Petticoat Junction/ Butterick B6530 Review
So for some strange reason about a week ago I decided to make a petticoat.
I had bought the Butterick B6530 a few weeks earlier and I had planned on making it during my vacation, of which I am currently on day 1 of 9. However, I got a wild hair and decided to start it a week early. I had plenty of tulle that I had salvaged from a defunct prom gown so all I needed was the lining fabric. For that, I chose a bed sheet that I had bought at one of the thrift stores because it was the most lovely shade of blue.
I cannot get a good picture of the color. Its a little more green than this.
It was only the flat sheet from a set and I have no idea what size it was, but I had just enough to make the whole lining, minus one piece. I figured it didn't matter much because you do a shit ton of gathering, so if I were missing one piece it would just be equaled out in the adjustment of the gathers. I don't know if that makes sense, but let's go on.
The construction was pretty simple, but there were quite a few pieces involved and a lot of gathering, so it was a little bit of a challenge. I decided on version B because it was just the petticoat and not the whole attached bodice. I had looked at the pattern envelope online before I bought it and saw the white bodice thingy she was wearing in one of the pics and was secretly hoping that pattern would be included as a variation of the bodice, but alas it was not. I thought it was kind of crappy to show it if it wasn't part of the pattern because they could have just shown a drawing of the petticoat alone like they do in other patterns instead of her half covering it up. But again, I did look before buying and kind of knew it wouldn't be in there, but I still got my hopes up. I think its lovely and I am hoping she would release something similar in the future.
Anywho, if you are planning on making this, give yourself time. Like, quite a bit of time. Most of the pieces are multiples, like you cut 4 of this one and 10 of this one and you end up sewing them all into large runs of fabric and tulle that all need to be gathered and then attached together. Not hard, but time consuming. The top part was easy because you just cut 2 on the fold, sew them together and then make a casing for the elastic for the waist. Easy peasy. Then you attach the top and bottom layers of tulle to each other, adjusting the gathers so they line up, more or less. They recommend you mark the halfway parts on the tulle with some thread so you can find it easily in the mess of gathers. That part was the worst; the gathering of the tulle. I marked the half way points with black thread so I could find them, but I could never get the half way points to line up, so I ended up doing the best I could and then once it was all done I went back and hand gathered the parts that didn't look quite right. Sewing the tulle was ok, but it has such a weird texture that I thought I would have more trouble. It was just a ton of tulle.
For the bottom they recommend 2" - 2.5" lace trim, but you need 12 yards of it. 12 yards. That's how much tulle there is in the bottom layer. Good golly. Anywho, I found this cute little lace trim that I had a ton of and it was nowhere near 2 inches wide, but I sewed it on and it looked great.
I serged all the seams on the lining to make it look nice-ish, but I didn't have any blue thread anywhere close to this color, so I just did white to 'match' with the tulle. No one will see it, but it looks clean to me.
I also serged the seam that connected the tulle layer to the lining which I thought would be more difficult because it was tulle and fabric being serged together, but my machine did a lovely job. Both my machines did. I don't give them enough credit. Without them, I would be lost.
So after the little bit of hand gathering that I did, it was done! I think it looks great! I tried it on over my clothes once it was complete and my husband laughed and said "put me in, coach!" because he said I looked like Ace Ventura. He was not wrong. lol. The only problem I see with this is that I don't have enough dresses to wear this with! I tried to wear it with a dress with godets on the bottom, but it looked so bad. It was just not the right kind of skirt to use.
Before...
...and after. Boom!! It definitely gives a more full look.
So now I have to make more dresses like this one with a full or circle skirt just so I can get some use out of it. I am on my way to a vintage-y wardrobe. I have my waist cincher and my petticoat. Now to make some gloves... O_o
I had bought the Butterick B6530 a few weeks earlier and I had planned on making it during my vacation, of which I am currently on day 1 of 9. However, I got a wild hair and decided to start it a week early. I had plenty of tulle that I had salvaged from a defunct prom gown so all I needed was the lining fabric. For that, I chose a bed sheet that I had bought at one of the thrift stores because it was the most lovely shade of blue.
I cannot get a good picture of the color. Its a little more green than this.
It was only the flat sheet from a set and I have no idea what size it was, but I had just enough to make the whole lining, minus one piece. I figured it didn't matter much because you do a shit ton of gathering, so if I were missing one piece it would just be equaled out in the adjustment of the gathers. I don't know if that makes sense, but let's go on.
The construction was pretty simple, but there were quite a few pieces involved and a lot of gathering, so it was a little bit of a challenge. I decided on version B because it was just the petticoat and not the whole attached bodice. I had looked at the pattern envelope online before I bought it and saw the white bodice thingy she was wearing in one of the pics and was secretly hoping that pattern would be included as a variation of the bodice, but alas it was not. I thought it was kind of crappy to show it if it wasn't part of the pattern because they could have just shown a drawing of the petticoat alone like they do in other patterns instead of her half covering it up. But again, I did look before buying and kind of knew it wouldn't be in there, but I still got my hopes up. I think its lovely and I am hoping she would release something similar in the future.
Anywho, if you are planning on making this, give yourself time. Like, quite a bit of time. Most of the pieces are multiples, like you cut 4 of this one and 10 of this one and you end up sewing them all into large runs of fabric and tulle that all need to be gathered and then attached together. Not hard, but time consuming. The top part was easy because you just cut 2 on the fold, sew them together and then make a casing for the elastic for the waist. Easy peasy. Then you attach the top and bottom layers of tulle to each other, adjusting the gathers so they line up, more or less. They recommend you mark the halfway parts on the tulle with some thread so you can find it easily in the mess of gathers. That part was the worst; the gathering of the tulle. I marked the half way points with black thread so I could find them, but I could never get the half way points to line up, so I ended up doing the best I could and then once it was all done I went back and hand gathered the parts that didn't look quite right. Sewing the tulle was ok, but it has such a weird texture that I thought I would have more trouble. It was just a ton of tulle.
For the bottom they recommend 2" - 2.5" lace trim, but you need 12 yards of it. 12 yards. That's how much tulle there is in the bottom layer. Good golly. Anywho, I found this cute little lace trim that I had a ton of and it was nowhere near 2 inches wide, but I sewed it on and it looked great.
I serged all the seams on the lining to make it look nice-ish, but I didn't have any blue thread anywhere close to this color, so I just did white to 'match' with the tulle. No one will see it, but it looks clean to me.
I also serged the seam that connected the tulle layer to the lining which I thought would be more difficult because it was tulle and fabric being serged together, but my machine did a lovely job. Both my machines did. I don't give them enough credit. Without them, I would be lost.
So after the little bit of hand gathering that I did, it was done! I think it looks great! I tried it on over my clothes once it was complete and my husband laughed and said "put me in, coach!" because he said I looked like Ace Ventura. He was not wrong. lol. The only problem I see with this is that I don't have enough dresses to wear this with! I tried to wear it with a dress with godets on the bottom, but it looked so bad. It was just not the right kind of skirt to use.
Before...
...and after. Boom!! It definitely gives a more full look.
So now I have to make more dresses like this one with a full or circle skirt just so I can get some use out of it. I am on my way to a vintage-y wardrobe. I have my waist cincher and my petticoat. Now to make some gloves... O_o
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