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Bettine dress

The next SewHayleyJane box came with this beautiful feeling cotton sateen fabric, complete with a border at both selvedges. So that gives me a challenge to make something that uses the border, but means cutting at right angles to the grain. 

I chose the Bettine pattern by Tilly and the Buttons. Three main reasons: I can make use of both borders: at the bottom of the dress, and on the sleeve cuffs; I was confident the dress hem was straight enough to accommodate the border; and finally the dress has pockets! It's the second TATB pattern in a row, but this one was a PDF from the website, which meant I didn't have to trace it!


 


The main trick  was cutting out at right angles to the normal grain line. I tried to be careful to ensure the border at the dress hem and on the cuffs/tabs were all in line. 

The skirt and bodice of the dress are cut separately. I did not go to the effort of pattern matching the pieces, which actually is a bit of a shame. I got a bit scared off by the fact that each piece has a large seam at that point, and hoped it would magic itself perfect! I'm lucky that the elasticated waist does hide the join. 

The first piece to come together is the bodice. It has facing for the neckline. I always struggle with neckline facings, somehow they always seem bigger inside than they should be. This is the best I've managed so far though, and it's been helped a bit by hand stitching it down too. 




The next piece is the sleeves. I did the optional tabs, because I could show off the border with them. But then spent ages trying to figure out exactly which layout option for cuffs and tabs that I wanted!



The TATB pattern says to double over the fold on the cuffs, but with this particular pattern that would be a shame as it would hide the symmetry of the border, so I didn't. Luckily there's plenty of room on the tab to accommodate the wider cuff. 


The skirt part of the dress was exciting: pockets! I spent an extra long time ironing to make sure they laid properly. 

Joining the bodice to the skirt is easy enough, the main instruction is to leave enough seam to encase the elastic later. 



When the dress is on, the bodice hangs a bit over the elastic, hiding the lack of pattern-matching. I love the pockets! I even had enough of the non-bordered part of the fabric to create another 'start at the top', which is a great pattern for using up leftovers, shown here with my me-made Ginger Jeans!


Summary

Pattern:

Tilly and the Buttons - Bettine

Fabric:

Cotton Sateen - In my garden

Lesson learned:

Hand stitching the neck facing down is useful. 

Audio book:

Cibola Burn- James SA Corey ⏳







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