Dress in a day: Butterick 4443

Do you ever wake up in the morning, decide you have nothing to wear for an evening BBQ, and spend the day making yourself a new dress? Because, dear Readers, that was me yesterday.



This is a really easy dress. My pattern was still in factory folds. I started at 1.00pm, I was done at 5.30pm. In between, I stressed about how messy my house was, played with Biscuit, ate lunch, and wasted some time on the Internet. That's an easy dress.

I've been really bad at posting pattern reviews, so let's reverse this trend.

Sewing review:

Pattern: Butterick 4443. I cut a size 8 for the top, grading to a size 12 for the waist and hips. I petite-sized by using the provided petite-sizing lines (so useful!)

Fabric: A cotton with a bit of stretch to it. I bought this fabric in New York's garment district a year ago. I think I paid about $6 a yard for it? Wasn't more than $6, but it could have been $4. It was a while back, I don't remember.

For lining (the bodice of this dress is lined, the skirt is unlined), I used a cotton voile. I bought this when I was in India in Feb 2010, and have used it to line all my cotton projects. The voile tends to distort pretty easily, which is a pain to work with. On the other hand, when summer kicks in, I don't want a synthetic lining against my skin. Hence, I sucked it up and used the voile.

Construction notes:

- Rather than use the pattern's suggested method for attaching the bodice to the lining, I used Trena's method of attaching the bodice to the lining. Much easier.
- If I were to do this again, I'd shorten the bodice another inch. The waist seam is below my natural waist, and I don't really care for this look. (I don't hate it though, I still wore the dress out.)
- Entirely my own fault - but I should have interfaced the edges of the neckline and armscye. This fabric has a bit of stretch, and I think it stretched out a little.
- Even cutting a size 8, there's a bit too much fabric in the back neck. Next time around, I'll redraw the center back seam to remove this excess.

None of the above quibbles prevents me from wearing this dress though. It's just that after 4 years of sewing, I now look at everything with a sewist's ridiculously picky eye. I I can do a better job fitting.

Conclusion: I'm wondering if it's crazy that I'm thinking of sewing 7 dresses in 7 days? I'm still on the fence about this, but if I do see this through, this is dress 1.