12 Jun 2010

Coffee Date Dress

by | posted in: Sewing | 12

This dress was almost called the “ER Rush Dress”.  In the process of making, well, more like ripping apart, the dress, I managed to drop the seam ripper on my big toe sharp end down.  OUCH. Son of a mothereffing bleep.  It hurt and it bled.  Luckily it didn’t escalate, but I digress.

I came across this dress the very first time I found BurdaStyle and I loved it.  Back then I knew that this dress would no look even halfway decent on me so I downloaded the pattern, stuck in my “Sewing” folder and sorta forgot about it.  Fast forward to late last week when I decided to go ahead and give it a shot since I thought it would look much better now.  Before i go any further let me say that despise, DESPISE, taping sheets of paper together to assemble these downloadable patterns and that I will probably never pay for them because of that.  This pattern is free however so I suppose I can’t complain much.  Either way, it’s royal pain in the ass but this one wasn’t difficult, everything fit together nicely.  However, another thing I hate is having to add seam allowances and alas, seam allowances were not included in this pattern so it was hate double whammy.

The sizing is standard BurdaStyle sizing.  I cut a 38 through the neckline and shoulders and tapered out to a 40 at the bust line and then back to a 38 for the waist.  In retrospect, having a cut a 42 through the bust would have made my life much easier.  I originally added a 5/8 inch seam allowance but ended up using 1/2 inch at the shoulders and 1/4 inch at the bust.  Hence the 42 at the bust would have been wiser.  I did make a muslin but I failed to realize there was some excess fabric at the back neckline.  If I was to make this dress again, I would place a dart at either side of the zipper to eliminate the gaposis issue.  You can’t see it in the pictures since my hair is cleverly covering it.

 The wind kept blowing the skirt.

The construction of the dress was very simple and I didn’t really make any changes.  The only changes I made were in the actual construction of the garment.  For example, I didn’t use BurdaStyle’s instructions for the all in one facing or the invisible zipper.  I found some instructions in my sewing books that worked much better for me.  I especially recommend Sandra Betzina’s method of sewing an invisible zipper.  This was the first invisible zipper I’ve installed successfully and that was truly invisible.  I don’t know if it is online somewhere but it’s definitely in her book “Power Sewing”.  Finally, I did a blind hem with my sewing machine.  The fabric is pretty thin so the hem is not truly blind but you’d have to get REALLY close to it to see the stitching so that OK with me.

After all is said and done, I really, really, really like this dress.  It looks exactly like what I envisioned and I love that it sorta looks vintage.  I absolutely love the fabric, the green looks much better in person and I love the polka dots.  I also love the green and red combo and this is how I intend to wear the dress, at least with that belt if not the shoes.

Just for funsies!  You know, a 50s looking dress and pearls just scream “VACUUM CLEANER!” I actually did vacuum a bit while I was at it.

12 Responses

  1. Rachel
    | Reply

    I love your dress!!! I found your blog through pattern review. The red shoes and belt are perfect with it!!!

  3. Karin van D.
    | Reply

    The dress is beautiful and you look so pretty in it. Love the green polkadot combined with the red, very nice!

    And those shoes? Gorgeous!

  10. Miss Shigatsu
    | Reply

    it’s actually a dress drafted and provided for free on the burda website by the amazing, talented, and selfless (don’t tell her i said so) Selfish Seamstress: http://selfishseamstress.wordpress.com/downloads/

    that said, every time i see a version made up, it looks great. i love your green and red combination. might just give it a whirl myself one of these days.

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