Butterick 5317 (Maggie London)

Sew, on to the Easter dress for my 15yo DD. She is old enough to be trusted to pick her own fabric and run with it! She chose a beautiful paisley print charmeuse from Fabric.com. Once we got it, (they ship pretty fast), we were off to JoAnn's to find a coordinating fabric for the bodice and contrast band at the bottom of the dress. We were able to find a lovely lime green crepe back satin that looked nice with the charmeuse and a basic white lining.

I went ahead and bought extra lining to line the skirt. The pattern doesn't call for it, but the charmeuse is rather see through and I didn't want to have her worry about needing a slip. I also bought extra of both fabrics because I wanted to add sleeves to the pattern. My daughter is very modesty conscious and since the dress would be worn to church dances....

Anyway, we only had to do a muslin of the bodice and then I pinned the skirt pattern on to check for length. We ended up raising the front bodice quite a bit, it was way too low for a 15yo. Also had to fix some gaposis and take in the shoulders. The other alteration was to take 1/2" out of the center back. Originally, we took a full inch, but wanted her to have more movement. To translate that alteration into the skirt, I simply deepened the center pleat by 1/2" on each side.


(I really need to get better at taking these pictures! The dress looks to big, but really it isn't.)

I was able to add short sleeves without a problem. I found the sleeves I wanted on a Simplicity pattern in my stash and traced off the same size (14) and walking the pattern, it was a perfect fit! Only the notches didn't match up, but that is such and easy fix!



This dress was really easy to put together and sooooo cute! It even has pockets! The only change I made during construction was to decide to use an invisible zipper instead of a regular. I should have made the decision before construction as it would have been easier, but.... Can I just say I am grateful for double sided, water soluble sticky tape? It made getting the zipper in with everything lined up so much easier!



In conclusion, I would recommend this pattern! It can be dressy or casual and goes together really fast! My daughter just loves it and can't wait for Easter!


(Hands in pockets!)