Butterick 5209 - Flowered 40's Dress

For my latest dress, I have decided to move backwards from the 50's and try Butterick 5209 from 1947.  It love this dress because it so reminds me of the dresses I see my grandma wearing in old family photos.  I am sure she sewed hers, too.  Of course, she had a lovely hat and some gloves to put with the dress. 

This dress has gathered skirt with a fitted waistband and looser shoulders. It has a side zipper with a fully self-lined bodice. Here is the pattern.  I did view  B, which has a full back and sleeves.  (View A has just a halter)

Muslin
I made muslin in a size 16 after reading the pattern measurements, but found it would have been too big.  My dress form is fairly true to my size.  I even tried to pin some sections and was going to try and adjust the pattern, but ended up just making it a size 14 and that made the difference.  If you are making the pattern, there seems to be a lot of ease.  I would make it a size smaller than the measurements indicate if you would like it to fit like the picture on the front of the pattern.

Front of muslin

Back of muslin

Pattern Instructions

Most of the instructions are good... except at step 23.  The picture is terrible and so are the instructions.   I gathered that the goal of this step is to sew the self-lining to the bodice front. I stared at this and re-read it and stared at it some more for about an hour until I gave up figuring out what the authors meant to do and just did it my own way, then ended up doing some hand sewing to finish the seams.  I am still not sure how they intended it to be done. If you have figured out the mystery of step 23, let me know. 

Step 23, AKA the WTF step.

Variations from Pattern

I made two variations from the pattern instructions.  The first variation is that the pattern calls for the zipper to sewn to the top of the underarm seam.   The last time I made a dress with a zipper at the armpit (Butterick 5603), the zipper rubbed against my inner arm and was so irritating I don't wear the dress.   For this dress, I lowered it a tad and put in a hook and eye at the top. This is MUCH more comfortable!  

Inside of dress

The other thing I did was to change the lining of the dress.  The instructions say to fold the bottom of the lining under, hem it and leave it loose inside the dress.  That is too untidy for me.  Instead, I added a strip of blanket binding and hand sewed the bottom of the bodice lining to it, then sewed the binding to the waist, covering up all of the gathering/stitching.

Things I Like 

This dress really does remind me of my grandma's dresses from way back when.  It is also so comfortable!   I have been watching videos on YouTube for how to put pin curls in my hair, so I just need some vintage shoes, a hat and some gloves.

Bonus for anyone who gets this far in actually reading my blog... I accidentally bought two of the B5209 pattern.  It is size 14-16-18-20.  I'll pick a random person* who leaves a comment on this post from now until 8/31/2012 and send the extra pattern to you if you say you are interested in your comment.  I'll even send it overseas.  THAT is how happy I am with this dress.  If you are the lucky winner, I'll contact you through your profile to get your address.

*I reserve the right for "random" to be translated as "most entertaining and/or useful".  Just saying.