Burda Style 02/2011 - 116 Dress

I know there are a lot of you desperate to see the back of the sack dress trend, but I find as long as I add some waist definition they are the perfect thing for our hot and humid summers, easy to wear and dress up or down.

One advantage of ditching the photographic section of my Burda magazines after a year (I do scan the "at a glance" pages of both garment photos and tech drawings) is that I really focus on the pattern lines rather than get distracted by the sometimes not very helpful photography.  In this case I knew I wanted a simple dress with a contrast yoke - I'd have missed this dress if I had just looked at the photos quickly.

(Incidentally this image is from a Russian site I discovered through Pattern Review that is pretty good for looking up Burda patterns, here is the link I use to run it through Google translate - http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&ie=UTF8&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=ru&tl=en&twu=1&u=http://www.osinka.ru/Zhurnaly/Nav/)

The construction for this dress is not very sensible - minor things that are easy to correct.  The yoke is lined but then the edges are basted together and stitched to the body of the dress so the seams show on the inside (this keeps the neck edge clean, but I'm sure it could be done a better way) and the sleeve bands are attached after the side seams are sewn up when it would be much simpler to put them in flat.

I've used a black jersey and a sequinned mesh fabric for the top layer of the yoke.

I left off the shoulder pleats and arm bands because my yoke is a sequin material on the outside which was too bulky to pleat & I did make jersey arm bands but preferred the cleaner look with them folded to the inside.  I also replaced the drawstring casing with a simple elastic casing, and made a separate tie belt.

Close up of yoke, the sequins are a bit more bronze in real life

The result is a super simple and comfortable going out dress, I already have another version cut out from the feather print sheer fabric I bought recently for a day version.

Burda Style 02/2011-103 Skirt

The recent delay in postings chez AC Gallery has been due to having my parents staying for a week which meant the sewing room had to be temporarily dismantled and turned into a bedroom. While I am sad they have left, I am happy to have my sewing room again - there is nothing like a period of enforced non-sewing to get the mojo back!

So at last here is the finished BurdaStyle 02/2011-103 skirt, a pencil skirt with a godet and unusual darts in the back.

The only change I made to the pattern was to fold the waistband pieces in half as they were very deep on an already high waisted skirt. As I mentioned before my fabric only had a limited amount of stretch and I am glad I cut wide side seam allowances as I needed them and you can see there are still a few wrinkles so I could have done with a bit more room. Or better still a bit less hip!

Like most pencil skirts, this is a pretty versatile wardrobe piece and the brown pinstripe fabric should work with lots of existing pieces in my closet.

Here it is with a Hot Patterns sunshine top that is in great need of an iron!

And here with an oldie - a shortened version of Burda 04/2008-107


Since all the detail is in the back I've tried to lighten this photo so you can sort of see them. (Take no notice of my photoshoot assistant.)

Burda Style 02/2011-103 Skirt

I have started making something! Just a skirt, but it's a start. Here is the pattern;

I am making it in a pinstripe as shown in View B in the magazine which creates an interesting effect at the back. My fabric only has a small amount of stretch and the pattern calls for a stretch fabric so I have cut wide side seam allowances and am crossing my fingers!

I thought I could get away with cutting the back pieces with the fabric doubled but it must have slipped a bit as I just could not get the lines to meet up at the centre back seam. Luckily I had enough fabric to recut a back piece and I marked the lines onto the pattern piece to use as a guide to make sure my new right back piece matched the existing left back piece. This is where not adding seam allowances to my traced patterns is very helpful. So I recommend cutting the back pieces using a single layer if you are using a stripe or plaid.

Here is the back with the invisible zipper and godet sewn in.