Hello Friends,

Today I am back with reviews on the mother daughter dresses from yesterday. First up is the dress I made for myself, OOP Butterick 4657, which is a Maggy London design.

The suggested fabrics for this dress are chiffon, georgette, charmeuse and crepe back satin. Ordinarily, cotton maybe too bulky to make this dress work, but of course, I was not using “ordinary” cotton, but rather, the extraordinary Liberty Cotton lawn, which is fine and soft.

The whole dress is underlined with a fine cotton lawn, and the same cotton lawn used to line the dress as well. I used the finest, softest interfacing I could get my hands on to preserve the drape of the lawn. Here are some inside shots:

I think I cut close to 70 individual pieces of fabric and interfacing to make this dress. Overlays of the fashion fabric are gathered on to the interfaced underlining, which acts as a stay for the gathered fashion fabric, and then the lining is sewn in.

Oh yes, I didn’t use the skirt that the pattern comes with. I swapped it out for a softly gathered one instead.

Overall, I was proud of myself for completing this dress. I think the fit is good….IF I ever made this dress again (unlikely!) I would perhaps make it slighly smaller in the shoulders. But this is a classic dress made in a classic fabric that I will be happy to wear over and over when we finally get some warmer weather. The midriff section makes it very flattering. I think I might even enter it in the Sew Dolly Clackett contest as I think Roisin would look fabulous in a dress like this!

Pattern Review:

Pattern Description:

Dress in two lengths has wrapped gathered front and sleeves, gathered middle section, back zipper and flared skirt with shaped hemline. A: knee length. B: mid-calf length.

Pattern Sizing:

6 – 20

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?

The bodice part, yes. I substituted the skirt for a different one.

Were the instructions easy to follow?

Yes.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?

I love the overall shaping. It is very feminine and flattering, with the ruched overlays and the midriff section. The instructions tell you to sew in an invisible zip, which I did, and it does work, but there is quite a lot of bulk at the midriff area. I don’t know if a hand picked zip would be better? Be warned, I cut close to 70 individual pieces for this dress, including underlining, interfacing and lining.

Fabric Used:

Liberty cotton lawn outer fabric; cotton lawn for the underlining and lining and a very very light, fine interfacing. You can read about the fabric I used here.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:

1 inch sway back alteration. Raised the front by 1.5 cm. Changed the skirt to a softly gathered one.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?

Doubt I will sew again. I would recommend it, although the pattern is now OOP. I think it would also make a fab wedding dress.

Conclusion:

I classic, feminine dress made from a classic Liberty print. Love it!