Salvaging a Wadder

At the beginning of the year, I made a shirt dress from Butterick  B6091 and I discussed what I liked and didn't like about the pattern here. I put the dress in my closet and it felt frumpy every time I wore it. It was fine for wearing while making beds and washing dishes but I never felt like leaving the house in it. I decided to do something about it this summer.

 The original pattern had four godets inserted into the skirt. I took those out and closed the seams. This took the fullness out of the skirt and balanced out the mistake of taking too much out of the bodice length for my short-waisted-ness.

After that, I dealt with the collar detail. The original pattern had the collar come right to the end of the collar stand. This is fine if you are never meant to button the stand, however, the pattern called for a button and buttonhole on the collar stand. The result was messy and can be seen in a photo on the original post for this dress in January. Since I had a sewn button hole in one side of the collar stand and no more leftover fabric, my options were limited. I opened the stand and carefully removed the collar, shortened it and reset the collar seam and stand.

I wish I could have rounded the collar stand corner, but this was impossible due to the buttonhole. The collar now lays neatly even when closed.

Below are two photos of the finished redesigned dress. The left on "Judy" and the right on me. I'm much happier with the dress, but not thrilled enough with the pattern to declare it my "keeper" shirt dress pattern. I'll keep looking!