BurdaStyle 12/2012 - 112 Dress

This was the cover dress from the December 2012 issue, I am a sucker for these kind of draped details and funny shaped pattern pieces so it went on the seemingly ever growing list of things to make.

This pattern was the sewing course for the month so it has (relatively) detailed instructions and diagrams.  While this was pretty helpful, I did get the impression that whoever wrote the instructions started off very detailed and then either got bored, ran out of time or ran out of space.  This is a 3.5 dot pattern which Burda describes as "Advanced level sewing, with special features", but a lot of space is devoted near the beginning to putting in an invisible zip, which even if you didn't know how to do is pretty generic and can be looked up easily.  Then you follow lots of diagrams which suddenly go from a picture that vaguely resembles a dress front to one that looks completely finished!  Still I did manage to follow it - I think - so I shouldn't complain too much.

This is a tall pattern, but it was too difficult to figure out how to alter the bodice so the only changes fit wise I made were to the sleeves which were extremely long and tight (I just swapped them for another Burda sleeve) and to leave off the hem allowance on the skirt pieces.

I must admit I was pretty ambivalent about this dress, verging on disappointed even until I put it on and took the photos below.  This is one of those rare garments that I feel looks better in photos than in real life - it would really benefit from a lining, but drafting one to fit is a bit beyond my skill level / patience threshold.  My fabric is a poly crepe which has the right sort of drape, but still feels a bit flimsy without a lining.

Hemming this was a challenge, I used the hem marker attachment on my dressform for the first time ever and it turned out OK so if nothing else I discovered something useful.  I just did a narrow machine hem on the skirt - I'm going to go back and do the same on the sleeves which currently have a hand hemmed finish but it isn't as smooth and invisible as I'd like.

Despite all these picky points, I think the dress will grow on me, I just need a gap between finishing it and appreciating it!