velosews

UFO – Butterick 5676

This UFO was cut out in our winter and now it’s summer.

I like the design lines of this dress and after seeing other bloggers use a similar style with a lighter colour, I chose this dark colour for my first ponte dress.
I love doing jigsaw puzzles and sewing this dress together was just like a working on a jigsaw. It’s all straight sewing. If you’re not an accurate sewer (and I’m one of them) here are a couple of things that will help you along.
  1. Butterick suggest you sew the neck band onto the dress as a whole piece. I’m not good at sewing sharp corners so I changed the construction step. I suggest you sew on the neckbands the same way you sew together the side front pieces and back piece before you attach front to back at the shoulder seams. I found it easier to face the neckline and get a good v-neckline point. You can tell I have no future as a quilter.
  2. Topstitch using a matching thread colour to the fabric if you’re not an accurate sewer. I fall into this category so you can see the topstiching but you won’t notice the stitching width unless you look real close.
  3. Ditch the zipper. This is a ponte fabric so take advantage of the spandex in the fabric. Keep the zipper if you want a more fitted look.
  4. Attached the sleeve wrist bands to the sleeve before you attach the sleeve to the dress
  5. Sew the sleeve in flat to the dress before you sew the side seam.
  6. Sew the dress and sleeve side seams up last so you can match the seaming.
  7. Sew a winter dress in winter and not in summer. Or make up the summer version straight away, which I did and it took 3 hours to cut and sew.

I did a roll shoulder adjustment, sway back adjustment, slimmed the sleeve on the winter version by 2 cm, made the 10 size. I ironed this after I finished sewing it so that the fabric didn’t stretch or become shinny from over pressing. And it’s been hot here this week so that’s another reason why I shied away from the iron.

So this pattern now goes into the ‘love it’ pattern pile.

Kristy of Loweryourpresserfoot has just made a lovely striped ponte Burda dress.
Anne of Cherrypix:Sewing pix has also made her Holy batwings party dress in ponte and a fabulous print.

Pattern Magic:
Thank you for your comments about my Pattern Magic patterns. Doing the patterns has been a fun process with a few sewers around and a tutor (Angie) on hand. I’ll be keeping my hand at these patterns and reading what other sewing bloggers are working on.

The material lady has just completed a Pattern Magic workshop at Morley College. I wish we had one in Sydney too!

18 comments

  1. That is a nicely shaped dress and I really must buy some ponte – it sounds great.
    When I was younger I used to slavishly follow the sewing instructions but now realise there are easier , better ways of doing things. Thanks for your review.

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  2. I've never seen this pattern before but I really like it. More often than not I totally ignore the instructions these days. As Janine said above, there are often way more simple ways of doing things that actually produce a better finish.

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  12. Wow- I never would have pegged this as Butterick, but then, you could use 3 paper napkins and a bread bag and the dres would come out stylish an amazing!

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  18. Wow, this is such a flattering style. Good thing you decided to make yourself a summer version, too (:
    Ponte's not something I've tried yet, but will certainly have to look out for.

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