Birthday Dress – Butterick B6167

When I saw this pattern come out I was both excited and skeptical. I am always searching for a real, true shelf bust dress and/or pattern. When I say real I mean that I want it to actually hold my breasts up like they are on a shelf. I imagine these dresses should act as an underwire bra. When Gertie came out with B5882 I thought I had found it… but nope, if you remember, that was a disaster. Turns out that this one was supposed to cut off at the apex (aka nipples) and it wasn’t supposed to sit under the bust at all. Wouldn’t that be called a nipple sitting dress or a boob squashing dress?! Not a shelf bust!! Apparently there are different types of shelf bust dresses, I didn’t know this. Live and lear. So onto this dress – it IS a shelf bust dress:

I gave a little preview of this dress in my Week 4 #mmmay post because I wore it on my birthday. We ate at Red Lobster – yum! I even made Nico wear a button up shirt.

I’m not going to lie – this dress was a nightmare to fit. I made so many alterations and muslins that it’s hard to keep track. I tried to write everything down so I could document it all for my readers. I made View A and at the time my measurements were: 36 1/2-31-40. According to Butterick that would put me in sizes: 14(36)-17(31)-16(40), yes I know there isn’t a size 17, I just picked the middle. I actually made the top in a size 8, the waist in a 14 and the hips in 16. The big 4 always fit me so weird! Even though I picked these sizes I still had tons of fit issues because of too much room. After two muslins I gave up and said this is how I’m making the damn dress. If you look at the pictures it does fit well, but there is pulling underneath the breast. That actually doesn’t bother me too much because after all the fighting with this pattern I’m just happy I didn’t rip it up and throw it out!

There are instructions on how to measure your cup size and mine ended up being a D cup (yay for nursing boobies – but scared of the aftermath). When I was doing the gathering I spaced my basting pieces a bit too far apart so the gathering isn’t as nice and crisp as it should have been. Once again, I figured to hell with it, I’m not unpicking it and starting over. I have limited time and this dress was making me angry. But on a bright note, the inside looks super pretty (and wrinkly)! Side Note: I did not slipstitch, I stitched in the ditch on the front and made sure it caught in the back.

I added a waist stay for additional support. I used grosgrain ribbon to do this. I find that it helps me feel supported. I wear a strapless bra because it tames the girls a little better and I’m scared I’ll have a nipple pop out if I don’t wear one. Also, the baby likes to pull my shirts down to try to nurse and this will prevent some embarrassment.

I recommend to test fit a few times and have someone help with the straps. The dress looked really weird with where I was supposed to put them originally. I had my husband help me figure out placement and the best support. I ended up putting them about an inch away from the recommended placement and closer to my armpits.

For the skirt, it was WAY TOO LONG and I have long legs! I chopped off 3 1/2″ and reduced the width by the equivalent of 1 panel. I find that a gathered waist skirt isn’t flattering for my pear shaped hips, so either making it a bit more A-line or taking out width makes me feel better. I took out a total of 20″!!! 5″ on each side and 10″ on the front.

I also added in seam pockets – because pockets!

The zipper is a lapped zipper, which I always think looks really pretty but by this point I was not a happy camper and you can see that in the wonky zipper. I know that I should have set this aside and waited until I had calmed down but I didn’t. So I angrily inserted the zipper. It was hard not to sew it to the lining because of the boning and fabric being so close to the zip area. I was legit fighting with this thing.

Now that I’m done with the alterations, let’s move onto the fabric. This is from Gertie’s JoAnn collection and is called Beach Umbrella Blue Sateen. I gotta say, this fabric is dreamy! I really love the lightweight silky feel and how cute it is! It does fray a bit, so make sure to finish your edges. I adore the colors of this print.

I know I’m all over the place with this review but that’s how I was with the dress too. Now that I have a working muslin I could remake this much easier but I won’t. Not because of all the headaches (well, maybe that’s part of the reason) but because I don’t think it’s that flattering on me. I feel like it makes my bust look smaller than it is (although that could have been my awful gathering or the border print right there) and since I have poor posture I feel like it sits weird on me. Part of me does want to try this again, but if that happens it won’t be for a LONG time!

This doesn’t mean it’s a bad pattern, it’s a GREAT starting point for a shelf bust dress. The thing with these types of patterns is that they are very intricate and really need to be given patience and lots of muslins – this pattern is not for a beginner!