Butterick 6333

02 Jun Butterick 6333

We have a home at Edisto Beach 40 miles south of Charleston, SC. It is a simple and quaint beachfront house which is ideal for R&R or quality time with family and friends. We rent the house when we’re not there which requires us remove all personal items, so I must travel with sewing items if I plan to sew………..

Packing for the beach is unlike any other type of packing, and I’ve been accused of packing too much, but no matter how organized I think I am, something always gets left behind. This trip it was my pattern instructions, my buttons and the seam ripper. With the exception of the seam ripper, this turned out to be a good thing.

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Greetings……… we’re wrapping up two weeks of a lovely Edisto stay. By day 11, all assorted friends and family members had left and it was time to sew.

My pattern is Butterick 6333, a shirtdress featuring a princess seam bodice, sleeve and skirt variations.

A crisp and cool everyday dress was the  goal, and I’ve been craving a new shirtdress. I purchased the black and white cotton gingham at Keep Me In Stitches  in Largo, FL while Julie and I were there in April.

Going at it alone wasn’t too threatening. Sewing without instructions forced me to think through and visualize all of the steps before starting – something I should always be doing rather than blindly following instructions 😉

The pattern is not lined.  I added a cotton batiste lining to the dress after constructing the dress but before adding the front bands and collar.

To do this I placed the garment and lining right sides together and sewed around ONE armscye, then turned the dress wrong sides together.

Next I followed Emily Hallman’s tutorial for sewing a lining to a sleeveless garment. I researched several online tutorials and chose Emily’s based on my construction stage. It worked beautifully!

I lacked the confidence to sew the collar band and collar without instructions. When my Kindle for Mac  formatting failed me with David Coffin’s shirt making book, I found a tutorial by Sewaholic – Sewing a Shirt Collar and Sewing a Collar Band The Shirtmaking Way.

My collar is perfect and this is my new go-to collar construction method! Ironically David Coffin is credited for the construction method. 😊 I’m sorry there are no photos of my collar construction but the tutorial features several. I used muslin for the interfacing of both the collar band and collar and secured it with a glue stick. The tutorial results in a collar that is shaped to the neck and inserted into the collar band after the band is sewn to the neckline.
I  l o v e  this.

The remaining drama included forgetting my buttons.

My husband told me I could take the buttons off of any of his fishing shirts, and so I did. Would you believe the buttons on every shirt were a natural bone – color? It never occurred to me to use this color, but I love these much more than anything I would have bought!

….and now the dress works so nicely with neutrals.

When I finished the dress I felt it needed a belt, but the few belts sold at Edisto feature fish, shells and various beach motifs…….

Using the 3 inches of fabric cut from the length, I created a narrow tie which works for now.

Just imagine if everything had gone smoothly…… I’d have a dress with black or white buttons and a ‘good enough’ collar…..

It was also a perfect dress to wear to the US OPEN Women’s Golf Championship in Charleston yesterday.

I guess it paid to be unorganized! Until soon.