Storm cloud dress

Swapping a zipper for buttons…

Thunderstorms are lovely, no? Living in a rainy part of the US, thunderstorms are pretty common and I love them. I love the eerie color of the sky, the smell of impending rain, the light and audio spectacle that is thunder and lightning.

So when I saw a thunderstorm print fabric remnant at my local shop, I scooped it up right away…then left it languishing in my stash for about a year. It’s cotton with a pretty dense weave, yet it’s still light weight. It not quite quilting cotton yet not quite a lawn. Lawntton?

For this dress, I took my sloper dress pattern, which has a back zipper closure, and converted it to buttoning up the front.

I had to modify the circle skirt back foremost. In the original pattern, it’s wider than the back bodice at the waistline. Usually I trim the excess after attaching the bodice and skirt, but that wouldn’t work cutting on the fold.

I walked the pieces out to determine exactly how much to lose, using pins for accuracy.

After marking my new “cut on fold” line, the alterations were complete. For the front pieces, I intended to use the normal skirt piece plus the additional inch-age for a button placket.

Buuut my fabric had a different idea.

It was too narrow, barely wide enough for the basic skirt itself let alone a placket. So I cut 2 strips of fabric, stitching them to the center front to add width. Then I attached the bodice and skirt at the waist with a bias bound finish.

I folded the placket for the whole dress at once, carefully burying the raw waist seam edge in the placket fold.

The main reason I switched out the zipper was to use lighter fabrics! The weight of the zipper pulls the dress down my back if I use anything lighter than quilting cotton. It’s visible in this picture of a dress I made last spring. I typically wear a light scarf with it to keep the dress in place.

There’s no more pulling…but I do miss the speediness of the zipper lol