Leopard Queen

Jennifer   November 3, 2010   1 Comment on Leopard Queen

Rebecca asked me to make her a dress for her birthday this year, as a lover of all things animal print I saw this fabric in my local store and snapped it up!

Not being the most accurate of sewers I decided to keep the shape of the dress simple. Enter Butterick pattern number 5463!

Butteric top sewing pattern

I think this pattern will become a staple in my collection


With the loose shape of this pattern, the shaping would come with a nicely cinched waist belt and I could see it looking good over some leggings and some fierce boots, so there was room for a little margin for error in the sizing.

The pattern was fairly straightforward to put together but boy did I make a mistake with my choice of fabric! While the print is gorgeous, it frayed something rotten so I adapted and edged it with acetate bias binding to try and encase as many loose threads as possible. It was also a good thing I had a little room for amnouvre with the sizing as the fraying kept cutting into my seam allowances. One thing is for sure I need to improve my seam finishing, I hastily zig-zagged the side seams to try and bind the fraying edges, I usually try to press and fold and encase the seams but this frayed to quickly for me, leaving me with not enough material to fold over, if I make this again with a similar fabric, I think I will probably try french seams.

Anyhoo, I was pretty pleased with the outcome, it looks fab if you don’t examine my stitching too closely, I won’t be winning any couture awards or turning professional any time soon, but I don’t think the dress is an embarrassment to home sewing, I wouldn’t have given the gift if I thought so.

animal print dress

The finished dress, pretty much exactly as I envisaged it to be worn

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