Butterick B6872

Butterick describes this dress as a “ high waist dress with a square neckline with tucks and sleeve variations along with a gathered full skirt with flounce hem options”. I call it … the nap dress. I’m working on view A and I’m going to be honest I’m not loving this dress but I’m going to stay the course and make it.

I had to make adjustments to this pattern and the best advice I can give you is make a muslin. Make a muslin! Especially for View A because once you set the bias tape under the front and back bodice and set in the flounce it becomes rather cumbersome to make adjustments to this dress. So whatever you do make a muslin! I’m going to say it a few times over! Make a muslin!!!

I’m using a rayon challis for this dress as I want it to have a little bit more drape but you can use a linen or a linen blend if you want the flounce to have a little bit more stay.

If you have been following me on Instagram you will see have seen me over the weekend posting picture of me in my muslin. I created one for the bodice and that sleeve flounce.

But oh I made so many more changes… Here is what I changed.

• Alter the front bodice pattern piece due to gaping. I had some gaping on the side front. So much so that I couldn’t ignore it. I either had to do a dart or alter the pattern piece. I didn’t care for the dart because I have a flounce, I have a side seam right there I felt it was too much going on, so I would just have to alter the pattern piece. I actually did a dart on my muslin, see it on this picture, then I recut the piece with that extra fabric added.

Do you see the dart I had to make in the muslin at the side front, there was a lot of gaping in this area. Here is how I adjusted my pattern piece below.

• I also added 1” to the bodice- I may or may not use it later on but its nice to have. So for that I added 1” to the front bodice (piece 1), bodice back (piece 3) front side piece (piece 7) and the front side back (piece 8)

The sleeve flounce, oh the sleeve flounce! When I did my muslin I didn’t like the amount of flounce in the pattern piece so I took off five inches of the sleeve flounce.

The sleeve flounce on the right hand side is using the pattern piece as is. It has a lot of volume. LOTS! More than I care, I even did a little poll on Instagram and a lot of people liked the amount of flounce. I did not. All I could think of was “It looks like I’m going to a conga dance party” and that’s not the look I’m going for at least not this time around. So I took off the amount of flounce.

• Reduced the flounce amount on the sleeve - I could have recut the pattern piece but I knew all I had to do was fold it. I didn't want to loose the length on which it attaches at the front bodice or back bodice so I left that alone it took the extra length right from the middle of the pattern piece. The grain line stayed the same.

• Added length to the middle of the flounce so I have a slightly “longer sleeve”- I free handed this with my French curve, and I made it towards the middle. If I don’t care for it it will be an easy item to just cut off with my rotary cutter.

  BUT I’m not quite 100% sold on that flounce…. and I’m ready if I’m not happy with it. Keep reading!

• Eliminate the third seam of the lower ruffle -Lastly, the pattern asks you to cut three pieces for the lower ruffle (pattern piece 11) and you attach these, but if you look closely at the pattern cover you will see the seam line as that lower ruffle will be added to the skirt in thirds. Who thought that was a good idea? I know why they did it (it has to do with making sure you can use both 45” and a 60” wide fabric)…. But I don’t care for this. I’m all about seam lines matching to a T. So I extended the length of the ruffle and cut two (in lieu of three) so they match the seam lines on the sides of the skirt.

I could have done a regular sleeve for this pattern but the sleeves included in this pattern are enormous, but knowing that I’m still not quite sure about these flounces and the amount of ruffles I decided to just adjust the Sleeve for View C and see where it all goes. I’ll see which one I prefer the most.

• Adjusted size of Sleeve for View - When I said the sleeves on this pattern were enormous I wasn’t joking around. Someone thought go big or go home was the way to go. We all know sometimes going bigger is not better. The sleeves. Are. HUGE! The are almost They are almost 26” in width. I guess I won’t need to do a bicep adjustment on these. I’m actually going to be decreasing the size of them. They are gathered at both the top and the hem. Thankfully I’m using a rayon challis so I won’t get the “pouff” effect, because that’s not the look I’m going for.

Which one of these sleeves do you like? Flounce / Ruffles galore or regular sleeve?

May Sewing Plans 2022

We are onto our second week of May and it seems the spring weather is finally making an appearance by me in the Midwest. Which only means I want to make sure that I have a few items that I can wear again and again and again for the warmer days. Here is what I have planned.

Mixing a little bit of Indie Patterns with the Big Four Patterns and as part of one of my goals, trying not to get ahead of myself as I’m also doing some pattern testing in between all of these.

DP Studio Le 4004 - This pattern has been staring at me for a good month or two. Perhaps the crappy weather was just stopping me in my tracks. I had mentioned I had gotten this download off their website, DP Studio is a French company and I love Bias Cut skirts. This just has a tad more of a fun play with the pattern pieces and half of an elasticated waist.. But I will be making a muslin of it to make sure the fabric doesn’t get completely distorted with time as they are all cut on the bias, and my fabric is linen, and we know this stretches with wear.. The Instructions are in English, but let’s just say they not the best, but I can understand them and know what I need to do.

Style Maker Fabrics - Striped Linen

I got this beautiful striped fabric from Style Maker Fabrics. It is a tad sheer so I will have to line it with voile. It’s such a funny story how I got it because I was just about to purchase it and as usual, it sold out (of course it did!). I sent an email asking if they would re-stock it and they said yes we will restock it (and honestly I don’t know if they have with all these supply chain issues) but they did say that they had 2 - 3/4 yards of it in the remnants they haven’t listed… and if I wanted them, they could invoice me. Hmmm yes! So needless to say I’m glad I was able to grab them. I believe you can also find this fabric at Fabric.com or something pretty darn close they have other color ways too but I loved the one from Style Maker Fabrics with the blues, light aquas, greens and pops of yellow. its perfect.

DP Studio - Le 4004 Bias Cut Skirt Line Drawings

Blooma Tanks and Max Tee - I talked about being in the hunt for tanks tops, its one of those things I don’t even THINK about making because they are so inexpensive… but not any more! At $30 a pop that’s not in the budget when I can make something for a lot less using patterns and 1 yard of fabric. Or hack the living daylights out of it…. that Max Tee can be hacked into a long dress, a v-neck top (heck out the picture below from Banana Republic). It’s a great pattern and a tried and true. The budget for a tank top is $18 with pattern and fabric included. I made a video last week, and I gave you lots of options for tank tops. So that $18 is a pretty darn good budget. You can splurge on your fabric if you use a Big Four pattern.

I will be using remnants and leftover fabric that I have around here… or reusing knit dresses that I know I will not use…. Remember that Tilly and the Buttons Dress that didn’t have quite the outcome I was expecting…. yeahhh! Back to the drawing board, that fabric is too good to go to waste.

Max tee from Chalk & Notch

Blooma Tank from Paradise Patterns

Vogue's V1859- It is a long dress with shorter sleeves (I may be extending those just a touch), but first I have to do a muslin on this one to make sure I like the fit and how it looks. I have been looking for fabric for this pattern for quite some time. Ever since it came out. Would love to find some of Rachel Comey’s dead stock fabric but alas it might not be meant to be (right now!) maybe later on I will find it.

Vogue V1859

I got this fabric from fabric.com, it is a Cambray Herringbone in a coral hue, would love for it to be darker but its lightweight enough for the summer and 100% cotton and right now I want to make sure it doesn’t get too hot for the summer.

And that’s it for this month. If I get to it I will make a pair of Lander Shorts by True Bias, but let’s not get ahead of myself. I already have a pair of Dani Shorts from True Bias and a pair of Pietra Pants from Closet Core Patterns. I have this navy blue stretch twill remnant that has been in my stash for a good 2 years. I downloaded the pattern and lets see if I get to it. There is no such things as too many shorts, especially when the weather is about to turn hot on you, like it always does. I suppose that’s why they call it summer after all.