I found this beautiful white on white print at a local thrift store and immediately fell in love with it. I especially loved that if you held the fabric a certain way, the print looked like an eye mask. At first I considered dying the fabric to see if the print would stand out more. Ultimately I decided to keep it white and, with inspiration from this Butterick 6727 pattern, to add contrasting black buttons.
The design in my head was perfect, but the construction process was infuriating. I was so frustrated by the experience that I didn't even bother to take progress photos during the project. I just wanted this dress to be done, and it fought me at every turn.
See those buttons going down the front of the dress? They do help to hold the dress together, but they aren't otherwise functional. There is still a zipper down the back of the dress - why? Of course I couldn't just transform it into a wrap-around button dress because the pattern had already called for two front bodice pieces to be stitched down, thus securing the placement of the wrap and rendering the buttons useless. Instead, one of the last steps was to sew the buttons through both layers of fabric. So they are in fact holding the dress together, but not as fasteners that can be unbuttoned and buttoned up again. Keeping the fabric and buttons aligned during this process was extremely finicky.
Additionally, because I wanted to work with materials on hand, the only suitable zipper happened to require a lapped zipper. I hate lapped zippers! They never attach smoothly for me. This is why I prefer to work with invisible zippers.
While stitching I noticed that the fabric was a little on the sheer side. I tried holding it up to my skin in the mirror, and it looked like it was going to be okay. I decided not to line it, which was a double win because it would keep the dress a lighter weight for summer and make the print easier to see. (Yes, I also considered a colored lining to make the print really pop, but I was too excited about the white dress with black button detail to go through with that idea.)
When the dress was finished, I discovered that it was in fact too sheer to wear to work. The front was fine because there were 2-4 layers of fabric at the wrap points. However, the back was too sheer. Not only that, but when I finally tried it on, the front was definitely too low cut to be work appropriate.
I shoved the dress into my closet for a few months, and finally pulled it out again this past weekend. I figured that since I was just running errands I had significantly more leeway in what could be considered appropriate. I even got several compliments on the dress, so that really helped. And hey, at least it has pockets!
Completed June 2022
The Challenge: n/a
Material: Cotton (blend?)
Pattern: Butterick 6727
Year: 2020
Notions: Buttons, Thread, Zipper
How historically accurate is it? n/a
Hours to complete:
First worn: Shopping
Total cost: About $6 - it was roughly $2 each for the fabric, buttons, and pattern
My audio companion for this project was The Deep Blue Between by Ayesha Harruna Attah. This was a fascinating coming-of-age piece of historical fiction about 2 girls set in
Ghana and Nigeria in the 19th century. I enjoyed this opportunity to learn more about a corner of the world in a time period that I'm not very familiar with.