After sewing this dress for my talent round for the Cooly Rocks On Pinup Pageant, I put her on my mannequin, took a step back and then immediately grabbed new fabric and started making her again. Having wanted to make a shirt dress for well over two years, my first attempt using Simplicity R10646/S9164 gave me the confidence boost I needed and I honestly loved how it turned out on my first attempt. To take a break from pageant sewing, I wanted to make something a bit more fun and casual using Simplicity R10646 again and thus, here we are for another pattern review.

Simplicity R10646 or S9164 is a costume pattern inspired by two iconic I Love Lucy outfits; Lucille Ball’s classic polka dot house dress and apron, and her iconic chocolate factory workers uniform complete with hat. The pattern comes in two variations with different collar and cuff options, plus an apron and hat pattern. Although the pattern is designed to be a costume, I can’t see why it wouldn’t make a simple every day shirt dress. As with most patterns from the big brands, I will be sewing a size 12 as it’s the one that best fits me; I always go down a size so I would actually be a 14 but because these patterns are designed to be adjusted and fitted, by going down to a 12 I find it’s always a really good fit. The bodice I plan to sew will stick to the B variation pattern with no other adjustments but I will be making my own gathered skirt and adding a pocket because you know, pockets.

There were quite a few fabric candidates for this pattern but I secretly knew exactly which fabric I wanted to use for my second making of Simplicity R10646. From Spotlight, I found a cute sage green cotton poplin adorned with white daisies all over (this one). I’m currently in my sage green era and still a sucker for a good floral print so this fabric was perfect for what I was wanting to make. The cotton poplin was soft, sturdy and opaque which meant I didn’t have to worry about it being uncomfortable or lining. Being armed with 4 meters of this fabric, I had more than enough for a really full skirt and of course the extra pocket I wanted to add.

Sew, let’s get started. My first attempt at this pattern took me about 4 afternoons to complete yet this iteration only took me one. Having done all the steps previously, I sort of knew what the pattern wanted me to do and I got through it quite quick. I started with cutting out my fabric and for this version, I opted to keep my dress in the same fabric and not have a contrasting fabric element. I did toy with adding a white or sage green collar and sleeve cuff option but inevitably decided against it and I’m glad I did in the end. Putting together my bodice wasn’t a harrowing experience; the bodice is darted at the front and back and once it was attached at the shoulders, I could move onto the collar, sleeves and button placard.

During my first attempt at this dress pattern, I got a little stuck when it came to sewing the collar correctly. There is no back neck facing piece which threw me for a loop as the pattern asked for the collar to be cut in certain places and then folded over and hand sewn in so there were no open or visible seams. Whilst sewing this version, I realised I had been reading one of the steps wrong and I was only supposed to adjust and cut one collar piece before attaching the other collar piece. I had connected the two collar pieces and then got stumped by where to cut and where to sew. This was my big “oh I get it now!” moment so I urge you to read outlaid the steps and take your time with this collar. To save myself the stress for next time, I added some notes to my pattern instructions and also made a big note in my sewing notebook for this pattern. If I had had a better or at least a stiffer interfacing, I think I would have had a better and more solid collar but even with my lightweight interfacing, the collar was really comfortable to wear and I didn’t really plan to wear this dress fully buttoned up to the neck. This is something to keep in mind if you are sewing this pattern for yourself.

Having recently only made gathered puff sleeves, it was fun to make something a little different. Simplicity R10646 has cute cuffed sleeves with only a very slight gather at the top. Putting the sleeves and cuffs together was a simple process and I think the final finish looked really crisp and lovely and of course, if you wanted to, you could omit the cuffs but I thought they were very cute. To my surprise, the cuffs fit perfectly on the edge of the sleeve as I was worried that it would be slightly off but alas, it was a perfect match. With the sleeves done, I could turn my attention to the final part of the bodice, the button placard.

In my first attempt at this pattern, I ended up making some fabric covered buttons and I was about to do the same for this version before I realised that I had some cute white/pearl vintage buttons I had found from the op shop a year ago. It seemed smart to create the button holes before I bound the waist edge of the bodice as I would have more than enough room for the button holes in my machine. For this version of my pattern, I made sure to sew the placards on top of each other in the correct order (unlike my last attempt) and this made a huge difference when it came to wearing the dress and doing the buttons up. My vintage buttons were really cute and I decided to sew them white side up as they had a softness to them without adding another element such as a pearl finish. Luckily I bought a small bag of these buttons so I’m sure sometime in the future I can use the pearl side. I also decided to make my button holes out of white thread as I didn’t have a decent sage green thread to match my fabric and I thought the white looked nice enough. With the waist bound together, my bodice was done and it was time to move onto the skirt.

As I love a good full skirt, I cut out three panels of fabric measuring the width of my fabric and about 27 inches in length. I sewed these three panels together to create one really long rectangle and then I added a pocket. As Simplicity R10646 has an invisible side zip, I only had a chance to add one pocket to the side of the dress opposite the zip. One pocket is better than none and I got to use up a little more of my cute fabric. If a pattern I am using doesn’t have a pocket piece, I normally pilfer a pocket pattern piece from Vogue 9100 or one of Gertie’s pocket pieces; normally its which ever pattern piece I find first. With my pocket installed, I used the dental floss method to gather my skirt along the top row before adjusting the gathers to fit my bodice and sewing everything together. This fabric was a delight to work with and it wasn’t overly thick so my gathers came out even and smooth. For about 4 years I have been wanting to find a good gathering foot for my machine and although I’ve bought a couple, none have really worked for me so the hunt will continue.

Once my skirt was attached, the last things I needed to do were to hem my skirt and add my invisible side zip. For hemming, I shoved my skirts edge through my overlocker to seal the edges before doing a simple folded hem, as the fabric was straight, this only took me a few minutes to complete. It’s been a personal goal of mine to get better with adding invisible zips so I really took my time getting this one as perfect as possible and although she’s not 100% invisible, I am ever so slowly getting better at invisible zips. I have found that ironing them open on a low heat setting before sewing to be really helpful but I can’t seem to get my machine to sew too close to the teeth so clearly I still have some learning to do. There’s always next time I suppose. For now, my dress was basically finished.

This dress might just be one of my favourite makes of the year so far. I love the fabric choice and the fit is ideal. I did notice that I somehow made the collar slightly off centre so she can’t be fully buttoned up but I never really planned on wearing her that way anyway. The sage green floral fabric was such a delight to wear and she was very comfortable. I never felt overly hot wearing her and thought she looked cute paired with a cosy cardigan too. I took this dress on my trip to Brisbane/Coolangatta and wore her several times throughout the trip and she was a delight every time. I felt cute in her and the added pocket was super handing to carry my phone and of course, snacks. Hi Chew anyone?

As someone who thought that a shirt dress was daunting, this was a great first pattern to use as although she had her challenges, there was nothing overly difficult that I couldn’t figure out. Sewing this sage daisy version and my wallpaper version previously, I am now wanting to try a different shirt dress pattern to see how other patterns will compare. I am really glad that I got to use this pattern and make a dress that I now really want to keep wearing. Although the pattern is supposedly a costume pattern, there’s not reason this pattern can’t be made into a simple day dress and I personally don’t think either of my versions of Simplicity R10646/ S9164 looked like a costume. This is a pattern I would recommend to those wanting to sew a shirt dress but may find the concept daunting; take your time and read the steps carefully and you should be fine. I also recommend understitching wherever you can as this adds to the crispness in the dress. For now it’s my last make for my Brisbane/Cooly trip.

In case anyone was curious about some of my styling accessories; my matching daisy earrings are from That Shop, my belt is an old white patent one I thrifted years ago and my sage green beret is from Kitten d’Amour. My Connies are from Converse and my flats are from Melissa. I’m too embarrassed to link my Kpop socks.

Note: This is not a sponsored post. All opinions and thoughts expressed are solely my own and not influenced in any way. There are no affiliate links and I do not benefit from any link clicks or purchases made.