Things I've Sewn Lately: Butterick B 5748 -- New Favorite Dress!

You guys, I have a new favorite dress. 

This is the second Butterick reproduction pattern I've done, and I'm in love. As with most Big Four patterns, the trick with this pattern is to sew from the finished measurements. I did an 8 at the bust and graded to a 10 at the waist and the fit is lovely. (For reference, if I had sewed from pattern measurements, I'd have done a 12 graded to 14 -- holy ease!)

Since this is the first go-round for this dress, I made it out of a cotton-poly blend bed sheet from the thrift store -- well two bed sheets, really, since it's a fully lined dress.

The construction for this pattern, incidentally, is very very simple. I pulled this dress together in two nights.

The best part is the low scoop back -- I love to show off my back, and the higher front neckline paired with a low back is one of my favorite looks.

The skirt is a full circle, so this does take up a fair amount of fabric, but I love a circle skirt for wearing ease. They're just so comfy. Sitting on the ground cross-legged in a circle skirt is never a problem!

The one adjustment I made was to slightly change the zipper. It was supposed to be one of those side zippers that has a few inches of garment above the top of the zipper, but I think those make it really annoying to get dressed, so I made it open all the way to the top of the armhole. I also used the Cambie method and stitched the lining to the zipper, so the dress is very clean inside -- and would be completely reversible if the lining wasn't shorter than the dress fabric! ;-)

I think next time, though, I'd just go with a center back zipper. I wore this dress all day yesterday and the underarm zipper was annoying me by the end of the day. 

The one sadness for dresses like these is that I find them infinitely more comfortable than, say, my jean shorts. But whenever I wear stuff like this, people always comment on how dressed up I am. Does that happen to you? It always makes me really self-conscious. 

In general, though, I think this is a perfect dress for summer and I highly recommend this pattern -- just don't forget what I said about the ease!

Have you made any of the Butterick repro patterns? What did you think?