Blue Wrap Dress: Butterick B5030
I bought this fabric online while I was in Japan last year. The blues and purples looked softer in the photos of the online store, but in person it has more navy. I wasn't sure about the amount of navy, so I decided to make a wearable muslin (toile, test garment) with it.
If you look closely, this fabric has a circus print like big tops, elephants, pegasus...so cute!
The pattern I choose is Butterick B5030, a wrap dress with a flared skirt.
I've never made a wrap dress (I don't think I ever owned one either), so I was pretty excited to give this a try. I used version C which has front and neck bands with flared short sleeves.
This was fairly easy to make!
The belt doesn't actually pull and hold the wrapped sides together, it just sits outside of the dress.
There's a hook on each side of the waist to hold the wrapped sides together. I added a couple snap fasteners on the front band to avoid gaping (see the yellow circles above).
To be honest, I'm not sure about the front and neck band design. It's wider than I thought and even though I didn't use interfacing it still feels too bulky.
The gathered front shoulder detail looks pretty, but it adds too much volume to my figure. (This might be caused by the fact that I used a double gauze fabric which doesn’t have much drape and has some thickness.) I think I'll try versions D, E, F for the bodice next time (probably without collars.)
The bodice needs to be shortened a bit too. It might sound like there're so many wrong things about this dress, but I actually enjoyed making this dress and am happy I gave it a try. This is just a regular process when making muslins, observing what can be improved and what I like about the project!
So what do I like about this pattern? I like the flared skirt a a lot, it's so elegant! I like that the skirt is about a half circle instead of full circle, I think a half circle is much more practical. I like that the skirts over wraps each other pretty well, I probably don't need to worry about the skirt flying open unless if it's a super windy day.
I didn't do a fantastic job sewing on sleeves I don't think, since the flare looks a bit wonky. Maybe it also has something to do with the fact that it's double gauze which is soft but still has a body. I do like that how it's flared on sleeves isn't over the top, yet still breezy, it'll be comfortable to wear on a hot summer day.
It's always fun to make something new, something different. Although there're things I want to change the next time, I'd say this is still a successful muslin!
Apr 19, 2017
