Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Butterick 6222 - Done


I seem to be on an every other month blogging schedule. Ergh. I really don't like that. I miss blogging. I miss you all.

But back to the post at hand. Here's a dress I finished a couple of weeks ago. In order to get some photos of me in it, I resorted to work bathroom selfies. I'm so classy that way. I should sneak in my tripod. The lighting is awesome in here.


The pattern is Butterick 6222 by Connie Crawford. I'm into swingy dresses at the moment and I've always had a sweet spot for ruffles so this was a no-brainer buy during one of the Club BMV sales. I can leave Connie Crawford herself (I've met her) but I have to admit to the irony of actually liking a number of her Butterick patterns. Well, the styles anyway. I get irked at the actual pattern sheets since there's no layout of the pattern pieces. I love those layouts (both for studying shapes and for knowing which pieces I need to cut from the tissue) and miss them tremendously in her patterns. Butterick, I hope you're paying attention.


The pattern calls for wovens but I went rogue and used an ITY knit from either Fabric.com or Fabricmart. They both blend together at this point. Ha.

This is one of those non-numerically sized patterns. In other words, S-M-L-XL-XXL-3X-4X, etc. Another thing I'm not fond of with the CC patterns which are sized thus. Plus, the smaller range is in one envelope and the larger in another. I always opt for the smaller range in CC since I need that sizing for my upper body. For this dress, I blended from the M in the upper areas to the L/XL below. I probably could've gone just to the L below but a little more swing in the skirt wasn't going to be a bad thing so I erred on the side of more. It worked out fine, especially since I used a knit.

There's enough ease in my dress using this blended sizing to work for a woven if I ever decide to go that route. But I doubt I will. I'm a wash and wear girl. Ain't got no time for ironing before work. :-) Using a knit, though, added some weight/drag and made the neckline lower than I'm comfortable wearing in the office (or out of it) without a cami so a cami underneath will be the way I'll wear it. (I made this cami years ago from Ressy's Powerdry knit when my coverstitch machine was new. Does anyone remember that? It's still going strong. And I think I may even have more in the stash somewhere.) There are side bust darts since it's for a woven and they hit me at the exact right place. I might have to do a slight FBA in a woven, but maybe not. I'll probably never know. ;-)


I edgestitched the diagonal seams, front and back, to define them more. It shows up better in real life.


I also omitted the neckline facings and just turned and topstitched, running the stitching down the seam which joins the two front bodice pieces. Kind of a faux wrap effect. I actually was going to go with the facings but they didn't fit properly. I'm not sure yet if it was me, the fabric, or the pattern, and I haven't gone back to check, so just make a mental note for yourself to check if you make this dress.


There's a LOT of hemming on this dress between the circular skirt and the circular overskirrt/ruffle. I just sat myself in front of the TV with glass head pins and pinned about every 2 inches, eyeballing about 1/2" for the ruffle and 5/8" for the skirt. After pinning, I took the pieces to the ironing board and pressed the hems into place and then topstitched.


A little twirl action. This dress has lots of movement and it's fun to wear.


Trust  me, you're glad I cropped out my face on that one. What WAS I doing with my eyes?


And a 3/4 view, where you can see that I forgot to add a loop for my ID card. I was so mad at myself for the lapse but there was no way I was going back to unpick overlocking and topstitching. So I hook the card onto the ruffle, and it ends up sliding down by the end of the day, where it is in this photo. Maybe I'll add a loop under the ruffle. It's not attached in the side seam so this should actually be pretty easy to do. We'll see how much it bugs me without it.

Final verdict: I love my dress. It's comfortable. It's flattering. And it was an easy sew. I'd recommend the pattern. The worst part was cutting the flouncy pieces since they're so wide and I used slippery ITY, and then hemming it all. Nothing really hard, just more on the tedious side of things. Which reminds me of one thing I did hate about the pattern. The pieces for the front skirt and ruffle are actually just one piece for the skirt with a separate cutting line for the ruffle. I wish they were separate pieces because if I ever do make this again, I'll have to tape those pieces back together to cut the front skirt again. I did make alignment marks, but still.

I'd say that I'll see you in another couple of months, but I actually have a post in the works on McVoguerick pattern ease to address some conversations I've seen and/or participated in on Pattern Review. The Big 3 aren't undeserving of some criticism but sizing and ease are not one of the things they do wrong. It's Us, not Them, and I'll speak to that soon.

44 comments:

  1. Very flattering. I love this twirly style on you.

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    1. Thanks Bunny. I'm loving this shape lately too.

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  2. Very nice dress! And I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who appreciates the lighting and full length mirror in the office bathroom. I'm half tempted to bring in a dress I need to hem and get my co-workers to help me figure out what length it should be! :)

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    1. Thanks. I almost wasn't kidding when I said I'm going to bring my tripod next time.

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  3. I'm eager to hear what you have to say about the Big 4 and excessive ease. "It's Us, not Them" pretty much sums up my feeling about it. Not every garment needs to be skintight.

    I love the flounce of your dress! Looks like fun.

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    1. Thanks Siobhan. I've been working on that ease post during work breaks. A little bit of progress every day. I'm hoping maybe to post it next week? We'll see.

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  4. You look gorgeous in this dress. I love the bold print - fabulous.

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    1. Thank you Tomasa! I love prints (as I'm sure you know)!

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    1. Thanks Carolyn! It is definitely me. I'm looking forward to "winterizing" it (for Florida anyway) with some tights, booties, and a cardigan.

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  6. Very nice dress! And so nice to hear from you!

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    1. Thank you Cherie. I wish I could force myself to blog more often. I really do miss it.

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  7. I think you could add a little finished loop where the faux wrap meets the waist for your id card. Nice to hear from you and possibly twice in a month!

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    1. Yep, that's what I was thinking too, Kathy. I'll probably add that because I'm so used to having someplace to clip my card these days.

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  8. I remember Reesy's powder dry. That was a long time ago. I think I used the last of mine a long time ago.

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  9. Welcome back. Great dress, looks wonderful on you. I missed your posts as I have realized what a refreshing writer you are. Witty and humorous and honest.

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    1. Thank you! Honest? Definitely. Often to a fault. Hahaha. Witty and humorous? I try ... not always as successful on those.

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  10. great dress, and nice fit. I think I have that fabric somewhere. or very similar. will be interested to hear what you have to say about pattern ease, I have a lot of opinions on that topic as well.

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    1. Thank you Beth. The pattern ease post will have to wait a bit longer as I'm expecting my older son to visit mid-week and work has picked up (which is where I'm really writing the post!).

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  11. I love your dress, so fun to wear and so flattering.

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  12. I like this dress- and as I own the pattern, I'm very pleased to see it made up in an ITY, because now it's something I'd consider. I've got a lovely poly crepe-de-chine I think I'll use first. I like a bit of swoosh, and this looks swooshy and fun!

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  13. Great to see your post and this marvelous new dress. Love the swirly twirly vibe...and yes, irony about Connie and her patterns;-)

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    1. Haha Jane. I'll just think of them as Butterick patterns, which they are.

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  14. I love this dress and was really intrigued by the notion of a loop for the ID card. Will have to do that on my next dress. I also wanted to let you know that I've been reading my way through older posts and really appreciate all the construction tips and tutorials. So very helpful and a dose of humour always helps! :) Abbey

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  15. Lovely dress. Your co- workers must wonder why you take so long in the bathroom???

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    1. Thanks Vicki. Ha ha! No, it's a lobby bathroom which is hardly ever used.

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  16. The skirt hangs beautifully! What a great dress!

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    1. Thanks Lisa! I should think about morphing this skirt onto other bodices.

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  17. Another dress that rocks! You have the best wardrobe. I'm looking forward to reading your post on "McVoguerick" patterns, too.

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  18. You look thinner. And that hairstyle is great! Very flattering dress. Kathy Brosnan

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    1. Kathy, I wish! But thank you for the nice compliments.

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  19. Very nice. You look like you are having fun.

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  20. A very lovely dress. I agree with you on the ironing factor and I favour knit dresses too for that reason.

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    1. Thank you Jean. I don't mind wearing woven dresses, but the last thing I want to do is give up an extra 10 minutes to ironing one for work.

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  21. Whaaaa? CC's patterns don't have pattern layouts? What kind of trickery is that? =)

    I'm digging the swirl action too and love your dress.

    I think we're both on the same blogging schedule. =P

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    1. Yeah, I've never figured out why Butterick omits those layouts (and to be clear, it's not the cutting layouts ... just the pattern pieces diagrammed with their corresponding numbers).

      Blogging schedule? I have a schedule? (wink)

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  22. Pretty dress! I don't think I've ever tried a CC pattern. But then again, I haven't had much time to sew since my daughter's wedding followed by the house fire. Excuses, excuses. Hope to see you again before January!

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  23. Fabulous dress. Love the "swing" effect. Looks great on you. Really stylish.

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  24. You have made up my mind to buy the pattern it looks beautiful thank You

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Thank you for each and every comment. I appreciate them all, but I have to be honest and let you know that I'm usually bad about answering questions. I hope you understand that there just isn't enough time in the day to do everything I want to do.

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