I’m beyond thrilled to announce the publication of our very first pattern! The Perth dress/blouse is an unlined, loose-fitting little summer frock with a bit of a buttoned-up menswear vibe to it. It’s kinda like a shirtdress, but kinda not. A faux shirtdress. The shirtdress to make when you’re not making a shirtdress. Hehe, I joked in my own head while making it that it’s the shirtdress to make if you loathe buttonholes, since there are barely any at all in this one! Also, I say “our”pattern, not because I’m using the royal “we”; but because I’ve gone into partnership with my daughter! #whatdotheysayaboutfamilyandbusiness but it’s OK, Cassie and I get along very well. Plus she has mad magic Illustrator skills, which perfectly complements my complete lack thereof. So we are the Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co – this warms the cockles of my heart SO much I can’t even tell you! I never dreamed we’d have some kind of venture together like this but now we do I think I can tick it off some sort of subconscious bucket list that I never knew I had.
So we have a brand new Etsy shop, CarolynandCassie; situated here… Right now there’s only one thing in it, well TWO, since the pdf pattern and paper patterns are listed separately, but we harbour big dreams of having lots and LOTS of designs there in the future. Or maybe that’s just the happy glow that comes with having it finally finished… I’ve been basically living and breathing this thing for such a while, well …. it’s out there now!
So this is what I’ve been working on for the past few months, not just pattern making but lots and lots of sewing too. Apart from well over a dozen muslins, I’ve made four Perths in my quest for the perfect Perth. I shall now proceed to bombard you with Perths, ahem…
1. My chocolate/tobacco version above; this is not strictly a Perth but a “sort of” Perth dress, really. This is my prototype Perth, a Perth in spirit since the final pattern is actually quite different everywhere in small ways … you can see in my little movie below that it’s super bouffy, for one thing, and I tamed the boufff in that back with a big ol’ stern box pleat. Down, boufff, down!
*LATER EDIT: instructions on how to alter the pattern to make this version are here…
I made this one back in April of last year! and because I’d already had the idea of making it into a pattern somehow it never got blogged here, even though I wore it a few times.
2. My white one… a true Perth and currently my favourite mostly because of the perfect fabric. It’s a white shirting cotton from Fabulous Fabrics, almost like a sateen, but a super fine one, crisp, lightweight and with the perfect amount of drape. LOVE IT SO MUCH and actually I’m slightly regretting that I didn’t buy the whole roll #addicted In fact, this might be a good time to state what I think is the ideal fabric for this design… lightweight, thin fabrics that have some drape, yet still have just enough body for the tailored collar to work. Basically, if you can imagine a mens’ business shirt made in it, then it’s probably just about perfect. Sad sad times… I went back to the fabric store yesterday on another quest (long story and a pretty “big” one too in lifetime terms, I’ll relate it another time…) and had a quick but hopeful look out for this perfect white fabric.. they’d sold it all!! *sob* #gottagrabitwhileitsthere
This one has slightly longer sleeves, that I eventually decided to shorten for the final version of the pattern. I shortened them back to the length of my original brown design because I thought the shorter sleeves looked a little more feminine and “perkier”; a nice offset to the overt masculinity of the buttoned-up, very formal looking collar.
3. Further playing upon the menswear influence, I ran up a third version with a smart white collar, a lot like the shirts that I’ve made for my menfolk over the years.. these ones here are prime examples. I used a lovely lemon-y yellow, lightweight pinstriped linen that I bought in Fratelli Bassetti Tessuti in Rome when we visited six years ago. It was my Roman souvenir, and I’m fiiiiinally making something with it. Well, it’s nothing if not well marinated! I used a single black button at the throat as a small but definitive focal point on the dress.
Going back to my point about the perfect fabric, this linen has a little bit of body, maybe if I’m being super picky then I would say it has slightly too much body for the design to drape perfectly? But it’s still pretty nice to wear, and cool!
4. And finally; along the way I realised the design would make quite a nice blouse too, so we went about making this happen. I like this length for a blouse slightly cropped and a little boxy. For the blouse, I used a dark indigo chambray, leftovers from this dress actually! and a wooden button.
The chambray is a touch on the spongy side with some body to it so Im a teeny bit meh about it for this design really, but well… I’m completely ok with it for testing out, and I think it turned out a pretty cute wearable muslin.
Some of the technical deets…
So, want to hear the story behind the pattern?…. it’s ok if you don’t just stop reading now. If you want to know to whole boring saga, carry on! SO: nearly a year ago I made my brown dress, my prototype as it turned out. I’d bought this lovely, slightly blotchy chocolate/tobacco linen from Tessuti’s in Melbourne during my trip there with Mum, Cassie and Tiffany, and drafted my own pattern, using my own block that I made years ago from my own measurements using the diagrams from Pattern Magic (originally blogged about here), though I tacked on the collar and collar stand from my favourite Burda mens’ shirt pattern… but before you cry “plagiarist!” I did NOT use that Burda collar and stand for my own Perth pattern! I drafted the Perth ones myself from scratch, as I did all parts of the pattern. I promise you, I’m very ethical and would never try to claim something as mine that is not…but more about the drafting process-ario later, I’m getting ahead of myself.
So, I made my brown dress. I put quite a bit of thought into the closure, and worked out a solution to get the look I wanted. I liked it, but overall thought the silhouette was a little “booffy” and was definitely planning to streamline it a bit down the track. In the meantime though I’d posted a progress picture on instagram, and there was a small number of polite comments suggesting an interest should I make a pattern for it. The seed was planted…
I thought more and more about it.. I wasn’t daunted by drafting a pattern to fit “me”, but I was wondering how I could grade it. At first I thought I’d get a qualified person to grade it for me. I approached several people I know who have completed fashion design school at tech, none of whom had time. But my friend J, fashion school graduate, and all-round awesomely inspiring lady, was extremely encouraging and assured me I could “easily do it” and it was “super easy”. I secretly had doubts about this… but she piled my arms high with her pattern drafting books and sent me off. I definitely felt challenged, and like I couldn’t possibly not do it now! I was honour bound! J would think I was an idiot! Well… I am obviously, but no need for the world to know that, hehehe…. I spent the next few months studying the books J had given me, taking notes… the best by far was Winifred Aldrich’s Metric Pattern Cutting for Women’s Wear, I pretty much got everything from that. There was also a vintage Burda book, I can’t remember its title at the moment but that one gave some very helpful grading tips too.
So I eventually graded my pattern! I’d drawn it out by hand on large sheets of paper from a flip chart pad, with no seam allowances, graded it all by hand, and proceeded to trace and test each individual size myself before getting it scanned as a full sized pdf. Yes, this is definitely NOT the most efficient way to go about it… I had early, highly romantic ideas about a hand-drawn pattern… aaah, so naive! I quickly abandoned that fantasy!! though hand-grading was an essential step in the process in the end, and I happily had complete confidence that my pattern “worked” in all the sizes… Then I started thinking about learning Illustrator. I made a few low-grade investigations… and then Cassie got wind of what I was doing and reminded me that she basically spent her whole degree using Illustrator. I was like, wow, would you teach me? and she replied, oh Mum, I could make that pattern into a pdf for you in half a day… I was, like OH My GOD! My saviour!!! At first, I was just going to pay her for her time… but as time went on, and we were working side by side on our computers, her on the pattern (it took a lot longer than half a day, btw!) me on the illustrations and instructions (also way longer than half a day!) and the idea of a partnership came up and it felt totally natural. She was keen. And I’m so very happy about it! This means that if either of us come up with an idea then we have this outlet for it, and we have complementary skills.
Of course, it’s our first pattern, and the learning curve has been steep. I reckon I did some things three or four times over, simply because the right way wasn’t immediately obvious. Almost like, you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you get a prince. Or maybe you can’t see the trees for the forest? Making a pattern turned out to be something like that!
The next step was the all-important “real” testing phase, and it’s SUPER important! I’m completely indebted to my delightful and awesomely helpful testers… who went through my amateurish instructions with a fine-tooth comb, thank goodness since I could barely see anything anymore for having re-written them a hundred times over. Those that sent me pictures have made the most beautiful dresses which has been SUPER exciting. I will do a separate post highlighting my lovely testers, soon, once everyone has got “final” pictures in to me.
Making the pattern a tangible thing: well at first I was just like, A4 is enough, yeah? Then one of my lovely testers SaSa of paisley pirouette mentioned a firm preference for A0, and I had a lightbulb moment that I should offer that too. Sounds so obvious in retrospect but truthfully I was kinda overwhelmed with it all at this point, so I really appreciated the reminder! SaSa also kindly recommended to me a massive comment thread about people’s pattern preferences, over on sewbusylizzy, which I sat down and read in a night. I got from this that sewing peeps were pretty evenly divided three-ways in their allegiance to and/or total avoidance of A4, A0 and/or paper patterns. Meaning in fact, a pattern designer pretty much has to offer everything if she/he wants to a. please everyone, and b. be taken even half-way seriously! So Cassie got to work on the A0 file and I went about making paper patterns happen. I got my patterns printed at Officeworks, folded ’em all myself, and printed out and compiled my own instruction booklets, put together the pattern envelopes myself. Goodness, that took an entire day all by itself, phew! And then I set up our etsy shop… aaaand sat on the edge of my seat waiting for my first sale! The excitement when the first one popped in, wheeee! What a rush!
So that’s it! Want to try out my pattern?! We are the Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co. our shop is CarolynandCassie on Etsy, and we have the Perth dress/blouse pdf pattern and the Perth dress/blouse paper pattern on offer. I’ve also put a link to the shop up in my sidebar. And I would love to see your Perths! If you make one, then please either let me know in the comments, or tag us @handmadebycarolyn and @shyshycassie on instagram, and use the hashtag #perthdress
Perth, and Perth! hehe
Am I thinking about my next pattern…? well, of course!!
now for the embarrassing bit…
Details:
Dress/top: ours! the Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co Perth pattern!!! (duh) white is a shirting cotton, yellow is lightweight linen, with a linen collar, brown is lightweight linen, blue top is a cotton chambray
White skirt: Vogue 1247, made from an old curtain, details here
Shoes: all made by me, actually! ha! black clogs blogged here, caramel brown/ivory clogs here, white oxfords here
Congratulations on your pattern. As I don’t think it will suit me, I’ll be waiting for the next one.
Congratulations, Carolyn! I’m so happy for you and Cassie! What a fun, original design!
(Can I confess I’m also secretly glad it took Cassie more than half a day to digitize the pattern in Illustrator? Because I’ve done that exact thing but it definitely took me more than a half day! )
Congratulations! Great debut pattern! I’m looking forward to more of your design ideas, too!
do you have finished measurements?
I think I’m sized out of your patterns, alas. I’m a 34 ☹️
Wow this is so awesome! Thanks for sharing the story–I love this behind-the-scenes look.
…also, was a that a quick reference to possibly sewing a wedding dress?? If so, I am veeeeeery excited to see the process 🙂
you are very perceptive!! yes, that is happening here!! 🙂
First, congratulations! Second….would you consider extending your size range? I was all set to order until I looked at the size chart. There are a lot of women in the US (including myself) who wear plus sizes…and they sew! I would only need 1 size up but you are missing out on sales from the sizes 16-28 or larger. Just a suggestion because I love the pattern and sew would many other women who can’t wear small sizes. I wish you all the luck in the world!!!!
thanks Corkpop! wrt an extended size range; I think that’s been my most oft-repeated feedback; I’m working on it!
Congratulations! I love your new pattern, it’s a quirky design. My favourite of your versions is the yellow linen one. It was nice to hear the story behind it all… good luck with new enterprise!
Congratulations on your very first pattern. It is a very unique style – haven’t seen that before. Good luck on the new venture!
So happy to see this chapter in your life unfolding! I’ve been reading/lurking on your blog for ~years~ and I’ve always thought you would make a great designer, with your love of technical excellence and thought-out details. And fun. Can’t have style without a sense of humour! Also, I love that you included video of the dress(es), it gives such an immediate understanding of how the dress will wear.
Congratulations again!
thank you so much! 🙂
Congratulations Carolyn! It looks amazing!
I loved hearing your story. Lots of luck in your endeavour x
This is so exciting, Carolyn! Your cool shirt dress pattern now in the world for all of us to sew, this is so great! Thank you for sharing all the story about your Perth dress! I loved being a patterns tester and I can‘t wait for temperatures permitting to wear my dress. The pattern is so chic! Thank you for mentioning my little thoughts about print options. How wonderful that you have partnered with Cassie! Wishing you a lot of success and joy! xx
HOW EXCITING! You’ve always brought a really distinct vision to your blogging, and I love that this pattern is something I’ve never seen before! Congratulations to you and Cassie! (And I’ll second Corkpop in hoping that a more inclusive size range comes in time, because I think this would look fabulous on curvy figures too!
thanks Gillian, I’m working on it!
Thank you for taking feedback in the best possible way! <3 The curvy community will appreciate even a few sizes more!
Wow, congratulations Carolyn! Your hard work over the past several years is really paying off. This is such a lovely debut pattern, and very unique indeed. I look forward to seeing more of your designs.
WOO HOO!
This is the best introductory post…both to The Perth Dress and also to Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co. I liked this dress the minute you revealed it on your IG ages ago. I love how the silhouette evolved slightly into what we see today!
Whew….you must be exhausted after all your efforts. It’s worth though, I’m certain!
{Pics coming! I promise}
I am beyond excited that you and Cassie are doing this! You have my full support!
Congratulations and much success in this new endeavor. Love the pattern and all your muslins
Congratulations to you and Cassie on your exciting new endeavor!!!
thank you so much! 🙂
Congratulations, this is super exciting!!! I loooove that neckline and actually the whole silhouette! So despite putting myself on a pattern diet, it looks like this will have to be added to my pattern collection. Thanks so much for creating something wonderful!
This is gorgeous Caroline (and Cassie!). I’m a recent convert to shirt dresses and love your take on it. I’ll definitely be making one (possibly more) for myself.
Good luck with your new venture…I am sure you will be very successful.
thank you Sarah Liz!
I especially like the top version. What an interesting story of how the pattern came to be! Congrats to both of you
Great news. I’ve always loved your style so I am really happy to be able to buy your patterns.
Congratulations to you both. I’m sure this venture will be a huge success!
Congratulations! Love it. And……..the name. Your fabrics look great in this pattern.
Here in Perth we also need access to more voiles and double gauzes. Would love to see our small number of fabric shops stocking these and a greater range of silks and linens.
Wow, such a cool design! Simple and unique!
So so very proud for you. Congratulations!! I am definitely buying one but I only have 1 request * I would love for you to sign the pattern envelope please.* Its something to be so proud of , best of luck in the future.
thanks so much Cheri! that’s so sweet of you! If you would like that then sure! That’s such a lovely request 🙂
Congratulations, Carolyn and Cassie! I am very happy for you and your future success. Thanks for outlining the work that goes into getting a pattern to market. So much work! I actually like the “boofy” one as well as the later renditions. Now, I have this long hoodie that I need duplicated before it falls apart, and no one has a pattern even close to it…. LOL!
Congrats on your first pattern! I’m glad you thought to make it as a blouse, too, because it’s super cute like that and would probably look great with something high waisted, like the shorts I’m about to tackle. I’m looking forward to seeing what you and Cassie come up with next!
Your brain is going to love this stuff! And to do it with your daughter, what a blast. Congratulations. I can’t wait to see more. The best “simple” is the very hardest thing to design, but this is a good example: restrained, well executed, wearable, but with a cool twist.
Oh. Maybe you’ll make it C&C&C some day, or Clara may get jealous. She could have her own dog coat & costume range. Cold climate dogs are always in need of smart looking, functional outerwear. I’m only half kidding.
haha, that’s so sweet of you Sankati! I believe Clara would make an awesome doggy couture designer!!
Bravo to you both. The pattern looks quirky and original and I’ve just ordered my copy.
I can imagine the commitment and long hours it has taken to make this a reality and I’m impressed.
Secretly, I rather liked the extra bouff in the brown version; any chance you can remember how much width you took out of it?
Hello Odette! thank you so much for your order! My brown dress is wider at the hem by 8.5cm on each side, that is; 17cm over all both front and back. Meaning, an extra length in the circumference of 34cm all the way around! The side lines on my brown one are pretty much a straight line from the underarm out to the hemline 🙂
Wish you ever success in your new venture. Your Perth dress los very good – a perfect combination of simple and chic. Good luck!
From the Carolyn on the other side of the world, this is an awesome new pattern. It’s not a simple design that I can purchase from the Big4, but a truly unique design. So CONGRATULATIONS on your first pattern. I plan on purchasing the pattern but may I request the inclusion of plus sizing for future patterns. I’m hoping that I can enlarge the pattern to fit me because it has the kind of details I’m presently loving.
thanks so much Carolyn! with regard to an extended size range, yes that has been the feedback I’ve heard the most, so I am definitely working on it.
I love it!! Congrats!!
Congratulations to you both on the launch of your pattern! What an amazing collaboration and about of love for you both 😀
Good for you. I hope your hard work and vision pay off. It’s great the way you find new ways to find and extend your sewing skills. The dress is lovely.
I’ve been reading your blog for so long wondering when you were going to announce a book deal- I am just as pleased about this but I am now wondering when are you going to open your shop. Merchant and Mills springs to mind when I think of your style and tastes in fabric
Congratulations on your first release – and I hope it sells well as it has an original touch and deserves to! Love the name of your pattern company too!
Congratulations on making something both current and a little bit different. As more people make patterns, it’s really hard to find things that stand out from the crowd. I think this design does, and it also looks wearable, comfortable, and has pockets, which we all love. Best wishes on your new venture!
thank you so much Lisa! 🙂
Congratulations to you and Cassie, not only on your first pattern (here’s to many more), but to a fun and unique design. Love this as a top. I’m wondering has any of your pattern testers made a sample of the dress in an over the knee or maxi length? Not all of us have fabulous looking legs. Okay, maybe just me.
Hi Graca, thank you! One of my testers made it to hit just below the knee and it worked out perfectly fine. I don’t know how it would work as a maxi though!
Dear Carolyn, I admire your work a lot and I’m so glad you realeased this pattern ! You must feel a great sense of achievement, and I wish you and Cassie the best with your pattern buisiness.
I was so sad to have been too busy to test this dress, but I love the style and when you said paper patterns you had me! Off to buy a copy…
I like you first pattern. As a petite, I am missing some vital measurements in your size chart. For what height is the pattern constructed? Can you add some measurements like height, back length or fron waist lengths?
Honestly, if your size chart were a bit more informative, I would have already bought the pattern.
Hi Zora, in my post above are two tables; the first contains the bust, waist and hip measurements that the pattern has sizes for, the second lists the finished length, the finished shoulder width and neck width each size will give. These are the points at which the dress is the most fitted.
I am 172cm tall (5’8″) and made the dress as is, although really the dress is loose-fitting below the armpits and of course you can cut it any length you choose.
I hope this information helps!
Omg I’m so behind on my blog reading! Well you know I love this and I’m delighted to see it has a shirt version too! What a great post to read. I’ll definitely be adding this to my to-sew list next spring. Great work lovely ladies xxx