Pattern Review for Butterick B4176 with Photos

Yay for another Pattern Review! I bought this pattern a few years ago to make a top for my daughter, and decided to pull it out again to make her Easter dress this year. The fact that I used it again is a plus for the pattern. I would never reuse a difficult pattern!

This dress was made using Butterick's Fast and Easy pattern B4176. The beauty of it is that it requires very few pieces. The dress I made was view D, although as you can tell in the pictures, I added cap/flutter sleeves as a personal preference. The pattern includes puff sleeves with an elastic casing. I also chose to make my own bias tape to finish the neckline and did a scant hem to finish the armholes rather than use any trim or ric-rac. 

I appliqued a purple shark on the side, as opposed to daisies like in the illustration, because my daughter is awesome and loves sharks. :-)

I like the pattern, and if you are comfortable with doing pin-tuck pleats, there really isn't anything too technically difficult about this one. It makes a cute, simple, easy to fit and wear dress. To make the top, you just make it shorter!  (I think they do a decent job of explaining the pleating process in the directions, but if you are reading this blog because you are confused about this pattern, leave me a comment with your email, or email me, and I'll help you if I can!)

The shorts and pants pictured are basic pattern pieces with an elastic waist. Very simple and good stock pieces to have in your pattern library if you don't already.

Here is my daughter when she was two wearing the top I made. I chose to just hem the neckline and armholes on that one, which is really hard. I recommend using bias tape.