Butterick 4948 (1983?) Belle France drop-waist dress, Part III

I didn't get as much done this weekend as I'd hoped but I did make some progress.

I attached the skirt.  I didn't really have enough fabric so there are no sleeves, only one pocket, and the skirt itself is pieced in five unevenly-sized panels.  Whatever.  This is a wearable muslin, anyway, so it doesn't have to be perfection.

Waist seam bound in yellow bias, because I had a lot of it:


I keep swearing I'll never work with bias-cut cotton-polyester again, and I keep proving myself a liar.  But gingham is so hard to find otherwise.


I did a front neck placket instead of the zipper in the back.

Inside out.  I have a lot of hand seam-finishing to do, and the buttons (I did the buttonholes last night; there are only three) but then it's done.  Nice, easy, dress.


The pattern only allows a 5/8-inch narrow hem on the skirt.  I hate narrow hems on skirts so we went with more bias gingham.  You can see the one pocket there on the right-hand side, and there is an odd seam in skirt just left of center in the picture.  Oh, well.  This actually made me kind of want to do a dress pieced in tilted plaids.

In the future:
1) Shorted bodice by about three inches.  This looks as it should from a design standpoint, but the waist seam hits right at the widest part of everyone's hips.  It would look less extreme and more flattering if it were at the high hip/low waist.
2) Lengthen skirt accordingly, of course.
3) Possibly put a seam up the back, curved in slightly, to take up a little of the fullness.
4) Lower bust darts about an inch.  I redid them on the muslin, but I need to do that on the pattern, too.


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