Thursday, May 27, 2010

Butterick 6020

The pattern:



Front view of the finished dress:



And the back:



The fabric is a cotton with a little bit of stretch. I can't really say for sure as it was thrifted.

This was my first time matching stripes like this. Fortunately, the process is often described in especially older sewing books, so I had come across it previously. I do, however, owe some thanks to a friend of mine who helped refresh my memory. She also said it was a good idea to write on the pattern which colour each stripe was, seeing as I was dealing with three different colours of stripes. Here's a picture of how it looks on the pattern piece (note: the placement of the pattern on the fabric in the picture below is completely random, the fabric merely serves as a background):



It's pretty simple to do and I was very pleased with the result. What you do is you place the pattern piece on the fabric according to what the piece dictates with regard to the straight grain of the fabric. Then you take a ruler and draw lines on the pattern piece that are a couple of inches long, or whatever you find best, representing each stripe. Then you turn the pattern piece to make sure you get a mirrored piece, making sure the stripes match each other in colour. I had to turn the piece around by 180 degrees, because the fabric had three different colour stripes.

The pockets are the really special thing about this dress. I decided to sew them on by hand because the fabric had a tendency to crawl together when I used a sewing machine, so it took a while, but it was pretty straight forward. If i make the dress again in a fabric that is easier to work with, I will probably use a sewing maching to attach the pockets. Here's a close-up of them:



All in all, this pattern was a positive experience, albeit demanding due to the stripes. I often use size 14 Butterick patterns from the early 1950s and I usually have to take them in a little. This one, however, seemed to run a bit small, but fortunately it all worked out.

Thank you for reading :)

18 comments:

  1. Wow! This is amazing! I love the dress!!! The style, the fabric, the pockets, everything!!! It's fabulous : ) If you don't mind I may post a picture of it on my blog - all credit given to you : )

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  2. Incredible job - I'm so impressed! And Eva Girl did post a picture on her blog. Which is great because now I can be a follower, too!

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  3. Oh, this looks fantastic! Love the fabric placement. Cute pockets too!

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  5. Thank you so much for the compliments, it means a lot and they're very motivating. I was pleasantly surprised that the stripes ended up placed like they are on the pattern envelope.

    Eva Girl, of course you can post the picture on your blog :)

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  7. Ohh the cute-ness! I actually posted pictures on my blog of a vintage dress that is quite similar to this... it even has pockets with matched stripes. You can see it here: http://tomatosoupcake.blogspot.com/2010/05/muse.html if you've time to waste on such nonsense ;-)

    You did a wonderful job with this dress... just a lovely garment♥

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  8. Persuaded, that is a very cute dress. It's incredible how many wonderful details you can have in one garment simply by playing around with stripes :)

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  9. That's just lovely! I'm probably going to start on this pattern quite soon!

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  10. The dress looks great! Congrats on the stripe matching. Even though you wrote that the pattern was a bit tight, I think you could actually use a size smaller in the bodice and just blend the bodice into the larger skirt portion.

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  11. lsaspacey: Thank you for the suggestion, I very often have to take the bodice in and keep the skirt as it is. However, I think the bodice is supposed to be somewhat blousey, so the back bodice piece did puzzle me a bit because it is a little baggy, but it made sense when I compared it to my back length measurement and I really couldn't take any out as the kimono sleeves would be too constrictive. The measurements for the size on the pattern envelope stated the waist to be 26.5 inches, but I found it to be smaller and almost too close for comfort (my waist is 25.5 inches). Also, I'm was wearing a bullet bra when the photos were taken, that usually makes a blousey bodice like this sit a little differently than if you're wearinga modern and more rounded bra.

    Jessica: Good luck :)

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  12. Wonderful job matching the stripes! The pocket details are the best part of this dress, so cute! Nice work :)

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  13. i love this and want one of my own.

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  14. Hi! You did a great job! I love that pattern!

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  15. Oh, wonderful! I have this same pattern and have been waiting for the right fabric to come along to make it with. I've even got the ladies at the fabric store keeping an eye out for me. Thanks for your tips on matching stripes. Even the THOUGHT of doing something that complicated is a big deal for a new sewer like myself, but your tip made a lot of sense.

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