Butterick 5813 - A Dress For the Office from 1956

1956 goes to the office.   I like this Butterick pattern because it is retro but not in that "look at me and nothing else" sort of way.  The result is a wearable dress. 

 Here is the pattern cover.  I made view B.

 As the pattern is written, the dress has a zipper, but I left it out.  The fabric I chose has a tiny bit of stretch and I made it with enough ease that I can easily put it on without the zipper.  Part of me would have liked to make it tighter and involve foundation garments, but I needed to make it practical.

Here is the only thing I didn't like about the pattern.  It is the front tie. 

 It looks terrible and I couldn't find a way to tie it nicely.  It looked like five kinds of bad no matter how many you tube videos I watched on how to tie a bow.  Clearly I am missing a skill I am aware I should have picked up in kindergarten.

 I ended up cutting the ends and making a fake bow.  Much better. 

The facts:
Fabric 1.50/yard x 3 yards = 4.50
Interfacing 1 yard = 3.00
Total = $ 7.50

I think I will sew this again with a thicker wool for winter and in a smaller size so I have less ease.  I'll back one notch or two looser than  Joan from Mad Men "I can't sit down" level of tight, but tighter than the "I have to sit in an office chair all day and I want to breathe" level that it is.

Another Retro Butterick 4790 WalkAway Dress

I say "another" Butterick 4790 Walkaway Dress not because I have made one before, but because EVERYONE ELSE has.  I was reading on one blog that if the author saw another walkaway dress, she was going to scream.  Well, who can resist that?  Here is my version.

I love the original artwork on the pattern cover. I was really tempted by the black and white one, but I went with a one color dress in a printed quilting cotton.  I had promised myself I'd stay out of the quilting cottons, but then there was a sale.  All bets were immediately off.

 

As I am sure that everyone has seen a million times, this is the diagram of the dress.  It is one piece of fabric.  The front part has a closer-fitting skirt that fastens in the back and the circle skirt fastens in the front.  

The two ends of the circle skirt are supposed to overlap slightly on the front and button over each other.  Except I cut mine too small.  I had NO overlap.  What to do? The way I saw it, I had four  choices:

1. Scrap the project - I would have needed to cut the entire back part out again and I didn't have more of this fabric.  (sad and really bothers the very cheapskate in me)
2. Continue making the dress and put it in my closet until I stop eating so much chocolate and lose weight. (you would have to pry that chocolate out of my cold, dead hands, so not an option)
3. Continue making the dress and give it away to a smaller friend. (Yeah, right)
4. Find a way to make it work, not waste fabric and continue eating chocolate. (winner!)

I ended up making two rectangles of bias tape and sewing them on to the edges to make a little extension.  I put snaps behind the bias tape, then made three cloth buttons and sewed them on.  Voilà! Une petite solution pour mon gros problème de chocolat.

I'd apologize for the unneeded use of French, but it makes me feel good actually using something I learned at university.  Almost like I wasn't paying student loans for 17 years for nothing...  Almost. But I digress.  Here is the bias tape extension.

 I think I actually like it better with the space between the panels.  I shows off the more fitted skirt and bias tape hems better, which I think is a really attractive part of the pattern.

All in all, I do like the dress.  Except if I have to walk around, sit, bend or move in any way.  Because the more fitted skirt is floating except for a small button at the waist, it bunches up and goes everywhere.  I fought with it like crazy just to take photos.  I think I can sew a knit panel to join the back sections so that they lay still.  It will be stretchy so I can move, but keep the front panel down.  It is just an idea at this point. But I am open to suggestions for this issue.

And one more photo of the dress when I am standing perfectly still.

 Details:

Fabric: 5 yards on sale at the evil Walmart = $5.00

Bias tape: (sadly, I didn't make my own) JoAnns = $7.50

Button kit: JoAnns = $2.75 (with coupon!)

Total: $14.75

Butterick 5882 Review

I finished version of B5882.  I made it in black.  And I found out that trying to get the lighting right on a black dress against a white background is pretty difficult.  There were some Photoshop shenanigans in order to show the contrast on the dress.  And not the usual shenanigans where I make my crow's feet disappear or magically erase back fat.  I had a friend I hadn't seen in person in years tell me that I look like I haven''t changed since high school because she saw at some photos of me on Facebook.  Poor thing didn't know it was all due to clever software.

Anyway... on the the dress.  Here are the front and back views.

For the bodice contrast, I chose a sheer fabric with polka dots.  It does not make neat little pleats like the pattern was intended to do, but I like the effect.   I had also ended up doing a little hand-sewing on the strap to get it to keep down at the bust line.  Gertie covers the strap placement on her blog. 

  

The main part of the dress is made from a cotton sateen.  The fabric from the bodice was actually part of a border print.  The edges are embroidered and I couldn't help but want to use it for the skirt.  But I was torn, because I really did want to sew the pattern as written. 

I made a removable over-skirt. I sewed a rolled hem on the vertical edges of the fabric, then made a button for a closure. I knew that would add volume to the skirt, but it was an effect I actually liked.  Very 50's and buried-in-yards-of-fabric.

This is the dress with the over-skirt.  It is a little hard to see the detail on the gather.

Picture on pattern

My version with gathered over-skirt

Mini-review: I really loved this pattern.  It was pretty easy to sew and the instructions were good. I ended up sewing a size smaller than the pattern said should be my size based on measurements, but I usually find that when you want close-fitting bodices (like in retro dresses), you have to really find out what the ease is and then take that into consideration.  Also, since I chose a cotton sateen for the fabric, I knew that it would stretch and I wouldn't need the ease.  Making the muslin helped make that decision easier, too

I am looking forward to Gertie's next patterns.  I would definitely buy from her line again.

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.