Big Day Dress

Updates Feb. 16, 2009:

Here are some photos of my neice in her dress on the day of the wedding:


And from the back:


And the two of us together:


Original Text Feb 4, 2009:

I just completed Butterick 4385, a special-occasion dress, for my niece. This is the dress that Sadie will be wearing for the wedding on the 14th.


Sadie picked out her own fabrics, which would explain the bright blue lining, but overall I think that the selections went together fairly well. She wanted pink matte satin for the dress and a pink and blue brocade for the jacket and the contrast band across the top and straps.


The dress was rated as "easy," but I think that the reason for this is because the instructions direct you to do a couple of things that I would consider short-cuts; or directs you to do things that you could get a better finish if you did it a different way. For example, top band is sewn with the wrong sides together, leaving the raw edges to be hemmed under. A better way of doing it would be to sew it right sides together and turn it. They also provide instructions for a standard zipper, when an invisible zipper looks sooooo much nicer.

Here are some of the details of construction:

First, the jacket. The jacket is very simple, and the lining is inserted by just sewing it to the jacket wrong sides together, and turning it.

But, even with a ton of pressing, because there are no facings, this means that the lining will "roll out" and be visible from the outside. To prevent this, I top stitched all the way around the edge to keep the lining in place. Since the lining and exterior are two drastically different colors (this is what you get for letting an 11-year-old pick out the fabric) I used pink in the top thread and blue in the bobbin to sew. This is not something that the pattern instructions mention, but I think it gives a better finish to the jacket.

Another thing that the pattern instructions fail a bit at is the attachment of the straps. In the instructions, the straps are attached to the same seam where the band is attached to the bodice:

But, this means that the band flops forward because there is nothing holding it up. So, I hand stitched the straps to the band. This also meant that I could leave the back of the band open rather than securing with hooks and eyes. I did this because my niece, like her auntie, suffers from a bit of under-the-arm-above-the-bewbie pudge, that tends to fold the band over if it is too tight. This way, I can leave the band a bit looser, but it is still secure and remains standing.

I also had to cut the band a touch longer than the pattern indicated because I did NOT cut it on the bias to preserve the integrity of the pattern on the brocade. We did a full muslin, and in that, the band was about 4 inches longer than what I would have gotten by not cutting on the bias. Here is the muslin, made from old sheets, marked with sharpie, and with the extra room at the hips pinned out. I had initially cut it with 2 inches extra room at the hip since Sadie's measurements were larger than those indicated by the pattern. But, I wound up taking it right back out in the final product, as it was not necessary.

Another thing that the pattern instructions don't really address is how to hem the dress. It instructs you to "hem" it, but beyond that, there is no detail. To keep down the bulkiness of the hem, I added hem tape, and hand stitched the hem catching just a few threads on the inside, so the hem is nearly invisible from outside. The lining is machine hemmed:

I also hand stitched the lining to the invisible zipper:

Overall, I am very happy with the way the dress came out, and Sadie is happy with it as well (she pets it every time she is near it in the sewing room). For the "big day" she has pink tights and silver shoes, so she will be bright if nothing else. She is also very excited about the fact that she gets to go with Grandma to get her hair done.

I'll update with pictures of her in the dress after the "Big Day."