Floral Shift Dress with added Va Va Voom

Style icon Joan Holloway would totally wear this dress on her Florida vacation.

The pattern is Butterick B5414, and is meant to be a pretty straight cut A line shift dress. But if you are large breasted, straight cuts tend to blouse around the middle and make your widest point – your breasts – appear to be the size you are all over. I am growing obsessed with darts.

Also obsessed with this simple little trick. If darts seem a bit nervewracking, and to be honest they still do for me too, then make your side seam curve where you curve. It might seem like a minor thing, but that extra couple of inches of fabric you get rid of around the middle will allow your own shape to shine through.

See? Every time I look at this picture I hear the boom ba da boom of burlesque music. And then cringe all over at how hard it is to not feel goofy that I’m sharing this.

12 thoughts on “Floral Shift Dress with added Va Va Voom

  1. Great dress!

    Did you cut the fabric as if you were going to make darts, but instead of sewing darts you cut a curve?
    I'm sorry, I didn't understand+ darts give me nightmares. Zippers too. So I'm looking forward to any tip that could save me from them…

    1. This pattern didn't call for darts, which made it pretty big around my middle. So I just pinned the curve in while I was wearing it so I could get it to fit my waist just right. If the pattern isn't super fitted, you might be able to use this in place of darts, but it won't be a perfect substitute. It will, however, get you through until those darts stop looking so scary.

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