A Fabulous new border print Dress!

Often when I sew garments for Elsie George Boutique, I like to test the pattern out before I cut into the good fabric. So that I'm not wasting fabric, I grade the pattern up, and make a test one in my own size (and at the same time, that gives me a traced out, graded up copy of a pattern I wouldn't have had before!) The most recent pattern Rachel has asked me to make is this one:

Vintage Butterick 7648

Now the one I will be making for the shop will have quite a few modifications to it, and won't look much like the one I have made at all. However, making this one has shown us a few areas that are going to need to be modified, such as the neckline (way to high) and the arm holes (which are quite small)

The original pattern features a circle skirt (or pencil skirt), but the fabric we will be using is a border print, so naturally it will have a gathered skirt instead. I was lucky enough to have a gorgeous white and pale pink border print fabric in my stash, so decided to use that for my test dress. It wasn't a huge bit of fabric, but it was very wide, so I managed to use it all very carefully, and even had just enough left over to add pockets. If I can, I always have pockets in my dresses!

Here's how the dress looked almost finished. Apart from grading up the width of the pattern, I also lowered the neckline by 1" and lowered the bottom of the armscye by 1"

I decided to use the pockets from Butterick B6055, but had to piece a little bit of the white on pink border to the piece of pink on white fabric that I had left to make it big enough for the pockets. I both lined the pockets and faced the neckline/armholes with plain white cotton. Mabel tried to be very helpful.

Quick messy sewing room selfie

I finished this dress up around midday yesterday, and even though it probably ended up a bit snug in the waist, I love it.

Work Selfie

I love it so much, I wore it to work today!

Then snuck up to Elsie George to show Rachel, and use her lovely big mirror for a better, less messy selfie.

This dress is just absolutely darling! While walking about town I had quite a few (quite a bit) older people looking and admiring it, and also quite a few compliments. Although I did need to spot clean it as soon as I got home, as I somehow managed to get something on one of the pockets (don't worry it came out) Which I guess is why I don't wear a whole lot of light colours....

Now I'm  just sitting in bed in my polka dot me-made nightie, crocheting myself a new pink snood and rewatching bomb girls

Goodnight!

Dixie