Wednesday, June 27, 2007

FO: Butterick 5046 (Garnethill knockoff)

Butterick 5046 is finished! I like it. I think it came out pretty well, and looks very like the inspiration dress.

As usual, I will talk briefly about my experience making this dress, but save most of the details for the PR review.

This dress is rated "very easy" or some such wording. It is very easy, but, in the words of Burda, "more time consuming." This dress took me a lot longer than it should have, probably, and it wasn't all due to procrastination! The interfacing stuff took forever. Then with all the smocking I added (which I didn't know how to do to begin with), it took forever. Or at least felt like it.

I think the style of this dress is very cute. I remember seeing this pattern when it first came out and thinking it was adorable. Seeing the similar Garnethill dress sealed the deal. I loved it, but could I wear it? I hope I can pull it off well. It's not the type of dress or a color I would normally wear (oh wait... I don't normally wear dresses), but change is good, right? As I wrote on the review, I think the long version of this dress would be in danger of looking matronly, and I hated the thing before I added the sleeves - it looked very unbalanced. This probably wouldn't be a problem for a different figure type, but for mine it was bad. It made me look like I had huge hips and boobs, and no shoulders at all - and I don't think I have narrow shoulders. At least, I think I look like a linebacker in puffy sleeves. My dress hits a little above, almost right at, my knees. I don't have access to a full length mirror right now, so that is subject to change if I end up thinking it looks bad once I can see my legs.

Anyway, here are the pics! I took them with the self timer, and they aren't very good, but they are the best ones I got out of the short photo session I did.




Hopefully this one shows the smocking a little.

Oh, and in one of the pictures on the Garnethill website, the model wearing the pink version of this dress is wearing a green cami underneath. How cute! I am thinking of trying a very pale pink cami under my dress instead of the white.

And finally, the inspiration dress is priced at $98. My cost, including fabric, notions, and pattern at regular price (well, the "40% off" price, ~ $10), was around $25. Yay!

2 comments:

Tany said...

It's beautiful, Crystal! Well done!

sulu-design said...

Oh, that smocking! I'm impressed. And I always appreciate a financial savings from doing something yourself. Great job.