Butterick 5813 - Sewing a 1950s Dress Inspired by Jane Porter

I sewed this dress so long ago, I completely forgot I was going to do a write-up about it!

In November last year, I jumped on the list to book in a photo shoot with Tony McKay Studios in collaboration with the Beauty School Dropouts. I was so nervous, I'd never really done anything like it, but it looked like a heap of fun.

The shoot was in two parts - Cheesecake and Screen Siren. A cheesecake shoot is your typical pinup style - over-exaggerated and fun! We needed to choose a theme, and I thought bringing in one of my favourite Disney movies, Tarzan, would be an excellent start.

I've had Butterick B5813 lying in my stash for a while now, so this was a great opportunity to pull it out and start sewing.

For this project I chose a selection of cottons from Fabric.com - the lining is a voile, and the fashion fabric a batiste. The voile is so nice! I'm going to have to stock on it because it makes such a nice lining fabric. I'd already made a mockup with the required adjustments. Because I was making the bodice with an underlining, and on top of that a lining, I had to cut out almost every piece three times over.

After basting the underlining to the outer layers, everything came together pretty quickly. While this article is specifically for linings and underlinings in historical garments, I'd still recommend reading it!

With a petticoat from Malco Modes, the silhouette was complete, and ready for a photoshoot!

This pattern was pretty straightforward to follow. The sizing is surprisingly large, and combined with losing weight during making this and wearing it, it ended up quite a bit too large. I'd probably make this again, but in a smaller size and with a patterned fabric.