Grading Down Butterick 5001

I've been wanting to sew this dress for years. Today, when I finally got around to it, I discovered that I had shrunk out of it. The smallest size in the envelope is 18W, and I need a 16 at most on top. And by the way, since the smallest size for this pattern in any envelope is 18W, there's no freakin' way that either of the drawings below are representative of that size. Just sayin'. But it is nice to see an actual plus sized model rockin' the dress in the photo.

So I mentioned that I had to go smaller on the Vogue 1224 dress I just made but that's all I did — mention it. Today, I thought to snap some pics to show how. I know for some of you this will be old news, but for those who have never graded a pattern up or down, pictures help.

Here you can see the uncut pattern piece with the different cutting lines. I just used the offset between the existing cutting lines to create lines where the 16 would fall.

As you can see, the spacing between sizes differs depending on the particular section of the pattern. Just be sure to duplicate the existing spacing/offset all around.

It's pretty easy. I freehand it around the curves and use a ruler for the straight lines because it's faster.

So far, so good. Sorry for the shadow. I didn't notice Zillie was half in the closet. I'm still testing spots for her while I sew.

Back tomorrow with a finished dress. I would've finished tonight, but it seems my puttering around wasted more time than I realized and it's time for bed already.