My Outlander Dress

Or, "The One Pattern, Two Dresses"

I am almost done with a "generic" dress pattern which looks very 1940s without being a "vintage" pattern: Butterick 5846.  Just look at all these pictures of the beautiful dress adaptations!  I love the dresses with the light contrasts via the additional piping as it makes an otherwise solid color dress pop.  Sadly, I did not not add piping to my (first) version of this dress, which is okay because I had a bit of a learning curve.

Only the buttons in a straight line in the pictures below were used.

Same fabric as on the right...

...Only difference is natural vs filtered light.

I should state that I have never made this pattern before and am not great (yet) at being able to adapt patterns from measurements alone.  So I chose to make the size 14, what with my large ass and relaxed 28" (71 cm) waist.  (FYI, my bust measurement is roughly 33"/85 cm.  Yes, I am the textbook triangle shape and will continue to be so if I don't get my ass walking/running more in the near future.)  I knew I would have to adjust the pattern somewhere in the bodice but thought that would only be on the sides or near the yoke.  Just look at how wrong I was!

Butterick 5846, Size 14 Bodice

The back is just as busty as front!

Dress form with water bra, 

size 14 bodice

The first time I made the bodice, sans sleeves, the torso was way too long and much too busty.  A size 14 for this pattern is meant for a 36" (92 cm) bust.  The unfortunate part was that this cotton fabric was not designed to be seam ripped, leaving noticeable small holes along the seam line.  Another reason not to reshape the bodice with the pieces I had was that the fabric had little nicks in the weave which I only seemed to notice once sewing.  

So I figured I should just get another yard to replace the bodice.  This after having bought 4 yards originally of the 42" wide cotton fabric.  Under the florescent lighting of the Joann's fabric store, my scrap swatch of fabric really looked like the bolt of fabric.  It wasn't until I started sewing the yoke facing that I notice that the fabrics have slightly different shades of turquoise blue.  (I know, there are better fabric stores out there but I like seeing fabric on the bolts, being able to see the drape and feel the whole weight rather than just a swatch of fabric from an online store.  Some day I will get back to Cali and visit the warehouse district.  Some day; but I digress.)

Long story short, I got the pattern down to the correct size and now just need to add the collar and buttons.  The funniest part was when I tried on the dress to check the fit and looking down saw that I had made a Mennonite/Amish-like dress.  Interestingly, by creating a V-neck and turning up the sleeves, the dress transformed to the post-WWII era.

The Mennoite/Amish look, adjusted bodice

The puffy sleeve is just a result of the stiffness of the fabric!  I think you can see the difference in the fabric colours; the skirt and sleeves are the "original" fabric and the bodice is the "new" fabric.  No collar yet.

The 1940s look with fitted bodice:
V-neck and rolled sleeves, no collar yet

I found that rolling the sleeve hem 1" twice reduced the puffy sleeve look significantly.  There will be 10 plus, 3/4" wide buttons on this dress down the front, once I get to that point, and may even add one to each of the rolled sleeves.  The only things I forgot in resewing the bodice was the yoke interfacing and "EDGESTITCH along pleat stitching" (step 3, ha).  I don't think I am missing either.  ...And look how similar it is to the new poster for the STARZ Outlander series!  Maybe I should call this my Outlander dress...

OFFICIAL OUTLANDER SITE

This top-down angle makes the dress look
wider than it actually is on the dress-form.

And you know, I don't mind that there is no contrast and that I had to buy cheap fabric.  It is a good way to learn without hitting the pocketbook too deep and is a prettier colour than natural muslin.  Plus, I get to learn more about dye colour lots!  ...Oh, and because I had to remake the bodice, I am running out of thread on my 100m spool.

Finishing the front facing and collar was not good, meaning it just did not want to be wrangled and looks pretty sloppy.  Indeed I dislike it so much as it reminds me of one of my earliest pieces, an apron from a teen pioneer costume, which I still have and use when operating the serger but looks pretty amateurish.  I know it is the quality of the fabric which can make or break a pattern...

Oh, and next time, I will need to adjust the shoulder yoke length as the finished product looks like it has a slight drop sleeve on me. Pricing not including tax:

• $1.67     Butterick pattern 5846, on sale...in fact, everything I buy is on sale/coupon
• $12.50  Country Classic Cotton Solids "Spray Green"(?), 42" wide, 5 yards
• $1.19     Gütermann 100% Polyester Thread, Col. 605 = Robin's Egg
• $3.75     Favorite Findings Timeless Buttons 3 bags; only 5 buttons that I need per bag but at least it comes with white on teal cameos!
• $1.19     Another purchase of Gütermann 100% Polyester Thread, Col. 605
• $1.00    Interfacing remanent

Grand Total: $21.30

Getting the fabric out of my stash whilst learning pattern adjustment...PRICELESS!!