2013 Sewing Plan: The "9 to 5" Dress

OMG! First project of the year!!! I’m going to continue documenting my projects Sew Weekly style, I hope you don’t mind. I just like the organized standardization.

2013 Sewing Plan: Project 1
Fabric: Teal cotton sateen from Haberman’s $10 with a giftcard, navy dot cotton from B&J $15
Pattern: Butterick 3100
Year: 1985
Notions: 1/4″ elastic, 11 buttons – all from stash
Time to complete: HAHAHAHAHAHA…I didn’t keep track. 4 weeks of intermittent work?
First worn: To work last Friday
Wear again? Heck yes!
Total price: $25 for the fabric – but really just $15 because of said giftcard

So I took my time with this dress and I think I appreciate it more because of it. This has sort of been a long time in the making as well. I didn’t imagine myself wearing it with the tights and cardi but it’s sooo cold I’d freeze otherwise. I’m not sure how flattering it is around the middle, but I love it regardless.

I purchased the blue dot fabric (by Japanese company Sevenberry) from B&J Fabrics in NYC back in September. I knew I was going to make it into a blouse with a tie, I just didn’t know when or what exact pattern. After I made Gertie’s Bow-Tied Blouse in the other fabric I bought that same trip, I considered doing the same for this fabric but wanted to wait to give myself time to think about it. Also, sometimes the Sew Weekly challenges didn’t coincide with things I actually had been wanting to sew.

(Sevenberry photo source)
So anyway, in looking at my 2013 Sewing Plan, I decided I really wanted to make Butterick 3100 first, and with this navy cotton as the top. I just had to get a fabric for the skirt – which I knew I wanted to be aqua or teal based on inspiration I derived from this pin. And I found this gorgeous teal cotton sateen at Haberman’s in Royal Oak a few weeks ago.

The pattern company just assumes you’re making this dress out of one fabric, or that your collar and cuffs would be an accent fabric, so I was totally guessing how much fabric each piece would take up. I just squeezed the top out of 1 1/2 yards. if I had been wanting long sleeves it wouldn’t have fit. Nor was I able to get the yolk or collar band facings out of it so I did those as accent pieces (à la one of my husband’s work shirts from Geoffrey Beene) out of the teal.

I’ll also note that you don’t get a pattern piece for a bow-tie. I had to make that up myself.

Both skirt front and back are cut on the fold as there are no zips needed so that was easy enough to get out of 1 1/2 yards of the sateen with enough left over to get 4 pocket pieces and the yolk facing. Since I’m short I could have gotten the skirt pieces out of 1 1/3 yards but I picked up 1 1/2 just to be safe.

I paid special attention to the instructions for pressing after certain steps and I think that really helped the final construction. I’m very pleased overall. I may still slip-stitch the pleats down around my bust line because they can pop weirdly when I move certain ways.

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