Swooshy Swishy Goodness Dress

It's another Butterick Repro B5748, this time true to the pattern unlike my previous version. I love this dress - it's so swooshy and fun to wear.  I wore it to work today and spent all day twirling and swooshing the super full circle skirt.

The only change I made to this pattern was to do an FBA and to raise the shoulders. Interestingly I had my lovely friend Marjorie assist me with the hemming and in the process she marked the shoulders and I learnt that my shoulders sit at quite different levels. My right one is nearly 1cm higher than the left! It's due to an old injury that I knew had left over effects, but that was one I wasn't aware of!

Normally I am fine hemming skirts by myself, but this dress was different. The circle skirt requires the dress to be hung and left to drop for a couple of days.  The result?  The hem looked like I was drunk when I cut it! Check out my instagram pic here. It was crazy wonky, up and down, not a little bit, but inches of difference. I blame the fabric.

Marjorie has this wonderful old tool, from maybe the 80s that puffs chalk at the prescribed level as I just stood there and spun around!! A marvellous gadget!! Then all we had to do was cut and sew - genius!

I stopped twirling for a minute ;)

I finished the skirt with my first proper rolled hem, I tried photographing it, but due to the dark fabric the pics were rubbish, you'll just have to take my word for it that its pretty good, I am pretty proud of the effort I put into it.

The fabric is a mystery super flowy drapy blend bought at Walthamstow earlier in the year. When I bought it I thought it was black, but in some lights it seems like a super dark navy. Either way, I don't care, and I am treating it as black!

The fabric was hideous to sew, it moved so much and was too floppy. In retrospect I would have used a pattern with a less fitted bodice, but c'est la vie, it is not awful and the circle skirt really works with the drape, and besides I can twirl!  Who can complain at that!?!

No more Winter sewing for me - Summer is well and truly on the way here - already it has been 25-28 degrees most day - if this is Spring, I think Summer may be hideous. I foresee many more summery dresses in my future...Cambie, perhaps a Saltspring, definitely a Belledone, who knows what else?

What are you all working on for the new season?

Completed: Polka Dot B5748

My lovely hubby and I spent last weekend up in Noosa (an hour and a half drive up the coast from where we live) - what a perfect opportunity to give my new dress an outing and give you lovely readers a change from my usual backdrops!

Technically it is still winter here, but seriously look at this weather, it was just fabulous, we are so spoilt. It was a gorgeous 25ºC - perfection!

This is a new pattern to me, Butterick 5478, a vintage repro pattern with great back neckline detail. Whilst I love the end result, it definitely is not perfect, nevertheless I don't care and know this will get stacks of wear!

The fabric is a polka dot cotton bought ages that I had stashed for the perfect pattern and I think this might be it!

I made quite a few modifications to get the fit and one to rescue a fit issue that I couldn't be bothered fussing with!  First the rescue - I was having some issues getting the waist darts to sit properly due to the FBA, they just looked silly and wouldn't sit flat. I then just cut the bottom off the bodice and replaced it with a band that I piped with white satin piping bought some time ago.  Then I ran into another drama, I cut the waistband and piping a touch too small and the waist didn't fit, so I cast it aside for about four months. No idea how I did that, guess I was having a blonde moment and measured wrong, or perhaps I cut what I wanted to be instead of what I am ;)

"Move your arms, do something interesting" says hubby/director/photographer

I pulled it out again recently as I have lost a little weight and yay it fitted!  So I finished it off with an invisible zipper and a pleated dirndl skirt.

My pattern alterations:
- FBA
- shortened bodice by 1"
- added waistband
- dirndl skirt instead of circle (didn't have enough fabric)

As always, I still think I could do a lot more to improve the fit for next time, but I am not sure that anyone apart from sewers and me would even notice.  We really are own worst critics aren't we? Aside from the imperfections, I love, love, LOVE this dress!! I think this with a bit of tweaking, this  my next TNT pattern!  Oh and next time, it really needs pockets.

 
A bit of self indulgence :)