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Thursday, March 22, 2018

My Mom's Accidental New Dress

Sometimes you find the perfect pattern, pick out the perfect fabric, make the dress, put it on. . . . and you're less than impressed with how the final garment looks on you. Darn. What a disappointment. The dress is now destined to hang in the closet, unworn and unloved, for years. Unless. . .


Your mom comments on how much she likes the dress and asks if she can try it on. You agree, hoping that the dress made out of the perfect pattern and the perfect fabric will work for somebody! So, your mom tries the dress on, and it looks absolutely fabulous on her!! The perfect pattern, made out of the perfect fabric will actually be worn and appreciated!


The pattern is Butterick B6374, a reprint of a 1940's pattern. The asymmetry of the design caught my eye, and the pattern came home with me from a pattern sale.


Once the pattern had been acquired, I was on the lookout for the right fabric for the design. It needed to be a relatively plain fabric for the design details of the dress to shine through. Luckily, I happened across the perfect fabric on the remnant table at a Mennonite fabric store -  a blue sateen with a darker blue woven in stripe. The fabric is beautiful on its own and showcases the asymmetry of the dress perfectly!


The front of the dress features a row of buttons in a curved line. This is my favorite detail of the dress. Now the pattern was designed for these buttons to just be decorative - the real dress fastening was to be a side seam zipper. Of course, I wasn't satisfied with that! So I turned the center front curved seam into a real button placket and omitted the zipper entirely. Functional buttons for the win!


So, the perfect pattern, the perfect fabric, and functional buttons, What's not to love about this dress? Nothing, nothing at all, which is why I am so pleased that it looks so fabulous on my mom and she loves it!


My mom has a new dress to wear, and I have the satisfaction of seeing something I made get worn on a regular basis. I'd say this story had an excellent outcome, wouldn't you?

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