Vintage Butterick 9269

The latest frock, Butterick 9269, view b, the bodice in black linen/cotton blend and the skirt in stretch sateen snake, both fabrics are from Spotlight.
Purchased belt, as they say.

I scooped out the back and front necklines 1.5cm each, after looking at the pattern piece and thinking it looked as though they were too high. I think it was a good thing I did as it looks like the pattern illustration now. It would have been too high. I shortened the frock a lot. As drafted this frock would be nearly down to my ankles. After much pinning and photographing, I decided it looked best hemmed above the knee. I find it easier to decide hem length from photos rather than from looking in the mirror. Anyone else find that?

This is an unprinted pattern, and very fragile, so I traced it. Ugh. I hate tracing unmarked patterns. Trying to figure out which holes mean darts or are just grain line holes. No nice dark lines to trace over either. (I put sew-in interfacing over the pattern to trace).

Frankenstein Frock Frenzy 2012

During my time off over the festive season I have been very busy in the sewing room.

I bought some fab Shaheen tiki print quilting cotton from equilter last year. When it arrived it was sopping wet in the package, in an Australia Post plastic bag which said that is how they received it. It was like it had been at the bottom of the sea! Equilter were great about it when I notified them, and told me to give it a wash and see if I wanted to keep it, and if not they would refund me. It washed up fine, so I kept it and made it into my New Year's eve frock.

I used bodice D of New Look 6699, but rounded off the neckline a little, to make it a bit more like a vintage sarong dress. I only had 2 yards of this fabric, and equilter had no more, so I couldn't do a proper wrap skirt. Instead I attached the skirt from Butterick 5672, cut on the bias (as the pattern instructs you to do, which I don't really understand as it is designed for stretchy knits.) I cut on the bias because I was using a woven of course and thought it would give me some more wiggle room (haha!)

This means the striped motif is angled on the skirt, but I don't mind that, it makes it look more 'sarongy' to me. The side pleats on the skirt give it a bit of a wrap vibe.

Next I frankensteined Butterick 5672 again. I'm getting my money's worth out of this pattern! This time I used the bodice, but extended the shoulders for a more vintage look. I attached skirt D from New Look 6911, but decreased the pleats on the front from 6 to 4 (total) and left off the waistband.

The fabric is a linen/cotton blend I got at Spotlight. It's extremely red as you can see. Nice and cool and the skirt twirls nicely. I didn't line the frock, instead I used bias binding as facings. It's not especially sheer fabric, and I wanted to keep the lovely lightness and coolness of the fabric for summer wearing.

This frock was an experiment for the next fabric I had in the queue, but I ended up going with a different pattern for that in the end. I've finished that next frock now, and will show it in my next post. Now I have to get out of the sewing room and go somewhere to wear all these frocks!

Butterick 5672

I've been too busy sewing to post!
One frock I've made is Butterick 5672

The fabric is a tweedy wool blend knit, with about 30% stretch across the grain. Not enough stretch for this dress, so I did put the zip in. I went up a size due to my fabric not being stretchy enough, but the pleats are pulling a little too much so it's probably still a skootch too small. Still it's comfy and may become a tripfit once I've road tested it.