I found this pretty double-knit wool while I was supposed to buy something else in Okadaya. It happens a lot, doesn’t it? Anyway, I bought a meter of it without knowing what to made of the fabric.
I browsed through my pattern stash and found this Butterick 5672. From the pattern envelope: “Close fitting, lined dress has left side invisible zipper, left dart and left pleats from drape effect.” Looks perfect!
The instructions are very clear-written. The pattern itself is simple with only four outer pieces. In my initial sketch of this dress on my croquis, I drew the dress with sleeves. But after laying down the pattern pieces, I realized that the fabric is not enough so I chose view A, the sleeveless dress.
There are several alteration that I made to the pattern pieces. As usual, the bodice pieces are shortened, and the skirt hem was shortened a lot due to fabric limitation. I also added a center back seam for zipper instead of left side zipper because I wanted to make a swayback adjustment. The pictures of the alteration that I made on the bodice pattern can be seen in here and here .
As the whole dress is cut on bias, I ironed a strip of fusible interfacing to the center back seam as a reinforcement for sewing the zipper. The dress is fully lined in tricot, the lining is also used to finish the neckline and armscyes.
I ended up pinching about 1 cm on each side from underarm to waist. The neckline was gaping a bit, this happens to me a lot so next time I should add this alteration to my usual adjustments.
As for the finishing, the double knit was very stable and doesn’t fray a bit so I just left the edge raw. The hem was finished with vintage seam binding and catch-stitched to the inside. The hem of the lining was simply zigzagged. The lining was peeking a bit around the armscyes, but these can be easily fixed as they are slip-stitched by hand (if I’m not too lazy to do it though).
Recently I took The Couture Dress online course by Susan Khalje at Craftsy and had fun learning a lot of things. One of them was adding a couple of bra strap carriers on the inside of the shoulder using thread chains and small snaps. This is very useful especially for dress with wide neckline like this. I also made these thread chains to connect the skirt and the skirt lining.
One thing that I kinda regretted from this dress was the color. I really like the color but I just made a coat in similar color! If I wear this dress with the coat, it will be too… green. But aside from all those little things, I love love love the result! It fits wonderfully and the fabric feels fabulous. It is still too cold to wear the dress outside like this so it would be definitely worn with layers. But spring is coming!
Pattern is Butterick 5672 view A, size 8 on bust and 10 on waist and hip.
PS: Thank you for all the sweet comments on my wedding anniversary post! ♥♥♥
68 Comments
I love the colour of that fabric! And the draping on the dress is beautiful.
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE everything about this dress! Amazing colour on you, beautiful lines, and beautiful construction. Well done! I think I will try this one…
I saw this on pinterest. You did a great job, well done and the colour is stunning on you.
I saw your picture of this dress on the hanger and fell in love with it immediately but then I saw it on you and I’m officially obsessed. It looks AMAZING on you. It’s a really flattering cut or something. I love the color of fabric you used too. It stands out but not in a bad way. Perfect balance, excellent job!