Butterick 5601 + Simplicity 2692 = New Maxi Dress

Hi!

Last week I decided I wanted to make another maxi dress. You can never have to many. Can you? wink, wink. And you do know you can create a maxi using almost any dress pattern. For this dress, I spliced Butterick 5601 (bodice) with the skirt of Simplicity 2692.    This is the first time  I've used Butterick 5601.  It's been in the collection for a couple years and it was already out of print.

Butterick describes this dress as: Misses' dress close-fitting, straight, above mid-knee dresses A, B have lined yoke, bodice and back zipper. A: back self-fabric loop and button at neck. B: back straps worn twisted and buttoned on inside of yoke. Topstitch trim. I used the bodice for view A. The simplicity skirt for 2692 has two lengths; I used the long version for a maxi. This is the second time I used it. I made a maxi dress about three years ago, view D.

Both patterns are multi-sized. For the bodice I started with size 16 ending up scaling back to a size 14 in every area except for the bust and shoulder blades. This has been common with my recent use of size 16. So I'm rethinking the whole pattern adjustment process again.

What I liked about the Butterick pattern is the back options. The open triangle back and the twist strap back; both are cute and can be used for other dresses. The skirt is a typical pencil skirt. My likes for the simplicity dress is recorded in my June, 2010 review of that pattern mentioned above.

For this review I concentrating more on the construction steps and pattern adjustments needed for the Butterick bodice. This pattern is rated as easy. It is; there is nothing difficult about making it. The instructions were typical and I saw nothing confusing in them.

I used a polyester blend print from Vogue Fabrics. The photos do not do it justice. It a very vibrant print and perfect for summer dresses and skirts.

The alterations of the bodice is here. I'll start with the alterations to the back first. I added 3/4" through the back yoke and bodice. I added a shoulder dart to the yoke and a waist dart to the bodice. The only place I needed the width was in my shoulder area. For the front. I made the required FBA on the bodice and slashed the yoke to make the appropriate adjustment where the bodice and yoke are joined. The front bodice waist dart needed to be moved 3/4" toward the center front. For the side seams, I ended up sewing 1 inch side seams almost the entire length of the bodice. After the dress was done, I still could have taken it in a little more. But it's all right. In the muslin, I noticed gapping around the shoulders. So I sewed them at size 14. That was better. But I neglected to observe the placement of the bust dart. I needed to move it down about an inch. The print camouflages the flaw, but it is definitely something that needs to be addressed for future use of the bodice.

Other changes made:

 - Used an invisible zipper.
 - Added a few inches to the bottom of the skirt.
 - Topstitched the seam along the two legs of the triangle that are joined by a loop and button. I   couldn't seem to do very good under stitching in this area.
- Before attaching the bodice to the skirt, I serged the fashion and lining fabric as one along the center back seam and waist. Both the bodice and skirt skirt and versatile components of a skirt waist dress that could be used to create other dresses.

I will probably use view B of Butterick 5601 and more than likely I will use the skirt of Simplicity 2692 again. If you have either pattern, I do recommend them. Trying different bodices and skirts to create your own designs can be fun. Be adventurous and try it. All photos are here.

Happy Sewing!
C

PS
Today I was able to take a few more pictures of my new maxi dress. I was hoping this new set would be better then the last. Well.., they weren't. Unbeknownst to me, my DD changed the setting on the camera in hopes of improving the quality of the pictures. After the second shoot,I asked her to switch back to the previous setting. But by then I was not in the mood to do it again, I picked the best from the two sets. Some of them are a little blurry, My apologies.