It is surprising what experience will do for you. One of the first patterns I bought was this one Butterick 7781, the first time I made it was a disaster, the test fabric which was a seersucker probably didn’t help, it was exactly my measurements so I did no alterations, this was the result.

At this point I screwed it up in a ball and left it in a drawer.

Fast forward 30 months and i decided to have a second attempt, I made a couple of changes one of which was to shorten the bodice 1 inch and the skirt 2 inches as per my proportional dress pattern. What I didn’t do was a 1/2 in small bust adjustment, I still haven’t worked out how to do this satisfactorily for a full length front piece.

This is what the new version looks like so far.

Because of the inch I took out of the bodice, it isn’t as baggy as the first version which just hung off me, It was still too big across the front so I also removed half an inch from the front seam, tapering down to nothing at the waist line.



If we get any sun while I’m not at work, I’ll try and take some pictures outside, I also have two more dresses basically finished, one you have already finished and one other.

Bye for now