Butterick’s Walk-Away Dress
Iconic Vintage Design – Ready for a Resurgence!
SEPTEMBER 2024
This article is part of our A Stitch In Time campaign.
It’s 1952. America is still celebrating the post-WWII boom. A sense of euphoria and optimism prevails. The iconic designers of this era: Christian Dior, Hubert de Givenchy, and Cristobal Balenciaga, reimagined couture. Debuting silhouettes of hourglass shapes that accentuated rounded shoulders, nipped waists, and full skirts.
The 1950’s was the heyday of skilled and crafty home sewists. New stylish yet affordable attire was at their fingertips within hours. They fell in droves for Butterick’s simple yet flattering Walk-Away dress, an apron-style garment that donned a graceful butterfly skirt with a nipped waist. This 50s style dress earned its moniker from the notion that even a novice sewist could start after breakfast and “walk away” in it for a same-day event.
The Walk-Away Dresses were so well received that Butterick halted the production of all its other dressmaking patterns until backorders were fulfilled. The original sewing pattern, known as Butterick 6015 was published in 1952, along with many variations. In 1953, Vogue Patterns published their own version of the Walk-Away Dress (V1864). Butterick re-issued the vintage sewing pattern for the classic Walk-Away Dress as part of its “Retro ‘52” collection as Butterick B4790 along with the “Retro 1950s” versatile side button style Butterick B6889.
Decades later, the demand for the Walk Away Dress has remained strong, it’s a regular topic with Vintage/Retro Fashionistas and Home Sewing Influencers. In 2015, the Walk-Away Dress was featured on Season 3/Episode 3 of “The Great British Sewing Bee” with contestants sewing the garment using 1950’s sewing machines and techniques. The show’s release inspired fashion sewists across the UK to create the “Retro 52” B4790 dress which culminated at Walk-Away Dress Afternoon Tea Celebration at the Knitting & Stitching Show in the Alexandra Palace in London.
“Be kind to yourself, the sizing of a 1950s sewing pattern is not going to be the same as you experience sizing with today’s garment pattern designs or mass-produced clothing lines.” States Amy Scarr, Simplicity Brand Ambassador | Int. Head of Marketing. She goes on to explain, “The Walk-Away Dress is designed for the easiest construction possible, but you might need to make adjustments to perfect the fit. The bust has a retro conical shape, and you may wish to rework the dramatic nipped in waist.”
Whether today’s modern woman has years of expertise creating garments or has never sewed a single stitch, making this unique vintage dress promises to be rewarding project. It only requires three pattern pieces, which are darted in front and back and have back waist and shoulder seams. The back wraps around to the front for a sheath-and-overskirt look. The project requires the sewist to sew on bias tape. The Walk-Away Dress can be fashioned from an array of fabrics—from crepe, taffeta, duchesse satin, and faille to chambray, cotton, linen, silk, and beyond. The Walk-Away Dress can be created in one fabric or two for those who prefer to have the front sheath flaunt a contrasting color.
"The Walk-Away Dress is designed for the easiest construction possible."
– Amy Scarr, Simplicity Brand Ambassador | Int. Head of Marketing
This project is ideal for fashionistas, DIYers, or anyone who enjoys the art of crafting. The Butterick Retro dresses could be made from thrifted dresses, new or upcycled fabrics. Home sewing checks all the boxes on sustainability, affordable vintage style, and elegant retro fashion.
Founded in 1863, Butterick Patterns was started by Ebenezer Butterick, a tailor, and his wife Ellen Augusta Butterick in Sterling, Massachusetts. They are credited with inventing the first-ever graded sewing patterns, initially for children’s clothing, later expanding to adult sewing patterns in 1866.