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Button through pattern hack

Button through pattern hack

IMG_2880Mrs Bowden’s top tip – button through

As you may know from my post of last week I promised I would show you how to create a ‘button-through’ version of the Simplicity 1459. The original design had a buttoned bodice and then a zip inserted into the side seam. The buttons were adding a stylish touch, to accommodate ease of wearing and to protect any bouffant style hair do that you may have spent time on (a good thing indeed).

simplcity 1459          simplcity 1459 drawings

This really is a simple ‘hack’ as the work has mostly been done for you in that the front of the bodice already has a facing on which the buttonholes are created. You can see the original facing finishes at the bottom of the bodice. The gathered skirt is then mounted onto the bodice which is overlapped at the waistline to create the button ‘stand’.

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To create the button-through version extend the facing the full length of the finished dress (making sure you remember to remove the 1.5 cm seam allowance of the existing facing pattern and simply extend it to the hem length of the garment. You will need to cut two of these facings in fabric and two in interfacing (very important as the buttons and buttonholes need to be supported by the interfacing).

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In the instructions you are shown how to attach the facings to the bodice before attaching the skirt and this is where you need to jump about a bit. I completed making up the bodice as follows (steps 1 to 5 + steps 24 to 28 for the sleeve instructions); stay stitching the neckline, constructing the darts, inserting the sleeves, constructing the collar and tacking this into position. Apply the interfacing to the back facing and front facing pattern pieces (4 & 5). Then attach the facings together at the shoulder seams (step 6 in the pattern instructions) and finishing the edges of the facing. You should then go on to constructing the skirt by sewing the back and side seams (insert pockets if you wish to….see last week’s blog post ‘inserting pocket top tip – 16th July) and putting in your ‘tram lines’ for gathering. You should then attach the skirt to the bodice so that the centre front of the bodice and skirt are still open.

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A cautious word – there is a awful lot of fabric in this skirt and if you take your gathers up to the centre front your facing will not lie flat- keep a little gathering ‘exclusion’ zone of 10 cm from the edge of the facing. Skip back to the pattern instructions step 7 and continue to follow the steps but your facing is now continuing through the skirt and to the hem.

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You can see in this picture the finished edge of the facing and how it extends through the centre front on the following photograph. Of course you can ignore the zip insertion stage as you can easily jump into your frock.

At this point you are now ready to turn up the hem and finish the bottom of the facing before marking up and creating your buttonholes.

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In stitches, Amanda x

 

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