Butterick Flop and My New Plan

Hello lovely readers!

For the past two night I have been cutting out and stitching up a muslin of Butterick 5209, which sadly flopped.The good news? No, I didn't just save a ton of money by switching my car insurance to Geico, but I did make a muslin! Unfortunately, I can't post any pictures because I made my muslin from a quite threadbare, and therefore see through, thrifted bed sheet. I am so thankful that I made a muslin and didn't waste any of my good fabric. The pattern itself is fine, though the instructions don't go in a very logical order, and quite easy as it only has four different pieces. The entire bodice is self lined, but I chose to skip the lining since it was a muslin.

In the end I decided that I just didn't care for the way the dress fits. The halter comes up quite high on the neck for my taste and it seems to go too far back underneath my arms. I prefer my halter dresses to have a bit of a plunging neckline and then a longer skirt length to balance out the amount shown on top, however if you wanted a halter dress that provided a bit more cleavage coverage then this pattern might work out perfectly. 

The pattern also included a short sleeved version that I might still give a try, with a muslin first of course, so the pattern may not be a total loss. Here is a picture of the pattern: for reference. If you do decide to tackle this I would suggest making a muslin first as some "sewing insurance".

Since my Butterick pattern flopped I have already conjured up a backup plan involving another halter dress. This time I am going to give Vogue 8727 a try. The Vogue dress is fully lined, which in my mind makes it a bit dressier, but I will probably still wear it as a summer sundress. The Vogue pattern includes both a full skirted version and a fitted skirt version, both of which I intend to make if the halter portion fits correctly.

This pattern was just released with this seasons patterns and it seems that it doesn't have any reviews yet over at Pattern Review. After examining the instructions I will offer a word of warning if you intend to sew one of the longer versions of the dress. For example, the longer halter dress requires over five yards of fabric for the outer fabric and the same amount of lining, and the dress in the bottom right requires about eight yards of both lining and outer fabric! Sixteen yards of fabric for what I would consider to be a sundress seems crazy!

I won't be able to start working on my Vogue pattern until next week because I need to go to Joanns to buy lining, but I don't want to go until Saturday when McCalls, Vogues, and Buttericks are all on sale. Oh yes, i do plan my trips specifically around pattern sales.  In the meantime I might whip up another version of my Burda skirt or work on a Butterick skirt that is currently a UFO.

So, readers, I want to hear from you. What are you working on this week? Has anyone made that Butterick pattern? What about halter dresses? Do you love them or hate them?

Happy Sewing!