While researching the 1952 walkaway dress, I learned that Butterick’s 4290 reissue pattern is problematic.
BUTTERICK 4290 PROBLEMATIC
The walkaway dress gained its nickname because a seamstress could open her pattern and begin sewing in the morning, then easily have a finished dress to wear by lunch!
However, this pattern needed too many alterations to regain its authenticity to have it done in half a day.
If the pattern and directions are followed as written, the resulting dress won’t look anything like the pattern cover.
SOLUTIONS
In my research I discovered that Katrina of Edelweiss Patterns Blog shared what she learned from the Butterick company!
Explaining that they reshaped the pattern for a contemporary figure, the Butterick representative gave the original 1952 design details to Katrina, which she explains in week 1 of her sew-a-long.
INTERESTING SHAPE WHEN LAID FLAT
Since this is a wrap-a-round dress, it has an unusual shape when laid out flat.
While the white part is a sheath dress that hangs in front and hooks in back, the blue part is the back which wraps around to the front and then hooks, with the white part peaking from underneath.
Following Katrina’s tip to turn the bias binding under instead of exposing it, I easily made my own bias binding, since it’s so much more economical and turns and lays better.
PIECING MY SKIRT LIKE 18TH CENTURY
In the blue section of fabric, you can see where I pieced it, because I reused the fabric from my first Civil War gown where the non-historical pattern crazily had us cut out rectangles instead of using the entire width of fabric.
Really, every time contemporary patterns try to make things simpler, they only make things more difficult.
Since my 18th century sewing classes taught me that they always pieced fabric to create economical use of fabric, unlike the habit of the post-modern era of the Big Four pattern companies, I happily pieced my skirt 18th century style.
Although noticeable from the inside, it’s barely discernable while I’m wearing it.
Honestly, the Big Four pattern companies and modern fabrics taught me to hate sewing, while the 18th century taught me to love it again, as it reminds me more of my 1980s to 1990s happy sewing journey.
PIECING IS 1952 ACCURATE!
Then I stumbled upon the following from Katrina in the comment section: all three earlier versions of this pattern called for less material by simply piecing the skirt back. When you viewed the skirt from the back, there was a horizontal line about 6 inches from the bottom or so. That way the sewer could place most of the skirt on a folded piece of 44″ wide fabric so the top of the skirt was close to the fold. Whatever part of the skirt pattern piece extended past the selvage was cut as a separate piece and sewn to the larger skirt piece. From 1952 – 1999 that was the way that all of Butterick’s walkaway patterns worked.
Wow! I sewed this accurately in the 1952 way with my piecing, which unlocked another mystery for me.
Like my journey of learning couture sewing, even patterns for home sewers were more 18th century than post-modern up to the new millenium, when that space-time continuum went bonkers and I grew to hate sewing.
MODELING THE DRESS
Also 18th century-ish, is the semblance of a petticoat created by the sheath front panel that peeks through the skirt.
