The Alder Shirtdress & A Shop Relaunch

I'm so excited to announce that the Alder Shirtdress is finally here!! I've basically been living in these dresses since the minute I photographed them, they're light and breezy, perfect for the heat of summer. There are SO many fabrics that work for the Alder it kind of blows my mind a little, I personally have Alders in denim, cotton Ikat, quilting cotton, chambray, silk twill, and silk crepe de chine and I love them all!

Here's the official garment description... "The Alder is a loosely fitted sleeveless shirtdress with two options. View A falls into an A-Line at the waist and features a curved hem, bust darts, and two breast pockets. View B has the same bodice but with a gathered skirt at the sides and back of the garment resulting in an incredibly flattering and fun silhouette."

The Alder is Intermediate on the Grainline difficulty scale, techniques involved in making this dress include sewing a straight seam, bust darts, bias facing armholes, adding a shirt collar, gathering, and buttons & buttonholes. I'll be doing a sew along for the Alder which I'll talk more about next week, but it will include sewing both Views A & B, a neckline alteration, and using the pattern to make shirts out of both views. I'm super excited about it and if you have any trepidation about sewing any part of this dress we'll cover it there.

I'll be sharing more info about each of these Alders over the week so get ready for that, hopefully it'll give you a little extra something to think about when deciding on fabrics.

The last thing to note about the Alder is that it comes in both a PDF and printed pattern format! FINALLY!! I know you guys have been asking for printed patterns for a long time and this is the start. Eventually all the patterns will be available in hard copy but you need to start somewhere! The printed patterns are also available for wholesale if you're a shop interested in carrying them. You can find more info on how to become a retailer here.

In addition to a new pattern, we've also redesigned both the online shop and all of the Grainline Studio patterns. All digital patterns now include both a print at home and copy shop version along with completely redesigned instructions. I've always strived to give you clear, easy to understand instructions and I feel like the new layout really helps out with that. We've inserted tips, tricks, and links to online resources as well as a glossary and finished garment measurements.

I really need to just take a minute to thank the people who helped me accomplish this monumental (or at least what felt monumental to me) task. I'm unbelievably lucky that I can call these insanely talented people my friends and that when I mentioned I needed help they were all right there with their super skills. A major shoutout to my number 1 right hand man through this past year Troy! We spent a lot of time going over layouts, eating gelato, going over more layouts, inventing things, scrapping things, eating more gelato (it's the halfway point between our houses, what can I say) and finally got to the new pattern layouts, packaging, plotting the future of Grainline Studio, and so much more. You'll definitely be seeing more of him in the future! Thanks to my pal Mason who so kindly coded my blog and shop in his spare time, Ariana who ruthlessly tested my pattern instructions and shared many cups of tea with me, and Casey, who proofed ALL of the new patterns and caught some really funny mistakes we'd read over and over so many times that there was no chance on earth we were going to catch them. Also the grammar, she nailed that like I never could. Also a thank you to Jon for helping me craft emails to the printer so they wouldn't think I was a joke (I don't know printing terms at all) and for giving me the encouragement I needed to just get these things printed already, and my family for always being there for me. THANK YOU a million times! Nothing in life is ever a one person show, you really need a pack to get you through things, and this pack totally killed it! Okay super gushy rant over! Go check out the new shop!