Labware Labwear chai dress for IPM dresses

I have made this dress especially for a fundraising morning tea at my work later this month.  It’s highly appropriate as I am a lab manager and we will be fundraising for the ovarian cancer research foundation in memory of a colleague.

I bought a scant 1.5m of this Robert Kaufman ‘science fair’ fabric last year, so the itch to stitch chai shirt dress was a good way to eke out a dress, using contrast collar and waistband.  It also helped that my fabric was non-directional.  The chai dress has a less full skirt than I would usually go for, but still A-line. I think this style of shirt dress shares some similarities with a (sleeveless) lab coat ;o)

This one is a digital (PDF) sewing pattern, and I was happy to see it has the A0 printing option (no sticking – yay!)  The pattern pieces cover 4 pages but you only need to print certain pages, depending on your view or cup size.  Yes – this one comes in multiple cup sizes with a handy size chart to help you work out what to cut/make.  I still made a toile as I hadn’t worked with patterns from this designer – but I needed have, it fit me fine with no adjustments necessary.  The instructions were easy enough to follow and the pieces went together nicely (but I have made quite a few shirts and shirt dresses before).  I can see myself making it again in the sleeved version, or maybe the shirt version for work.  It features a collar with collar stand, underbust gathering onto a waistband and an easy centre front button closure, without a separate placket.

It could have been fun to take some photos in the lab but we have a strict Personal Protective Equipment policy (including fastened lab coat) – so I would not have been able to get close to anything interesting  to show the dress!  Instead I’ve taken lobby photos – I thought the colours worked well with those in the fabric ;o)

And yes it has pockets!  Perfect for carrying around some (clean unused) petri dishes?  I picked clear plastic buttons for this project as I thought they echoed the bubbles in the print and remind me of the glassware and plasticware that we use in the lab.

Project summary

pattern: itch to stitch chai shirt dress

fabrics: Robert Kaufman science fair from Make It Fabrics

notions: hemline buttons from spotlight