Marcela's Lyra Shirt Dress Hack ft. Full-Length, Faux Button Placket!

Ready for some serious sewing inspo? We're handing the blog reins over to our newest Button recruit, our Office Assistant (and previous sewing pattern cover gal) Marcela! Marcela is known for her dreamy and adventurous sewing pattern hacks, and when we caught sight of her latest Lyra shirt dress featuring a full-length, faux button placket, we just HAD to know how she did it, and we bet you wanna know too...

Take it away, Marcela!

Hi all! I want to share one of my favourite Tilly and the Buttons patterns with you, not because my face is on the cover, but more so for the fit of this pattern and because of my love for shirts. It’s the Lyra Shirt Dress sewing pattern, of course! 

When the pattern was released, I made my first version using a gorgeous viscose fabric from Fabrics Galore London, and confession time ... this was the first time I'd sewed with a "slippery fabric". Why I waited so long I will never know because it was super easy to sew with (check out our cutting & sewing tips here!). The drape in the fabric suits the Lyra pattern perfectly and I love how the final dress looks.

For my version, I sized up from my usual size 4 to a 5 (UK 14), because I like my clothes to be slightly oversized (for reference my measurements are bust: 37" waist: 27.5" hips: 41" and height 1.73m).

As you can see from the photos, my version is slightly different from the original Lyra pattern. If you’ve seen any of my makes, you'll know I love a hack! I’ve always enjoyed being a little different and sewing lets me be more me, plus you get more than one design from your pattern when you hack.

The original design has a button front down to the waist, with a gathered skirt below. I decided to extend the button placket all the way to the hem of the skirt.

How to hack Lyra like Marcela!

This was a simple hack where I extended the front button placket all the way down to the bottom of the skirt. Here's how I achieved this look:

Firstly, I lengthened my skirt by 10cm (4in) and shortened my bodice by 2cm (approx 1in) to suit my desired fit. I cut all my pattern pieces as instructed, excluding the button placket as I drafted a new, longer one. I took the measurement for my new button placket from the top of the neckline, right down to the skirt hem. 

I cut the front of the skirt in half (where the original centre fold line is) and then stitched my bodice and skirt together as per the original Lyra instructions. I also followed the instruction booklet to sew my placket in place. I then hemmed my skirt with a 1.5cm (5/8 in) hem. 

I chose to leave my buttons off and sewed my button placket closed (from my preferred point at the bust to a few inches above my knees) for a full-length, faux button placket finish. This was my personal preference, but if you wanted to have a real button-up finish, you can simply sew your buttonholes as normal after stitching the placket, measuring equally spaced buttonholes down to the hem, or to the knee for a look like mine. Because of the oversized fit, I can get in and out of my Lyra shirt dress nice and easily without functional buttons.

Ta-dah! A perfect year-round Lyra shirt dress. 

If you liked this post, check out Team Buttons Try Skye Hacks and Ten Tips For Sewing A Neat Shirt Collar!