Butterick B6108 - Studio Ghibli inspired 50s dress

On a whim at Geoff's Emporium I bought about five or so meters of a gorgeous printed cotton, featuring Studio Ghibli's Anne of Green Gables. I haven't actually seen this series, but the print is so quintessentially Ghibli that I could not resist.

The fabric and notions managed to stay in my stash for only a few months, pushing its way through the queue in my "To Sew" list, which is better than I can say for most of my fabric stash.

The mockup came together suspiciously well. In fact, I don't think I made any modifications. With that out of the way, it was time to sew.

Butterick B6108 is from the series "Retro Butterick", which includes a number of re-releases of older patterns. They are re-graded and printed on to modern tissue (no perforations). They are also adjusted to Butterick's size guide and generally subject to modern ease. That is to say, two inches or more. I normally like quite a tight fit, so most of the time I need to size down and pay close attention to the "finished measurements" chart. Strangely enough that wasn't the case with this pattern - it fit with just the right amount of ease the first time.

I used a contrasting red cotton for the cuffs and collar. In this photo you can see the empire waistline. The skirt is assembled from eight shaped panels - a real bobbin-eater!

With a petticoat underneath, this dress shows off a very classic silhouette. However, regarding the fit, I believe I had lost weight or sewn the seams a bit looser as the waist no longer fit! For most people it still remains in the realm of comfortable ease, but I don't like to have loose bits of fabric around the one thing the 1950s silhouette was obsessed with. That being said, the dress is adorable, and the light cotton means I should get a decent amount of wear out of it in summer. I'm not sure if I'll use this pattern again. I'm more interested in the late 30s, early 40s silhouette, so a lot of my sewing will revolve around that era in the future.

Please enjoy this trick of perspective, where my legs look like tiny little noodles. Another reason I'm veering away from full skirts!