I want to feel cozy in the winter. Because, who doesn’t when it’s cold outside, right? But it’s also really nice, and sometimes important, to look and feel elegant and feminine in the winter. So I thought it would be great to have a dress pattern that did both: elegant and cozy.
This dress pattern, Lisette B6411 for Butterick, is designed specifically for knit fabrics. It’s the kind of dress you slip on in the morning and then forget about for the rest of the day. You look fantastic, but you also feel really comfortable. This is a work-appropriate dress if ever there was one. It includes a faux-wrap bodice and can be made in all sorts of jersey. Right now I want to sew it in wool jersey, but I also found a really beautiful soy/cotton jersey at Drygoods Design in Seattle while I was there and I can’t wait to use it for this pattern.
A few favorite fabric ideas for you: Robert Kaufman’s Laguna jersey is cotton with just enough spandex for good recovery. I love it, and it comes in a lot of great colors. Kaufman also has a new ponte that is more limited in color choices but has a fantastic hand. Mood has a ridiculous selection of jersey right now. (Be sure to swatch first, since quality and weight/hand can vary quite a bit, especially with jersey.) And I’ve done really well with Girl Charlee, too.
Here are a few styling ideas for this pattern. I really love the idea of adding a belt, which I’m going to try. And you know me: I’ll be lengthening the hem to a midi length, too. I’m kind of obsessed with the idea of a burgundy dress and charcoal gray tights right now.
This dress is rated easy by Butterick, and I think you might be surprised at just how straightforward and quickly it sews up. Of course I hope you’ll tag your photos #B6411 on Instagram and add them to our SewLisette Flickr group as well. I can’t wait to see how you sew this one!
OOOhhh. How does the faux wrap hit the girls?
How would I go about adjusting the top make it nursing friendly? While I’m comfortable nursing in public, I don’t want to strip in order to feed my daughter and there are few attractive nursing-friendly dresses.
Kelly, this is a faux wrap, so it pulls on over the head. Maybe you could hide an opening underneath the wrap portions, but it would require a little playing around to see what works.
Yes! Yes! Yes! This is the sort of dress I would live in. Wool jersey for winter, yes please!
How do you do a FBA for such a dress?
You could certainly add a FBA with a dart to the dress underneath the wrap portions, and then adjust the faux wrap accordingly. I don’t think it would be very difficult at all.
So beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Would it be possible to make this fit a D Cup?
Like I said to Tali, above, I think you could add a FBA and adjust the faux wrap accordingly. I think it would be quite an easy adjustment.
This looks wonderful, especially on tall slender women. But how would it look on short, full-figured and short-waisted women? I wore & loved DVF wrap dresses til they fell apart, but now past my 60’s, the style just isn’t attractive on me anymore. Could we see this on some curvy ladies, please?
Amy why would this style not look equally elegant on plus-sized women? It has lots of features that highlight curves. I’m sure you’ll be seeing plenty of dresses made from this pattern for a wide variety of body shapes and sizes. I think the really great thing about this style is that is looks like a wrap dress but isn’t. If you can wear a knit dress (and who can’t?) you can wear this style as well. I just did a quick search on curvy wrap dress and saw plenty that look very elegant. I’ve added a few of them to the pinterest board for this style if you’d like to take a look: https://www.pinterest.com/liesl/lisette-b6411-faux-wrap-dress/
Beautiful,
Very pretty design, look very comfortable.
I’m looking forward to figuring out where to put nursing openings! I think it will be perfect for it.
Please share your solution.