#buttericksewingpatterns

The Gored Skirt in the 1970s: Butterick 4139

This skirt pattern shows you how some basic cuts come back again and again, with slightly different emphasis, to serve current purposes. In the 1930s, gores--that is, pattern pieces widened from the waist to the hemline--only flared towards the lower-calf hemline. The gored look of the 1940s had more width as hemlines crept upwards and easy movement became a priority during World War II with gas rationing and more walking and talking public transit. The width of gored skirts grew enormously with the New Look in 1947, and hemlines dropped again as fabric was no longer rationed. The A-line silhouette of much of the 1960s meant that gores were not much used in mini-skirts, and simple cuts--skirts of 2 seams only-- were popular.

In contrast, this pattern from the 1970s makes the most of the 8 gores to give width and movement to the fabric of the skirt. It is fitted only at the waist and top of the hip line, then flares out from there, and ends around the knee, which reminds me of 1940s skirts. The idea of easy movement is implied by the slight sway of the pale orange skirt on the right. The style flexibility of the gored skirt is apparent in the range of blouses as much as in the lengths. The long, party skirt is for an evening out, shown here with a white gathered blouse trimmed with lace. But a bowed blouse and two collared blouses indicates that it could be worn as a shorter skirt for work or for spectator sports. In fact, the shorter blue skirt's is worn by a woman holding binoculars, as if she was at the races.

Gored skirts require two things for sewing success: fabric with drape in a solid color or a small, non-directional print. The first to allow a graceful sway as a woman moves. Think crepes or challis. The second to avoid matching a print and to allow a close placing of the pattern pieces. If you have to lay each piece with the hemline oriented at the same end, you end up need a lot of fabric. If you can nestle them close toe each alternating pieces hemline near waistline, you can use a lot less. The shorter versions only take about 1.5 yards and the long 3 yards for 36" hips.

Spring Cutaway Collar, Can it Be for the Office? Butterick 6870

This re-issued pattern from the 1950s shows the two silhouettes which became popular in 1947 when Christian Dior of Paris launched his post-war New Look. Both have soft shoulders and small waistlines, while the best known as the look of the 1950s is the full-skirted silhouette, and the lesser known the slender silhouette was very popular as well, and it needed a back kickpleat to make movement possible.

Here both dresses share what they call a “cutaway cape collar” which is why I am puzzled at the detachable collar on the slender, navy-blue look. Navy blue and detachable collars were a common look for the basic dress, a dress that could have cuffs, collars, accessories, and even buttons switched out for variety in a small wardrobe. Such a wardrobe was essential to the college woman and to the wage-earning office worker. But such a low-collar would have been considered a bit flirty for the office in the 1950s. And it is shaped so that putting a sweater or short jacket would be awkward. So office workwear, party dress, or a strange hybrid? Hard to say.

The large-skirted version is clearly party wear, notice the ribbon in the back of the collar which serves no purpose except to add to the swaying movement of the woman wearing it. It seems a wonderful choice for spring weddings, graduation parties, and other celebrations. Crispy fabrics will serve for either silhouette and they recommend shantung, faille, linen, cotton pique and broadcloth; they also recommend crepe, but that does not make a lot of sense as it has a soft drape.

Both have cut-on sleeves, short, or longer with elbow darts. Such sleeves have less movement possible in them, so if you opt for long, consider whether you want to add an underarm gusset--a diamond-shaped piece--which will give you more freedom.

Big Blooms Print Dress Complete: Butterick 6582

Here is the final result of all that effort. Effort which included altering the pattern, underlining the whole dress, and finally creating a sash to make sure the hint of a fig-leaf got lost in the print as a whole. It has the small waist, and full skirts which were still fashionable in 1960 after a whole decade of being fashionable. Their popularity probably owing, in part, to the ease they had for dancing. By 1960, they had crept up from lower calf to a bit below the knee.

This is a simple sash which you can make yourself by drafting on the fabric. It is  3 inches in width when finished. The fabric can be cut on the bias, or slightly off bias, if the bias is very slippery, or in this case weirdly off bias because I had almost no fabric left. So you need to estimate the length because you will need more or less your waistline, depending on the give of the bias-cut fabric, plus enough to seam. Pinning it around your waist over the dress is really the only way to make sure you are getting the right length; and remember you need to ponder seam allowances, and the placket with the fasteners on each end. I always mark where I think the ends should be, but cut it a bit bigger in case I am wrong. It is easy to cut off fabric, much harder to add fabric.

You will need 12 inches in width plus seam allowances, because you are going to seam it  into a long tube. Once seamed it is 6 inches in width and then you will gather the width down to three inches. This will give it some draping. Then you will sew each end to a placket that should be 3 inch plus seam allowances and then as wide as need be to accommodate the fasteners you want to use. One of my plackets here is a larger because I wanted to make sure I could make the whole thing longer if need be. But it turned out perfectly comfortable as is.