All Dressed Up With Nowhere to Go…Yet
Me-Made-May, Sewing / Posted on May 27th, 2010
As chance would have it, both Tasia and I created red dresses recently. Hers turned out splendidly and she’s using it as a bargaining chip to get her husband to take her out to a fancy restaurant.
My red dress is not getting me a gourmet meal and a night out on the town. Instead, I’m eating frozen pizza and watching TV with the family.
This is my second attempt at Butterick 5315 and it is certainly better than the prototype, which inspired a vituperative review on PR. The pattern isn’t the creation of the devil, as I might have implied in that review. I suspect my disappointment was the result of user error, rather than bad pattern design. I’ve learned a thing or two since then, i.e. I need a FBA in 99.9999% of the patterns I encounter and it’s ok to change things like where the waist seam falls. I moved mine down by about 1/2″ and it feels much more comfortable than where the pattern would have put it.
I like the pleats, the Peter Pan collar and the short and flirty length. It’s cute, but not too demure due to the racy color–wait, I take that back. Robert just said I look like Little Red Riding Hood.
What I do not like–in addition to critical commentary from Robert–is how the vertical darts look. I’ve adjusted them a couple of times, and no matter what I seem to do, I can’t get rid of the “puffiness” at the top of the darts. Well, if I’ve managed to learn enough to make this dress wearable, I’ll eventually learn to make those sorts of darts right.
I’m done with this particular pattern, though. It won’t be the go-to dress pattern I had envisioned it becoming. What I think I need to do is copy someone, like Tasia, who has better fashion sense. I don’t think her husband called her “Little Red Riding Hood!”
Posted by 
May 27th, 2010 at 8:24 pm
Very cute dress.
May 27th, 2010 at 10:25 pm
Bargaining chip! I love it, that’s hilarious. I will report back if it works or not! And you do NOT look like Little Red Riding Hood…now if you had a head full of ringlets and carried a basket then maybe. I like the pleated skirt and collar, it’s cute and classic all at the same time. Maybe it’s not your go-to dress pattern but it looks great nonetheless!
May 28th, 2010 at 4:04 am
Such a cute dress!! I want it! I love the colour and the shape.
May 28th, 2010 at 5:46 am
So cute!! I love the style and it fits you quite well.
May 28th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
pretty! love, love the color.
May 29th, 2010 at 3:29 am
Glad you knocked the devil out of this dress – it is very cute on you!
May 29th, 2010 at 7:50 pm
I think this dress looks great on you. Maybe those darts could be softened up a bit by spritzing them with water and steam-pressing them over something rounded (?).
June 1st, 2010 at 2:06 pm
At the risk of being banned I can see where Robert got the Little Red Riding hood comment from – it does have the kind of feel to it. That said I also agree that it looks quite cute on you as well.
Very impressed with all the stuff you have been making – nice sense of fashion (says the guy with very little sense of fashion).