Butterick 4790

For a quick project this earlier this year, I used Butterick 4790, more commonly known as the "Walk-Away" dress pattern.




If you look at the line drawing on Butterick's website (linked above) you can see that this dress is basically like an apron. It goes on over the shoulders, then the front of it fastens in the back, and the back fastens in the front. The inner layer fits like a sheath dress. . .


. . .And it's fastened with a button and loop at the center back:



Details:

I was basically "testing the waters" with this version (thus the not-so-original color scheme). The changes I made to this pattern were adding about an inch on each side where it fastens in the back so that the edges would meet, taking in about a quarter of an inch at the shoulder seams (doubling to half an inch), tucking out a bit of length for my short waist, and removing a bit of excessive fullness at the bust.

The only detour I took from the instructions was to miter the binding at the corners of the dress rather than stopping at each of the corners and turning under the edges.

This pattern is pretty simple to sew and went together quickly, though I took my time with the binding. Unfortunately, the fabric and binding don't really seem to compliment my coloring, and even after my alterations it didn't look quite right on me (not sure why -- my short waist, perhaps?). My sister fit into it nicely, though, and these colors are more her style, so I'm letting her have this one. I'm not sure whether or not I'll be tweaking it to make another one for myself, but it's still a neat pattern for its unique design and simplicity of construction :-)

Navy Corduroy Jumper

Here's another version of Simplicity 3673. I made my first version during last December/January, and this time I made one for my sister.





The Specifics:

Fabrics:
For the fashion fabric, she chose a navy blue pinwale corduroy, with a polyester lining for the bodice. We also substituted an invisible zipper for a regular one.

Alterations for Fit:
None, other than slight adjustments to the side seams in the skirt.

Construction:
For the most part, I made the jumper following the pattern directions, with a few small additions/changes. . .

The first change was to add interfacings to reinforce a few key areas of the garment. I hand basted 1-inch wide bias-cut strips of silk organza to the wrong side of the shoulder and armhole seam lines before sewing in the lining. For the zipper seam, I basted in a 1-inch wide strip of batiste, which was cut on-grain.

I also hand under-stitched the armhole and neckline seams with a pick-stitch. The instructions don't actually say to under-stitch this area, seeing as it's too narrow to reach by machine, so I did it by hand to prevent the lining from rolling outward.

The third change I made was to insert the lining in such a way as to cover the zipper seam and waist seam. In the pattern instructions, the main purpose of the lining seems to be for finishing the neckline and armholes. After that, it's supposed to be stitched into the zipper and waistline seams with the rest of the bodice. I decided to leave the lining free of the zipper seam and tack in place later (I actually did this by machine; see my other version for details), also slip-stitching it over the waist seam.



The waist seam was supposed to be pressed down (according to the directions), but pinwale corduroy is relatively lightweight, so I "cheated" and pressed it up so I could hide it in the lining. The rest of the seams are simply overcast with a zigzag stitch.

Well, that's about it. It was a fairly simple and enjoyable project, and the corduroy seems to be a great choice for fall!

I'm sorry I haven't been posting very often (I say this too much!). I sew a lot more often than I get around to writing about, so I'm woefully backlogged with projects to post :-( I'll have to see if I can get some more pictures up!