is from the August 2010 issue of a Russian sewing magazine Шитье и крой which translates to Sewing and Cut.

The translated description of the magazine from the distributor's website: “Not simply a sewing magazine with patterns, it helps readers create their own fashionable look and accessories. Featuring the latest fashion from the catwalks of the world, it is possible to wear the same fashions as actresses using our convenient patterns and clear instructions. This magazine also presents the work of Russian fashion designers. Each issue contains 70 original patterns for woman. Target audience – women of 16-35 years. ”

Well I am definitely not in the magazine's age demographic, but I thought with the addition of about 10 inches to the length of the skirt, it was wearable by someone my age.

I recently figured out how to translate scans of the foreign language picture captions and sewing instructions into English. Even those written in Russian Cyrillic characters. First step is to use free online OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software to extract text from an image scan (JPG, GIF, TIFF BMP or PDF) of the sections of text on the magazine pages. Then copy/past the text into free translation software which recognizes Cyrillic characters. Pretty slick. When school starts for my sons this fall, I plan to use the OCR to convert the 15 or so printed forms I have to fill out for each son, into electronic word documents that can be updated every year. Also the blasted information forms that my dentist insists be filled out every year from scratch for every member of the family. But I am getting off track.

The pattern instructions suggest gabardine as the fabric. I used a cross woven linen look fabric for the dress and Bemberg rayon for the lining. I omitted the side seam pocket. I used an invisible zipper in the side seam. The dress pattern is printed in one size - 48, which corresponded with my measurements. The only pattern modifications I did were those I do for any commercial pattern; increasing the back length and adding back shoulder seam darts for shaping. I love this color blue accented either red or saddle brown. And it will be a good dress to wear this fall.

Here is a picture of me and Miss Ashley in front of the fall blooming clematis that is taking over my deck. It smells wonderful. We are using the wireless remote for the new camera to take pictures of ourselves. Miss Ashley didn't much like the camera staring at her from the other side of the deck, making funny clicking noises.

25 comments:

  1. A shirtdress with great details. It looks very nice on you.

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  2. This dress is so cute on you. I love the pleating detail on the skirt. It makes the classic shirt dress so much more fun and youthful! It really does suit you. Thanks for the translation tips as well!

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  3. Very nice! The skirt's sewn-down pleats look to be a big improvement over Burda's folded-in giant pleat skirts that look great on the printed page, but, apparently, poof out unattractively in wear. Thanks for showing the pattern piece!

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  4. This looks great on you! I love the unique darts/pleats in the skirt. That color is perfect for fall, too. I wish I could find more foreign magazines around here. I am limited to Burda, and although I love it, I'd really like to branch out a little.

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  5. What a pretty dress! Your expert sewing skills show, as usual. Thanks for the translation tip.

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  6. That looks so, so elegant! I love the skirt, I was just looking at one in 05-2008 Burda. I love it as a dress, so flattering.

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  7. I subscribe to this one too! I had no idea that was the name :) I picked this dress out as a favorite and I'm thrilled to see it made up. Beautiful!

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  8. Initially a classic shirt dress, on closer look those gorgeous details on it. Perfect dress and suits you so well.

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  9. I love a classic, breezy shirtdress, and yours looks perfect! I admire your tenacity to sew from a Russian magazine. I took several years of Russian classes in school, but Dostoyevsky didn't use sewing terms, so it's no use at all!

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  10. I think what I like so much about your sewing is that each project is like a challenge to you. And that you bring us along for the ride.

    I love the color. I love the details and it's awesome that you've figured out how to translate the magazine!

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  11. [OCR! Word! so clever!] Love the dress - it looks fantastic on you.

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  12. Great dress, great shoes, great hair (as always!) and, above all, great cat!

    Thanks for the tip re: translation. I need my own scanner, definitely!

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  13. That dress looks great on you! It's great design – a shirtdress plus a little more!

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  14. That dress looks really lovely on you. Classic with a twist.

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  15. http://www.couturesmith.comAugust 29, 2010 at 8:15:00 AM EDT

    A very nice take on the classic shirtdress. I love the skirt detail!

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  16. Lovely dress on you! Miss Ashley seems to like it as well. I love shirtdresses and this one has some cool details.

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  17. The dress looks great on you! I was wondering, where did you get the subscription? I'd like to subscribe to this, but have no idea how. Thanks.

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  18. That's a unique shirtdress--with really interesting details to update it.

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  19. In answer to Katia's question. I subscribed to the magazine through the Podpiska.us website. The US ditributer is located in Newton, MA
    Call: 1-800-PODPISKA (1-800-763-7475)

    The link to the magazine order screen on this site is below.

    http://www.podpiska.us/default.aspx?main=detail&ID=60088

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  20. Really cool dress! I'm impressed you figured out the construction of that skirt--the pattern piece baffles me.

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  21. The darts are so similar to my design for burdastyle book dress project.... i am elated

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  22. I love the dress and your fabric choice. Thanks for reviewing this issue of Шитьё и крой, I'll see if I can find it. BTW if you'll need some help with translation next time you can always rely on me (If you can bear my English :-)

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  23. I was just showing my husband a picture of a shirt dress I wanted to make, so it is very timely to read your post. The dress colour and style look lovely on you. Well done for interpreting another language to make this.

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