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She's here! The Kelly shirt dress

She's here! The Kelly shirt dress

Home   The Forget-me-not Patterns Blog   She's here! The Kelly shirt dress
Customer makes Kelly Pattern release

June 21, 2024

The Kelly shirt dress is finally here, and she's been a long time in the making! Jo here, designer for Forget-me-not Patterns, and I'm welcoming our newest sewing pattern with a sense of pride! She's a passion project, for sure. I poured all my love for fitted bodices and tailored details into this pattern. Read on to learn all about Kelly and see some lovely tester makes, or shop the pattern here! Kelly is 20% off to celebrate launch week!

The Kelly shirt dress is a spin on the classic A-line shirt dress. The stand collar and puff sleeves are fun additions to the traditional darted bodice and lightly gathered skirt. The real treats, though, are the triangular insets at the neck and shoulder! Kelly comes with three bust fits across the full 28-56 size range (32.5-30.5" hip) with fully illustrated instructions to help make your sewing as enjoyable as can be!

Line drawings for Kelly shirt dress showing front views

You may be wondering why we don't have a beautiful photoshoot to accompany this pattern. I am currently suffering from severe Long Covid and have had to suspend many activities, including sewing. In the meantime, thank you for all your support in this extremely trying time. 🤍

Instead of a studio shoot this time around, our wonderfully talented testers and ambassadors have agreed to showcase their gorgeous Kelly dresses! Scroll down to see their beautiful versions!

Alright, let's get to hyping up my pride and joy, the Kelly shirt dress.

Silhouette and Style Lines

Line drawings for Kelly shirt dress showing front and back views

Taking inspiration from Victorian era details, prairie and cottagecore elements, and timeless silhouettes, the Kelly dress is a modern take on the classic shirt dress. Against the soft fit and flare silhouette, Kelly features unique inset diagonal style lines on the front and back. This creates a fun opportunity to personalize the design by adding the included ruffle, playing with print direction, colourblocking or piping. 

The tailored elements, such as the stand collar and seamed-on button band, are balanced with more simple gathered puff sleeves and a gathered skirt. Choose from short puff sleeves or three-quarter length, and two length options for the skirt.
And, of course, she's got pockets!

Sizing & Fit

Every body is unique, but we did our best to make a pattern that will set you up for fitting success! The darted bodice includes three different bust fit styles, so you can spend less time fitting and more time enjoying sewing. If you're used to doing a small or full bust adjustment, we've got you covered! Since it's a fitted bodice, we've also included extra wide seam allowances on the side and underarm seam for extra room to work with. 

Kelly is designed to sit at the natural waist with minimal ease, with the bust and waist shaped with darts. The sleeve is moderately fitted through the biceps, and the three-quarter sleeve is tailored at the forearm. The soft gathered skirt is loose through the hip. The longer skirt length sits above the knee, and the shorter length is 6cm (2 ⅜”) above that.

The Kelly dress is available in our full size range. Sizes 28-56 comprises hips measuring 32.5"-60.5" (83cm-153cm). All sizes include three bust cup options. For full details, check out our Size Guide. 

 Skills and Techniques

Kelly is a great skill-building pattern, with lots of core sewing techniques to practice and perfect with our thorough instructions. We've rated it advanced because the process is involved. However, it's totally doable for a patient advanced beginner or improver sewist. While there are many steps to sewing the Kelly dress, the steps themselves aren't necessarily difficult.

We've taken extra care to break down tailored sewing techniques into easy to follow instructions, complete with illustrated diagrams and lots of helpful hints along the way. 

Kelly Inspiration

Here's me in my Kelly shirt dress. I took these pics before I got Long Covid, when it was still at the prototype stage. This is the shorter skirt view with the three-quarter sleeve, made up in a cotton chambray with a woven dot pattern. I chose wooden buttons to complement the casual feel of the chambray. This fabric definitely hits the prairie dress vibe I was inspired by, and the ruffle gives it an extra fun flair. It's sweet and casual, but I feel very put-together! Because I used the small bust option for my size, I didn't have to make many fitting adjustments; I shortened the waist slightly (which is standard for me) and that's it. Even though my hips are in the next size up, I didn't have to adjust the skirt, because the gathers accommodate my curves. 

Tester Makes

Boon Kuan's Forget-me-not Kelly dress
Boon Kuan's Forget-me-not Kelly dress
Boon Kuan @limbksews played up the bodice style lines by adding contrasting piping to her denim Kelly. 
 
Sanne's Forget-me-not Kelly dress
Sanne's Forget-me-not Kelly dress
 
Sanne @sanne_being_creative is garden party ready with her lengthened Kelly dress. She made the full bust fit style and got a stunning fit.

Shakira's Forget-me-not Kelly dress
 
Shakira @shakira_in_stitches contrasted the floral swiss dot of her Kelly with a sweet cream lace insert at the bodice. 
 
Marja's Forget-me-not Kelly dress
Marja's Forget-me-not Kelly dress
 
Marja @m3niemi colourblocked her Kelly with a specialty chambray remnant with a black tencel/linen for contrast. 

Sötsnut's Forget-me-not Kelly dress
Sötsnut's Forget-me-not Kelly dress
 
Sötsnut @Sotsnut is leaning into the prairie vibes with her ruffled cotton-viscose gauze Kelly. She used an overlocker rolled hem for the edge of the ruffle, which helps it to stand out against the busy print.

Anne's Forget-me-not Kelly dress
 
Anne @anne_margrete_n lengthened her ditsy floral cotton Kelly for a sweet midi dress. 

Koe's Forget-me-not Kelly dress
Koe's Forget-me-not Kelly dress
Koe @koetiquemade said her sons said she was styled like Wednesday Addams which is a real compliment, as the Victorian influence really comes through when made up in the right fabric!
 
Kat's Forget-me-not Kelly
Kat's Forget-me-not Kelly
Kat's Forget-me-not Kelly
 
Kat @bean.and.bear.boutique made her own denim patchwork for her Kelly, complete with lots of extra gorgeous topstitching!

Bernice's Forget-me-not Kelly
Bernice's Forget-me-not Kelly

Bernice @sewbee73 got creative with her embroidered poly-cotton by incorporating the non-embroidered edges for the collar, ruffle and button placket, providing a lovely contrast. 

Aurelie's Forget-me-not Kelly dress
Aurelie's Forget-me-not Kelly dressAurelie's Forget-me-not Kelly dress
 
Aurélie @Orelypaillette used a bold cotton chambray for a modern feeling Kelly dress!
 
Kristen's Kelly shirt dress
Kristen's Kelly shirt dress
 
Kristen from the Dahlia Sewciety made her Kelly dress in a dotted Swiss cotton, and used self-covered buttons. She said, "It's a beautifully detailed and well-drafted pattern!".
 
We're celebrating the Kelly shirt dress release this week with 20% off - no code needed! (Sale runs through midnight June 27th EST.) We can't wait to see what you make! Don't forget to use #fmnKelly and tag @forgetmenotpatterns so we can see your beautiful creations!


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