A new summer dress

Well, summer is starting to wrap up, but I figured I might as well post a summer dress I finished earlier in the season.

A couple of years ago, I started working on the Butterick reprint pattern 6055. After making it up though, I abandoned it because the fit was pretty weird (I think it didn't help that I accidentally cut it a size too big). After some intensive re-cutting, I ended up removing more than an inch of material from the shoulder seam on either side, and it looks a lot better now. The fit still isn't perfect. Lopping all that off the top of the dress made most of the bodice fit better, but has caused some strange little wrinkles along the collar line... Thankfully the fabric print seems loud enough to distract from it!



Another thing with this dress which I didn't know at first is that it looks best with a belt (especially if the fabric is really busy like mine). There is a belt pattern included in the envelope, but I drafted this one on my own and it's a bit different from the pattern that came with it. It's made from some leftover black fabric from my other reprint dress, and a black plastic buckle from the local fabric store. The belt's base is made from several strips of canvas and burlap base that I used instead of belting.

Some black accents at the neck are a cute addition!

Stuff in the sewing room

B6055- the flowery one pictured left,
with another dress I'm still altering.

Recently, I finished altering a dress that I had started ages ago from a reprint 1950's pattern (Butterick 6055, the red floral print dress pictured on the left in the photo). It turned out really awful-looking the first time I made it up, (and I think I accidentally cut the wrong size) so I had to take it in by a lot. Maybe I'll actually have the opportunity to wear it now that the weather's nice!
 

 I've also started taking a pattern drafting course at a school nearby (which is going really well!). We've been drafting jacket blocks, and the course has helped me improve my fitting techniques a lot!

*****

On the historical side, I've been working on the red chemise gown since I last posted about it in February. I've completed the body of the dress. I'm still in the mock-up stage of the sleeves because they're giving me a hard time, but that's most of what I have left! I'll also try to post more about the construction and how it went when I'm done, but I'm very pleased with it so far!

The front, showing the under-bodice beneath.

The back- I am very proud of all those pleats!

Retro wrap-dress from Butterick 6212

I picked up this pattern earlier this spring, because I just loved the unusual design (it's a wrap dress which buttons!). There were a lot of interesting details in the design of this dress- especially the really cute dip in the front of the neckline, and the midriff shape.

I also found this wonderful orange/pink print and found it too amazing not to use..

The pattern turned out really well in the end (though I had a heck of a time fitting it!). All in all it's a pretty dress- fun without being too fancy or casual. The one suggestion I have for anyone attempting this pattern is to apply a fusible interfacing to the bodice neckline itself, rather than only to the facing (sure, fusible interfacing is probably not a very 50's sort of thing, but it decreases the chances of the neckline corners puckering, especially if you store it by hanging it up).

Fabric took about 3 to 3 1/2 metres (one metre for the bodice and two and a half for the skirt and midriff, though I didn't particularly care about matching pattern down the front seam).

I decided to do the back waist seam alteration recommended in the Pintucks blog post about this pattern, except that I flat-felled the waist seam instead of using binding, as it suggested. This alteration also worked well because it allowed the entire skirt to be of a uniform colour (and a separate colour from the bodice)- I think it was that, and the buttons down the back that kept the dress from going into seriously apron-looking territory (thank goodness!).

Overall, I'm very pleased with how the pattern turned out!