Dress Up Party – Pattern Review – Butterick 6094

This post is part of Dress Up Party. For contest rules, full details, and schedule, please click here!
Today’s post is from Rochelle of Lucky Lucille.

Hello there! My name is Rochelle, I blog at Lucky Lucille, and I’m so excited to take part in Sara’s Dress Up Party! Today I’m sharing a modified version of Butterick B6094 which is a vintage inspired pattern by Gretchen “Gertie” Hirsch.

This pattern has been in my stash for a long while now and I thought the Dress Up Party would be a perfect excuse to finally see it done. As much as I love my version of this dress, as I worked through the pattern, I realized there were some things about the original I wasn’t in love with.

The original pattern includes a full circle skirt, but since I wanted a more casual look (and a skirt that wouldn’t eat up as much fabric), I decided to pattern hack and add the Sewaholic Hollyburn skirt on instead. I couldn’t help myself. I adore the shape of the Hollyburn AND it has pockets! Sorry for tossing you to the curb, Original Full Circle Skirt, but I have no regrets 😉

The original pattern includes pieces for a full bodice lining, AND a separate bodice facing to go on top of the lining. If you were using a thicker outer fabric, I could see why you would want to use a traditional lining fabric for the bodice and then use a different contrast facing for the fold-y panels, but since I was using quilting cotton (and not really concerned about bulk) I decided to go a different route. I looked to an old post on Gertie’s blog about how she lined her early version of this dress. She made a simple facing and kept the rest of the bodice unlined, so that’s what I did for my version as well.

The original neckline was much too high for my taste, and gaped on me quite badly, so I had to do some fiddling with that in order to create a shape I really liked. Since I already was making several fitting changes to the bodice (due to my lovely rounded upper back/forward sloping shoulders/sway back combo) it was really no extra trouble to adjust the neckline, too.

Now, the parts that I DO really love about this dress (and I’m certain they’re the reason why everyone loves this dress) are the flappy sailor-esque bits at the back – ADORABLE!! I mean truly adorable if I do say so myself. If you love pattern hacking like I do, and this is a feature you were interested in adding to another dress, it would be worth buying the pattern (especially if it’s on sale!) specifically for the back pattern pieces.

Okay so here’s the bullet point run-down, again:

Dress Pattern – Butterick B6094 with the Sewaholic Hollyburn filling in for the skirt.

Size Made – With the wearing ease I chose a 6, even though my measurements are an 8/10.

Dress Fabric – Cotton & Steel’s Netorious print in Roadster, with Cotton Supreme Solids in Eggnog for the back contrast.

Fitting Changes Made – Adjustments for a rounded upper back and forward sloping shoulders, a swayback adjustment, and multiple attempts to fit and “flatterize” the bust darts to no avail (they’re kind of a strange size/shape/length). I also adjusted the armhole slightly to better fit my forward sloping shoulders. Those are all adjustments *I* need to do in particular, and not necessarily ones that anyone else would need to do in order to make this dress wearable. The proportions seem standard with what you can expect from a Big 4 pattern. …I’m just special.

Style Changes Made – Lowered and reshaped the neckline, added the Sewaholic Hollyburn skirt instead of the full circle skirt included with the original pattern. I also used just a bodice facing instead of the full lining AND facing as instructed.

I’m not 100% happy with the bodice fit as it is right now, but it’s still a very wearable dress and I really like it! I’d love to do just a bit more work on it (I know I’m being picky, but man those bust darts are driving me nuts!) and then try making it again. I mentioned a lot of things I changed or didn’t love on the original pattern, but I don’t want to discourage anyone from sewing it by any means! It’s a really super cute dress, totally a summer staple, and I think many people would fall in love with it! Since I re-worked the facing, and therefore took out some extra steps, the dress came together quite quickly and nothing really stumped me in the instructions. If you’ve been eying this dress pattern, I recommend giving it a try!

Thanks for reading along 🙂

xo
Rochelle