A Sateen Summer Dress

I’m very proud of my latest dress, in part because it’s been so long since I’ve been able to sew!

I came to the unfortunate realization that I’m desperately in need of nice, basic, simple summer dresses, right around the time that I found myself with no free time to sew. Hmmm… very convenient time for a joke from the sewing gods!

But here I am, finally with at least ONE dress down this summer. And I quite like it! It’s Butterick B5748, and I used this printed stretch cotton sateen.

It’s far from perfect. It’s amazing the things you assume are muscle memory in sewing and come to find out, surprise, they aren’t always! I forgot which way I pin darts. I always, always, always do it the same way… and there I was pinning one, thinking “What feels wrong about this?” I forgot to understitch the neckline until it was too late. I forgot to trim the facing on the neckline edge. Pile up the “forgots”… I had plenty.

One thing I didn’t forget… match up the center back seam! In full disclosure, it’s because I cut out the pieces long before I sewed it. But it did match up perfectly come sewing time, so for that I’m proud. See my center back lapped zipper seam? Me neither.

And hey, I got the important thing right—I didn’t forget to add pockets!

The fabric is stretchy, which I thought I’d work around, seeing as I didn’t want the bodice to stretch out. I ran the fabric for the bodice on the cross-grain, but failed to remember that often makes things a bit tighter than, say, a non-stretch woven on-grain. So the bodice is a little tighter than I’d like across the bust and upper back, but nothing terrible. And a good reminder to self for the future.

One thing that I think gives this dress a particularly lovely vintage touch is the covered belt! I love covered belts. A 1 ½ buckle kit, some belting and eyelets, and voila, a belt that ties the whole look together.

Overall, I’m happy with how this dress turned out. It has a bit fancier feel to it than I imagined, but I definitely think it’s suitable for casual summer wear, too. And hey, I may not have made much of a dent in my need for similar dresses, but it’s a start! 😉