Dress #22 -- Butterick 6055 (1950 reprint) "Honey Nielsen"

Hola! I have completed a dress!

I had a little bit of inspiration with this one. Back in 1991-1992 there was a short-lived sitcom on Nick at Nite called Hi Honey, I'm Home. The basis was a wholesome, naive 1950s sitcom family gets cancelled and they are relocated to modern-day (1991) New Jersey. The comedy comes from the clash of the time periods. I recently re-watched it on YouTube and I fell in love with the dress worn by the 1950s mother, "Honey Neilsen" (played by actress Charlotte Booker):

I knew I HAD to have a pink dress with white polka dots and black trimmings! I do love the combo and my dress turned out pretty sweet, but there are a few things I don't like about the pattern Butterick 6055. I HATE the sleeves. HATE THEM. They make the dress look "nautical" (to my eyes) and that's not the look I want. I cut the sleeves off the first rendition of this dress. I really liked the way it looked and it really brought out that "Jane Jetson" collar! But I wanted those little black sleeve embellishments like on Honey's dress so I re-did the bodice, sleeves and all. My sewing skills aren't advanced enough to change the sleeves completely. How it looked sleeveless:

I made the sleeve embellishments from scratch. At first I carefully measured them out and I couldn't get them even so I just said FUCK IT and cut all four out free hand! Came out nearly perfect. I ironed under 1/4" of a seam allowance all the way around, placed them by eyesight, and topstitched them on:

Not bad for just DOING IT (no measuring, no fuss!) Now, onto the good things about Butterick 6055. I LOVE those pockets! They were so easy to do. I topstitched them on, but they are a little tricky around the side seams. I sewed the pockets on first, but the left the side against the side seam open. I then sewed up the side seams and then completed the topstitching. I used all black so you can't really see my imperfections...lol.

So there it is. I've been fantasizing about making this dress for a few weeks. I LOVE the pink/white/black combo and I have enough fabric to make another (using a different pattern, though!) And check out Honey Nielsen's dress in action in this clip from Hi Honey, I'm Home!