Bring on Those Sultry Summertime Days!
Butterick 4975

I love wearing sundresses, always have. They're cool in the summer and oh so feminine. I've wanted to make this pattern up for a long time. In fact, I've waited so long that the doggone pattern is no longer in print.

Here's what Butterick thought the pattern should look like:

Line drawing:

And here's my rendition:

Front view:

Back view:

I have to say I'm loving this dress! I love the fact that the pattern allows the roughly horizontal lines of the mosaic Missioni-type knit to curve up around the neckline. In fact, I placed the pattern so that would happen and let the pattern matching everywhere else pretty much fall where it may. It's a hugely flattering dress, with the gathered bust and waist in front and the graceful hemline. I've always liked hemlines with a dip in the back.

Sadly, I had to eliminate the very interesting front hemline detail because it created a hem that cascaded into folds. My fabric was only printed on one side, so with the back side of the fabric showing, it was ugly, ugly ugly. Consequently, I just echoed the V of the back hem in the front and called it a day.

The pattern allows for a partial lining to the waist, held in place with encased elastic. I thought this would result in an unsightly ridge at the waist because of the clinginess of the knit I used, so I lengthened the lining to the hem. I attached the lining's hem to the fashion fabric hem with a small handworked thread chain so the pieces wouldn't shift unattractively as the dress is worn.

The back neck closure as designed on the pattern is a piece with a large hook and eye on one side threaded through a loop on the other side of the center back neck. I don't trust knits to stay put and not droop with wear, especially rayon knits. That's one reason why I fully lined it, besides which a knit lining smooths the dress over the body. Anyway, I slightly elongated the center back neck section to allow for a tie closure. That way I can use the tie to adjust the cleavage to fall where it is most comfortable for me.

Here is a summary of the pattern changes that I made to the dress:

• Shortened the hemline 3 inches
• Fully lined with thin knit fabric
  
• No center back zipper
• Changed front hemline to a V instead of cascading folds
• Changed the back neck closure to a simple tie
• Stabilized the neckline and back openings with clear elastic abutted to the seamline, secured to the seam allowances with a serpentine zig zag stitch, and then trimmed to a scant 3/8 inch seam allowance on my serger. The serger stitches completely encapsulate the clear elastic. You can see photos of the method I used by looking at this post from back in the day. Just scroll down to the area where I discuss stabilizing diagonal seams with clear elastic.
  

Fashion Fabric: Mosaic rayon knit from www.fabricmartfabrics.com
Lining: thin poly knit fabric in stash
Threads: Mettler Poly thread in Janome 6600 sewing machine
Maxilock thread in serger

I would love to make this dress again in a fabric that was the same on both sides, but I don't think I need two of them in my closet. I would still make all the changes that I did on this dress with the exception of allowing the cascading hem feature next time.

Oh, I almost forgot. The bust point marking on this pattern is in error. Here is a photo that shows where it was marked on the pattern and where it falls on me.