Simplicity 9778 - Butterick 4888

So, a couple of years ago, I made Simplicity 9778 (1971), a long, yoked, Mother Hubbard-style dress with a V-yoke and band collar.


I loved the weird green Concord floral:


But failed to trust my instincts about the improperly-drafted collar, which was drawn and cut as a straight band and sat around my neck like a section of pipe (it looks better here than it looked and felt in real life):


Plus, the bulk of the dress bunched up in weird places as I walked.  I sewed some darts in the back waist, which helped a lot, but . . . eh, I still wasn't wearing it.

I had some scrap left and lucked onto an additional yard on eBay, so I cut off the "skirt" (well, the lower half, since there is no waist) and started fitting the bodice for Butterick 4888 (1977-1978), a slightly later prairie wedding gown.  Yes, with apron.  Psychoanalyze that.

(I already had fabric to make another version of this so it was going to have to be worked on at some point.  The other one will be gray chambray with long sleeves and buttons up the back.)



I needed a bust 34 + a small full-bust adjustment (Seventies patterns seem to run flat) + a little width added to the upper back.   My copy of this is a bust 36 so I decided to try cheating and just taking in the shoulders, and maybe the waist, although I didn't want it super fitted.

Then I did my usual lengthening of the bodice and lowering the bust.

I think I've gotten away with it this time:


I salvaged the sleeves from the first dress.  There is a bit of a dye lot mismatch but I'm not going to worry about it.


I also found raisin-colored Moda solid to make an apron, just because.


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