The dress that almost didn't happen...

The dress that almost didn't happen is my butterfly Colette Parfait. You might remember from my last striped version that I had fitting issues: When doing the small bust adjustment (SBA) I had to take out 1.5" from the back and front bodice, which resulted in the back sitting to high and the appearance of a "propeller" at the back skirt. To solve this problem, I took out the too much "propeller" fabric. But because of this, the dress is bunching around my belly when sitting down.

The final dress

My first attempt in solving this problem, was just to make the backstraps 1.5" longer. This perfectly solved the propeller issue. And because the waist seam was not sitting on the waist, I also added another 1" to front and back waistband. I also decided to make a colour blocked version by adding a white waistband, which would be a nice contrast. Contrary to my usual "I make a muslin first" attitude, I immediately cut the fabric (and made my butterfly Sorbetto Top from the leftovers).

That's the first version I took apart. 

It took me two weeks to assemble the dress, because I was not really convinced by it. And only when I had inserted the zipper (and the only thing left to do was the hemming), I admitted to myself that I didn't like the dress: The colour blocking looked awful with putting all the emphasis on my bust - but not in a good way. And because I had lengthened the straps, the back bodice had dropped so far that you could actually see my bra closure.

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The waistband proportions didn't look good either. There was no way I would wear this dress. But the fabric I used is the most expensive cotton lawn I ever bought. So I put the dress away for a few days and decided the day before my PhD viva (and encouraged by a 35°C weather forecast in Germany) to adjust the pattern and cut a new bodice. The fitting and sewing kept me from freaking out :) and directed my thoughts away from the viva. Sewing IS good for you . . .

The only problem I haven't solved yet is that the backstraps don't cover the bra straps.

First of all, I unpicked the zipper and also separated skirt, bodice and straps. The skirt was good to use further, as were the straps.

Added centre back seam at bodice pieces.

Button details.

Adjustments: I started from the beginning and this time used Shaerie's flat pattern method to do a SBA - I removed 1" from the bust. The advantage of this method was, that the side seams were not changed at all and I could keep the original back bodice. I made a muslin of the bodice.  I pinned the skirt to the bodice muslin and checked that the waistseam was on my waist and I didn't have a propeller. I noticed that my front waist seam was riding up over the belly and added a wedge of fabric there: 1" at the centre front that tapered to nothing at the side seam. I made another muslin and it turned out fine and I was ready to cut the fabric.

Pockets with contrast detail and stripey buttons.

Cutting: I still had some butterfly fabric scraps left and managed to cut the front bodice pieces on the fold. But none of the scraps were big enough to cut the back bodice on the fold. Thus I added seam allowances to the centre back, cut the pieces twice and stitched them together. They do have a centre seam now, but it's on the back, so I don't mind. I cut the facing from white cotton lawn because there was no butterfly fabric left.

The hem is finished with a narrow hem.

Construction: As I had skirt, pockets and straps already assembled, it took me only a couple of hours to finish the dress. When stitching skirt and bodice together, I took out 3/4" at the centre back tapering to nothing at the side seams on both bodice and skirt. This accounted for my sway back. I stitched the whole dress with my sewing machine, but finished the raw edges with my overlocker first. I finished the hem with a narrow rolled hem, also with the overlocker (I love this function of my Bernina).

Have a worn it? Twice already. I had my PhD viva on the forth of June and I am now a Doctor of Philosophy  :) A day later I went to Germany to celebrate with my family and spent there an entire week. We had up to 35°C the first few days and I was wearing both of my Parfaits, yeah! They are both the perfect summer dresses and I felt very happy to wear them. So, although having troubles and almost not finishing the butterfly Parfait, I am so glad I did!