Butterick 7653 – make all the dresses!

January 25, 2016 Mermaids Purse

I’m sure I’m not the only WSR sewist who sees a fabulous vintage pattern and needs to make all given variations of a dress! This pattern, Butterick 7653 was that pattern for me. For ages.

I was initially attracted by the elegant neckline, both back and front, and the pleats on the slim skirt version, such simple details.

I started with this project in 2013…the pattern is a size too small, so that held up the works a little and I’m glad I didn’t rush it. By the time I decided to tackle it again, I was more confident, and had more experience in fitting for my body, and lining dresses, and it was a quick and easy make. I think I had some kind of fitting-to-body mental block!

So, here are the results of this particular sewing dream, the slim skirt version is my favourite, I made it in a polyester crepe, navy blue with white polka dots.

I love this dress!

Those pleats..

…And the neckline…

I wore this to my husband’s MFA graduation, and we went out for a coffee after (thanks to babysitters…) and it was so fun to wear and, well, I just love it!

On to the full-skirted version. I didn’t quite have enough fabric to make the skirt as full as required, I had a couple of metres of this lovely silk from a friend, and it was perfect for this dress, the drape of the bias neckline especially, so I went ahead with it.

I added a waist-stay to this as the skirt was fairly heavy, and I added little bra-strap holders as the the neckline is so wide.

I went for wide box pleats on the skirt, and tried to reproduce the look of slim skirt pleats, which were slightly overlapping, as you may be able to see from the pattern envelope illustration. I think this worked reasonably well, without adding too much bulk in the waist area.