Gertie's Slip Sewalong- Butterick 6031

In April Gertie's Blog for Better Sewing announced that Gertie would be doing a sew-a-long for her vintage inspired slip pattern, Butterick B6031. Since I'd discovered that I didn't have very many slips in my closet when I tracked my wardrobe, I thought that this might be the perfect excuse to dust off my sewing machine and make a cute slip for myself. 

I ordered a black slip kit from Gertie's Etsy shop so that I wouldn't have to track down all of the fabric and notions on my own. The kit included the fabric, wide and thin stretch lace, bra strap loops and 2 bows.

The hardest part of the process was cutting out the pieces because the fabric is so smooth and slippery (not to mention stretchy) which made it hard to get the fabric to lay flat. Based on my measurements I cut out a size 14 on top and I sized up the bottom to a size 16.

For the upper half I cut out the pieces for a C cup based on my measurements and the patterns instructions (which is actually bigger than what I normally wear). I tried my best to match up the lace on top, but it still came out a little off. Oh well! I decided I'd just cover it up with the bow.

When I cut out the leg slit for the skirt, my scissors accidentally nipped a hole in the opposite side so I decided to "make it work" by making a second leg slit. Now my little accident was a design feature.

The lace at the bottom of my slip was a little more slanted than I'd intended, but it's not so noticeable when I wear it. I spent hours trying to figure out how to loop the straps into the metal hoops; I managed to get one side done perfectly, but after another few hours of fiddling I thought I'd gotten the second strap sewn in correctly only to discover that I'd sewed it in backwards. It still works so it's close enough.

I was really hoping that Gertie would do a sew-a-long post for the panties too, but alas, I got impatient and decided to sew them on my own following the pattern instructions (update: she DOES have a panty tutorial up now, but it was posted after I'd already finished mine). Gertie mentioned in a previous post that she made the slip more form fitting by sizing down, but made the panty true-to-size, so I cute out a size 16 for the panty based on my measurements. Since I used extra lace to make the second slit on my slip, I ran out of wide stretch lace and black thread halfway through sewing my panty, so I had to pause for a few days until I could get some more. Luckily, I was able to find some white wide stretch lace on eBay that was an exact match to the lace in Gertie's kit and I was able to finish my panties and use a few scraps of lace to match up the edges where the lace didn't quite match up initially.

I'm too modest to model my new slip on my blog, but I am happy to report that it does fit and my husband approves! The pattern instructions were pretty easy to read on their own, but I tend to be a more visual learner so Gertie's picture and video tutorials were very helpful.

I'm not sure if I'll ever get around to it, but I'd love to make another slip sometime (I'm thinking classic white or maybe red for valentines day), and I could definitely see myself making some more panties in the future because they're super quick to make.

Did you participate in Gertie's slip sew-along? Are you considering making Butterick 6031? Well, what are you waiting for!? Sew it up and tell me about it in the comments below.