Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Butterick 5320, Elizabethan Collar Wrap Dress

Another of the Four Projects in Four Days! Ok, so the collar is not technically Elizabethan, but it's got a lot more volume than you normally see.

B5320 Thumbnail

For a long time I never managed to get my schedule to match up with the Butterick sales at Joann, so I didn't buy any Buttericks for probably a year. Then I finally managed to catch a sale, and stocked up! Among my haul were the Maggy London B5243knit dress I wrote about last week and this one, B5320 also from the Maggy London line, designed by Suzi Chin. I like wrap dresses, and this one had a lot of great features with the flat front and gathered side and back skirts, princess seams in front, and what I thought was a ruffled collar.

The fabric for this dress is...an Ikea sheet! It's the Gaspa sheet and I was completely taken with the color, the weight, the sheen, the hand, everything. These are great for sewing! I bought this last year and washed it when I got home so I don't recall what size it was. I *think* a queen ($14), though possibly a king ($15). I remember being annoyed that they didn't have any twins or fulls, but in the end it turned out to be very fortuitous. This dress takes a huge amount of fabric, and I barely managed to squeeze it out. After making this dress, I bought the pink color the last time I was at Ikea. Unfortunately, they don't have the dark gray at my Ikea because it would be perfect for my kimono dress.

As I said, when I picked up the pattern I thought the collar was just a ruffle. But when I was cutting out the pattern pieces I was confused until I realized that it's a sort of a puffy bubble arrangement. The pattern photo really does not illustrate the drama potential of this collar! I didn't interface the outer collar, and now I wish I had to ensure that it will always remain puffy, as I did with my orchid collar big shirt.

Low Original NecklineNormally I would shorten a wrap dress between the waist and the shoulder for an SBA but I had no idea how to correspondingly alter the collar so I just had to make it and see what happened. It turned out quite low, but not gapey thank goodness! It's an easy fix to keep it in professional territory, just a hook and eye sewn in place where I wanted the crossover to be.

Ribbon Trim at PocketBecause of my limited fabric, and how giant the pockets are, I had to cut the inner pockets out of batiste. To ensure that the flash of white would never show and the reinforce the pocket to keep it from bagging out I stitched ribbon over the pocket opening edge before sewing in place.

Ribbon FacingI got this ribbon from Joann several years ago and I'd never found the right project for it. I loved the way it looked in this dress so much that I used it to finish the front opening edge. The dress is designed to be fully lined, but my thick fabric didn't need it. I had thought to use bias strips, perhaps, but would have had to use a contrast fabric. The ribbon was so cute I had to use it. I got a little slapdash here because the ribbon doesn't really shape with an iron, and I had to stitch it down on the inside edge as well as the outside and there is a little bit of puckering in places, but I don't mind it one bit.

BackThe only thing I don't like about this design is the back bodice. It has you gather the lower edge of the bodice and the skirt and sew them together with a stay.
Size 8 = 14 3/4 inch
Size 10 = 15 1/4 inch
Size 12 = 16 inch
Size 14 = 16 1/2 inch
I don't hate the blousy look here, but if I were to make it again I would definitely convert those back bodice gathers to darts for a sleeker look in the back.

The collar. It is a wrangle. The undercollar is a spiral, the upper collar is a giant rectangle with tapered ends (worm shape?). There are 28 pleats in the upper collar. While I cut the upper collar out with a sawtooth for each marked pleat, in the end I ended up sort of guesstimating so that the upper- and under-collars ended up the same length. I tucked each pleat downward, radiating from center back; you can sort of a little bit see how they change direction in this shot of the back. The upper collar is wider than the under collar so although I followed their instructions to understitch the outer edge seam allowance to the undercollar I don't know that it was necessary, and pressing that seam was terrible. I really felt like I was wrestling with the fabric for the collar, so I don't recommend it for early beginners, who I think will find it too exhausting and frustrating.

I was going to put sleeves on, but as I got close to that step I thought they might compete with the collar too much, and the collar covers a bit of the shoulder so the style is still office appropriate.

Front with Pockets I LOVE this dress. It is so much fun to wear, and gets a lot of compliments when I do. As you can see, I wore it to the Smithsonian National Zoo on Sunday and had lots of fun. The cotton is very cool and comfortable to wear. It wrinkles as cotton does but not unduly. The color is sensational, and I don't feel drab wearing a solid as I often do. You know how much I love me some prints, so a solid is always a risk. I'm glad I took it with this dress!





All photos are here and the pattern review is here.

42 comments:

Little Hunting Creek said...

That is so pretty! I have this pattern and never noticed that the collar was NOT a ruffle. Very interesting!

Anonymous said...

Very cute. Great idea about a sheet--love a good apple green! I have this pattern too. thanks for the heads up on adding back pleats!

cidell said...

omg. that dress is fabulous and I'm going to take myself to IKEA this weekend and buy that sheet. Talk to me about the pink. Pale? Bright? This is utter fab.

Adelaide B said...

This dress is super cute! That collar is awesome.

Peggy said...

I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your bright green dress! It's fabulous on you!

Sara said...

Love this! You look so great! And so happy in your dress!

Anonymous said...

Wow! That dress is amazing and the color is awesome on you. I love it!!! I've always wondered why shoulders were considered so risque for an office. Weird. I will definitely look at sheets in a different way now. That is a really sweet dress, especially the collar.

Oh and, pls let me know when you receive the package I sent you!

Anonymous said...

Very cute and the color is very now. Love this, but alas it's another thing that looks great on you and not me, so I have to drool from my end.

BConky said...

What a fun color to go with that dramatic dress. I bought that pattern for my daughter but like you thought the collar was a ruffle. Turned out amazing.

Claudine said...

Great dress, and I LOVE the fact that you wore it to the zoo. I'm always dressing up too much for my lifestyle, and I think everyone else should, too. I was a little disappointed after reading the title of the blog post, then seeing the photos. I was hoping to see something wearable with an Elizabethan collar, but this is not really Elizabethan. It's still a great dress, though.

poplin said...

Dang. You wear that very well. That collar is awesome all bubbly! Keep us posted on how you care for it.

Ikea, here I come!

spottedroo said...

Super cute! I love the color. I don't think I could ever wear this but it looks great on you.

Jenny said...

Very cute. The bright green color is stunning on you! Great construction tips.

Rachel said...

You will never believe that I was just thinking about this pattern right before I went to your website. I LOVE the color and the pattern. It is up soon on my todo list. The color is fantastic on you.

Sigrid said...

No, the collar wouldn't do in the Elizabethan age, and what would they think about a sleeveless dress, but it's very, very cute on you.

Jillian said...

I love this! The colour is awesome and it looks great on you!

Trudy said...

This turned out really cute. Great color, too.

www.sewingwithtrudy.blogspot.com

Marita said...

Fabu color!!!...and the dress is so pretty, it's so YOU:-)

What happend with that Martin Grant dress, did you order the mag from anywhere? I did. My first foreign bank transfer, whoa!! had to take the plung one day, this was as good as any other so I ordered four issues of Knipmode, 1,2,6,7/09.

Threadie said...

I love the dress on you ! You did aa great job :-))

Vicki said...

How cute! And you match your blog..lol. The collar is very flattering.

Gail said...

Nothing slapdash about this dress!

Carol said...

I LOVE the colour! It looks great on you. On me that colllar would be a food trap.

Meg said...

Absolutely gorgeous.

Megan said...

Wow! Leave it to Ikea to have such a wonderful color. And you did a beautiful job with the dress :) This is not a pattern I would have taken a second glance at, but the collar is amazing. Kudos!

Sue said...

Great dress - wish I had an ikea near by *sulk*

Linda said...

Great dress. That color is fabulous on you. I hope you don't mind, but I have to ask about your shoes. They look like a perfect match for the green. Will you share information about them. Green is my favorite color.

mochimo said...

That collar is gorgeous! And so is the color!!! I think I'll take a trip to Ikea one of these days...

Uta said...

Love the dress, love the collar, and thanks for the IKEA tip. I can see this in a dark color as well, dramatically accessorized. What a great collar!

Michelle said...

Your dress turned out beautifully! I have a magenta sateen ready for this pattern, I'm so excited to get started on it given your gorgeous results!

Sheila said...

Awesome dress!!! and the color looks great on you. Don't you just love sheets. I've made a garments from sheets and also from curtains...lol

Lori said...

Wonderful, you look fantastic and the color is incredible. A sheet, unbelievable.

Carina said...

Amazing! Didn't think of IKEA as a fabric source. "Gäspa" means yawn, by the way. :-)

Cole's Corner said...

I just gave you a blog award.
http://colescornerandcreations.blogspot.com/2009/06/i-got-another-blog-award.html

AllisonC said...

Well thats quite a transformation from an IKEA sheet! Fabulous dress, photos and a great detailed post

beegee said...

I love the colour and love the dress! It really suits you.

Christina said...

You have me rethinking Butterick now. I love that collar.

Rachel said...

I posted this here because I figured you would see is more quickly than on an earlier post. Since you posted that Laundry dress on your June 19 post, I have become obsessed with finding a pattern for it. A nice person at Stitcher's guild found one really close and I wanted to share it with you: http://www.voguepatterns.com/item/V2787.htm?tab=list/vintage_vogue&page=all

Professor Sheri Wills said...

That dress looks so great on you!!

Beth said...

The dress looks fabulous! I'm going to have to look up that pattern.

Barbara at Cat Fur Studio said...

I love everything about this dress. The color, the style, the fit.

Anonymous said...

Lovely. This reminds me of the purple dress in the shopaholic movie

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous dress on you - the color, the style, everything about it is very, very flattering. Not many people look good in that bright green but with your great red-gold hair and peachy skin, it's fabulous.