Happy Valentine’s Day, my dear sewing friends. Hope you are celebrating love in all its forms, whether it’s love of family, friends, co-workers, pets, romantic partners, shirt dresses, or whatever makes you feel warm and happy. ❤
Speaking of love, big shout out to Alex of Sewrendipity whose sense of style I wish I had one tiny ounce of. I *love* her style. And her personality. I basically just want to BE her. (I had to settle for chatting with her on the Clothes Making Mavens podcast instead…did you hear that episode?) Anyway, I saw her post about this Ralph Pink Sahara Shirt Dress and I just had to make one myself.
I do love a great shirt dress. And do you know what I love even more than a great shirt dress? A great, kinda weird shirt dress. It’s almost as wide as it is long. It’s kinda weird, and I love it.
I used a modal shirting I bought at Fabricland in 2018, on sale for $5 per meter. It’s got amazing drape and a lovely kind of sand-washed finish. My #longsufferingphotographer (Big Love shout-out to you, Dave!) had such a hard time photographing it…either you could actually see the shirt and I was a bright ball of white light, or you could see my face and the shirt was a dark mystery. We generally opted for the ball of white light photos, as you can see.
I bought 3.5 meters of this fabric which is really unusual for me; my go-to length is 2 meters if I don’t have anything in particular in mind to make with it. I’m glad my instincts were good because while I wasted some of this fabric on a pair of pants that turned out very sucky (see below), I still had plenty leftover for this giant tent of a garment.
So far I’ve only worn it with pants but I’m sure it’ll be easy as a dress in warmer weather. In these photos I am wearing it with my Named Paola turtleneck. All-season styling possibilities!
Here are the sucky pants that I made from the same fabric. Fail! They’re in the time-out pile awaiting a refashion to determine their fate. Ugh, they look so bad with those shoes, too. What was I thinking?
But life’s too short to dwell on too-short pants. I have all the heart-eyes for this shirt dress!
Sending love your way. Thanks so much for stopping by!
— Lori
Frivolous At Last 
That looks amazing with the contrasting turtleneck. I don’t see many Ralph Pink patterns in blogland which is a pity as they’re so stylish.
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Love the dress! Pants might look a lot better in summer with sandals.
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That shirt makes you look like a wild artist…
I like it!
PS I just had a pants fail, too. (Style ARC Bob Woven Pant pattern.) The sewing was fine and in a nice rayon. I just felt dumpy when I tried them on. Never wore them. Bundled them off to the Thrift Store today, so they wouldn’t be around to torture me. They might look good on someone else, I hope.
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Thank you so much for your kind words, Lori!! And I’m so glad you gave this pattern a go. I love mine after all those years and wear it loads! This blue is perfect, and I do love the combo with the mustard turtleneck! And I don’t think the trousers are as bad as that. Maybe for a different season with sandals?
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I left a comment a couple of days ago but strangely it’s not in your list. So here goes again. Hope I’m lucky this time.
LOVE the shirt. Thanks for the link to Sewrendipity. Love her shirt too. It looks so good with skinny pants, wide pants and as a dress.
My questions are: what size did you make and what is the finished width?
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Oooh it’s so cool! I love the angled shoulder pocket, it’s the perfect touch. Is the shirtdress wide enough though? 😉
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