Butterick 4919

This dress was a dream to sew up except for hemming the circle skirt. The shoulders of the front gather and give the dress detail along with the wrap around bodice. 4919 is a much better Butterick pattern than the "walk away dress" B4719. The walk away look horrible on and doesn't drape nicely at all but 4919 fits wonderfully. The only changes I plan on making to this pattern is to bring the shoulder up a little because the neckline is a little bit too low for someone who doesn't have a well endowed bust. The ties when tied correctly don't show the wrong side of the fabric too much, I did contemplate lining them too but then the ties would be too thick to drape nicely. Because of the skirt being a full circle skirt this dress does eat up a good chunk of fabric but twirling around in it and watching it flare out is totally worth it. I hope to buy a petticoat to make the skirt puff out more but the skirt's drape looks great as is too.  As you can see by the updated pictures I now own a petticoat, it was a gift for my birthday from M

The Scoop:

Fabric: 100% Cotton Quilter's Premium Fabric - Sprigs Brown

Pattern: Butterick 4919 a 1952 reprint

Year: 1952

Notions: One zipper and two hooks with bars


Hours: One week of on and off sewing

First worn?: M's birthday dinner

Wear again?: Yes!

Make again?: In pink and yellow striped fabric I do believe.

Total cost: Pattern approx $8.50  Fabric approx $27.47 and Zipper $3.29. The thread and hook/bars were from my stash, so the total comes to approx. $39.26

McCall's 3378

This is the pattern I used to make my ill fated jumper. Why is it ill fated you ask? Well after making a mock up that fit it's disheartening when your finished product is too big. I figure I can solve this problem with a thicker sweater underneath. Then as in my other post I mentioned the invisible zipper. It's not perfect but because it's my first one I can let the imperfections go. I had to rip that one out because I realized I used the wrong size, the zipper I used was meant for another dress. The inside seams are all encased in bias tape aka a Hong Kong finish. I had to use white instead of brown because Joanns was out. Oh well just another little imperfection that I can live with because no one will see it. I am making the red skirt on the front with the pockets. It's coming along nicely even though I've never done pockets before. I added some rickrack along the bottom of the pockets just for some detail. I hope to have it finished by the end of the week and then I can ask my grandmother to take some pictures of me in both. I do need to make a fluffy petticoat so the skirt has the right shape. (Hmmm so many options, any pointers on making a 50's petticoat?) I finished the red skirt and once again forgot I didn't re-size the pattern so I had to adjust it the day before I was supposed to wear it and I made it too small. Both the skirt and jumper are on my sewing table waiting for me to finish the so expect another update on both of these crazy projects soon. (I hand finished the hem in the car and then ripped it out when I got home because it looked so bad.)

In the meantime here is a picture of me and M at his graduation. You can't really see the skirt but I think it's a cute picture of us. I wore the too small skirt for the event and it worked out ok because of the belt that I had made (and secured with safety pins because I didn't have time to put on snaps)