Burda Style Magazine 02/2013 - 115 Maxi Dress

The fabric I used for this dress is a classic example of the "go online, ooh pretty fabric, must have it, omg what on earth can I do with it" variety.

It's a stripy jersey with what I thought was a butterfly border pattern.  It turned out that the butterflies were across the middle of the fabric and were huge.  So the fabric sat in my stash while I pondered how I could use it, I always had in my head a maxi dress, but definitely wanted to avoid having a giant butterfly planted smack in the middle of my body.

Finally I just took the plunge and placed the pattern pieces so that the butterflies kind of came in from the side seams, you can hardly see them now which is a bit of a shame, but I really like how the dress came out and am glad that I've managed to use the fabric.

I used this great maxi dress pattern from Burda Style magazine 02/2013 - 115.  I love the above waist twist detail.

This is the sewing course pattern from this issue so there are diagrams which help a lot as the pattern pieces - at least the upper front piece - is unusual.  I got a bit confused because the diagrams mark seamlines (dots), foldlines (big dashes) and stitching lines (small dashes), obviously you only want to stitch the bits marked with stitching lines.  Once your upper front looks like diagram #6 the worst is over!

I made a straight size 38 and apart from raising the neckline just by stitching it up a bit higher and shortening it a bit at the end I didn't have to make any alterations.

Here is the back view, the method of finishing the back v neckline with 2 strips of fabric was new to me, I liked it, simple to do and looks good.

I really like how this turned out and might make it again in a shorter version.  The waist detail does sit slightly above the waist which takes it into potential maternity territory (although not on my very flat bellied dressform!).  Actually I expect it would make a great maternity dress - indeed, the same detail turned up on the Duchess of Cambridge's dress that she wore recently for the first baby photoshoot, the sleeves could easily be modified to get the same look at this now sold out dress.