The orange Burda dress: reality

If only I had known - I would have made this dress earlier!

Hätte ich das gewusst, dann häte ich diesen Schnitt schon viel früher genäht!

The pattern is from Burdastyle magazine 5/2010, no. 102, and I was really afraid that it would come out  too wide and baggy, obsessing so much over this question that I never could bring myself to actually make it. But no problem at all, the dress turned out like I hoped: with a narrow enough high waist and a nice flared skirt and wide hem. I didn't make any alterations concerning the width of the dress. I reduced the width of the sleeves, though. Maybe the alteration that I didn't do only this time is of more interest: usually I have to shorten the bodice between my bust and waist for 2 cm. After measuring the pattern, I decided that this time I would not shorten anything, which was a good idea. So, if you want to make this dress, too, and have normal height, you might want to lengthen the bodice!

Der Schnitt ist aus der Burdastyle 5/2010, Nr. 102, und weil ich sehr befürchtet habe, dass das Kleid sehr weit und sackartig sein könnte, habe ich sehr lange gezögert, es zu nähen. Aber alle Befürchtungen waren umsonst, der Schnitt hat so funktioniert wie ich es mir erhofft hatte: die hohe Taille nicht enganliegend, aber eng genug, mit einem ausgestellten Rockteil und schön grosser Saumweite. Ich habe allerdings die Ärmel in der Weite reduziert, die waren mir zu puffig. Interessant ist vielleicht, dass ich eine sonst übliche Änderung diesmal weggelassen habe: normalerweise kürze ich alle Burda-Oberteilschnitte zwischen Brust und Taille um 2 cm. Dieses Mal habe ich nicht gekürzt und bin sehr froh darüber. Falls also jemand von euch diesen Schnitt selber nähen möchte und "normal" gross ist, empfehle ich, über eine Verlängerung des Oberteils nachzudenken. 

The back view:
Die Rückenansicht:

I was a bit afraid of making the rouleau loops for the button loops, but they actually went well (the second time) with a bit of patience.

Ich hatte vorher noch nie ein so schmales Röllchen genäht, wie es für die Knopfschlingen benötigt wurde, aber das war halb so schlimm und hat (beim zweiten Mal) mit ein bisschen Geduld ganz gut funktioniert. 

What was worse was covering all those buttons with fabric - what a terrible and fiddly work! I almost gave up on those...

Schlimmer war es, all diese Knöpfe mit dem Stoff zu beziehen - eine fürchterliche und knifflige Arbeit! 

I'm really happy with this dress! Having said this, this is the only red garment in my closet since I'm old enough to chose what to wear on my own. I usually NEVER wear any red, and I don't like this color! I made an exception for this dress since I could not find any orange fabric, but felt that this pattern should be made up in a bright red or orange to work as desired. So, really a special dress!

Ich bin also insgesamt glücklich mit diesem Kleid! Erwähnenswert ist aber noch, dass das, seit ich alt genug bin, um meine Kleidung selbst auszusuchen, das erste und einzige rote Kleidungsstück ist, das ich besitze. Ich trage sonst niemals rot und mag diese Farbe eigentlich überhaupt nicht! Für dieses Kleid habe ich mal eine grosse Ausnahme gemacht, da ich das Gefühl hatte, dass der Schnitt nur in einer leuchtend orangen oder roten Farbe richtig wirkt, und Stoff in orange habe ich nicht gefunden...

The orange Burda dress: an illusion?

This is a dress from the Burda 5/2010 issue:

Das ist ein Kleid aus der Burda 5/2010:

Since that issue came out, I'm swooning over this photo. I love the button loops and pin tucks at the front, the bright color that gives these traditional elements a fresh new look, and the great hem width. But I did not dare to make it so far.

Seitdem ich diese Ausgabe habe, schwärme ich für das Kleid auf diesem Foto. Mir gefällt die Knopfleiste mit den Schlaufen, die kleinen seitlichen Fältchen, die knallige Farbe die diesen traditionellen Elementen einen ganz neuen Anstrich gibt, und die grosse Saumweite. 
Ich habe mich bisher allerdings nicht getraut, es zu nähen. 

Have a look at the technical drawing:

Das ist die technische Zeichnung dazu:

The dress seems to be nothing more than a lengthened blouse (although a very pretty one), and there is nothing left from the nice flare of the skirt part in the photo above. And the waist is not very well defined, either. As an experienced Burda reader, if you look carefully at the photo above, you can also see that the waist is quite wide. And I don't want to end up with an orange sack dress.

Auf dieser Zeichnung ist das schöne Kleid nur noch eine verlängerte Bluse (eine sehr schöne allerdings), und von dem schönen ausgestellten Rockteil auf dem Foto ist nichts mehr übrig. Die Taille ist überhaupt nicht betont. Und wenn man als aufmerksamer Burda-Leser sich nochmal das Foto oben anschaut, fällt denn auch auf, dass die Taille an dem Kleid sehr weit ist. Nur eben sehr geschickt fotografiert. Und ich will kein Sackkleid nähen. 

However, on the magazine page where every model is put on a dress form this dress looks a bit different again:

Auf der Seite, auf der alle Modelle auf einer Büste fotografiert sind, sieht das Kleid allerdings wieder etwas anders aus. So gefällt es mir gut!

This is how I would love this dress. But I cannot quite recognize the dress from the technical drawing in this photo. Did the Burda people use the old display window trick and pinned the back to make the waist more fitted? (How odd would that be? As the magazine photos often don't show the garment very well, we have to rely on these dress form photos to see the silhouette of the patterns...)

Allerdings kann ich auf diesem Foto das Kleid von der technischen Zeichnung kaum wiedererkennen. Hat Burda zu dem alten Schaufenster-Trick gegriffen und das Kleid am Rücken einfach enger gesteckt? (Das wäre allerdings nicht so toll. Nachdem man auf den Fotos in den Zeitschriften oft sowieso nicht viel von den Kleidern erkennen kann, sollte man sich eigentlich auf diese Sammelfotos verlassen können...)

I finally decided to test it out. I'll make this dress and see how it fits. I will start with basting all those seams, and if it's too wide, maybe I can take the vertical back seams in to come a bit closer to the dress in the last photo. Or I can make a belt to go with it. Maybe I'll get another idea during the process. If everything fails, I can cut the dress below the waist and make it a blouse!

Ich habe jetzt beschlossen, es auszuprobieren. Ich werde dieses Kleid nähen und dann mal schauen, wie es aussieht. Vielleicht werde ich alle Nähte erst mal heften, dann kann ich die rückwärtigen Nähte später noch etwas enger machen, wenn das Kleid zu weit ist. Oder ich kann einen extra Gürtel nähen. vielleicht fällt mir auch noch etwas anderes ein. Schlimmstenfalls kann ich es abschneiden und als Bluse tragen!

One More Summer Dress Finished

I finally finished my last summer dress for this year right in time to wear it for the last warm day.

It was too cold to wear it without a cardigan, though.

I have to say that I'm not completely happy with the dress. I'm not sure if a dress with small straps and no sleeves is a flattering style on me, and I feel kind of naked in it. I do love the fabric, but it feels a bit too bright and colorful (a friend told me that this is just because autumn arrives, and that I will love the colorful dress next spring). But the worst is that it doesn't fit right in the bodice, and I didn't know how to solve this fitting problem.

See how the bodice wrinkles at the side seam? It's not so much on the left side seam, but for some reason, at the right side it's really awful. I spent a whole day ripping, pinning, basting and ripping again, with no success. The wrinkles stayed as they are, they didn't even change a bit. In the end, frustrating as it was, I decided to just leave the wrinkles and finish the dress nonetheless.

I set in a handpicked zipper at the center back,

and I lined the bodice with cotton voile. The bodice is also underlined with silk organza.

For the shoulder straps, I used the same bias taping as for the "piping", but I inserted silk organza straps to keep them from stretching out.

Well, I will see how I like the dress next spring, for the moment it is too cold to wear it, anyway!

And now I'm off to start, a bit late, with my vestido rojo. I already traced the pattern!

One More Summer Dress

First, thanks to all of you for your nice comments on my adjusted dress form, and your links to your own methods of making a personal dress form! Next time I have to do something like this, I will probably try one of the methods you suggested, as they all seem to be quite promising. For the moment, I will check out how good mine works, and see if fitting is now easier.
My dress form still doesn't have name. At the moment I just call her "dress form". Any suggestions?


You can never have too many summer dresses, and we still have really warm weather in Switzerland, so I decided to make another summer dress before autumn. Also, I had bought this cotton sateen with a nice retro print, which is waiting patiently since spring to be turned into a dress.

I chose a pattern from an old Burda magazine, it's no. 124C from the may 2007 issue.

When I tried on the muslin, I noticed that the neckline is quite deep. A lot too deep for my taste. So I changed the neckline, but didn't make another muslin. I will see how it will turn out.

The skirt looks quite full on the technical drawing, but on the photos in the magazine you can see that it is full at the waist where the pleats start, but that it is quite narrow at the hem. So I cut and spread the skirt pattern in the middle of each pleat to get a bit more volume at the hem.

No muslin for this part, again. I think it will be a bit of a surprise how this dress will turn out!

Unfortunately, sewing is progressing slower than expected.
I underlined all the bodice parts with silk organza, to get some more stability. Boning would work well with this pattern, but I don't want to have boning in a summer dress for everyday wear in hot weather. I will also use cotton for lining, as it feels better directly on the skin, especially on very warm days.

The Burda pattern calls for some piping on the bodice and waistline seams, made from bias tape in a contrasting color. Well, I wanted to use glossy sateen bias tape und couldn't find a matching contrasting color, so I used a hello one.

And I didn't like it. The yellow color doesn't accentuate the seams enough, and the sateen bias tape is very stiff. So I ripped the seam and went to buy ordinary cotton bias tape in blue, which is still not matching perfectly, but looks better than the yellow one and is easier to work with.

This is what I've got so far, and from today on, it's getting cold around here, and it seems that summer is over before I will be finished with this summer dress. This happens to me every end of summer or winter, I'm always a bit late with my projects. But never mind, I'll just wait for next summer!

I also have signed up for the Cose Conmigo/ Sew along which is hosted by Sonia from La pequena aprendiz, which takes place this week, to make the nice red dress of Burda 8/2012.

I will have to start a bit later, but I hope to finish the last summer dress by end of the week. This will be the start for autumn sewing!

A Day at University

No, I'm not a student anymore, but I was attending some presentations at university last monday. I wasn't sure about the dress code, and a pair of jeans or a flower printed summer dress didn't feel right. And all my more "official" or "business like" dresses are made from wool, which is not so good to wear on a warm summer day, so it was clear I had to make one, very quickly because I had only a few days of time.

I thought that a shift dress could never be wrong for such an occasion, so I used a pattern from Burdastyle magazine which have always liked but never made (it is 5/2008, No. 125).

I bought the fabric and copied the pattern on thursday, made and fitted the muslin on friday, cut the fabric on saturday and did the sewing on sunday, and monday by 1am I was finished, with the hem and everything. I know that for a lot of you this is not fast speed sewing, but for me it is, I am a slow seamstress and felt like going crazy with speed this time (Maybe I should also mention that I had to work this weekend, so the weekend sewing as well had to take place only in the late afternoon/evening.)

I was lucky to find the fabric I was dreaming of for this dress: a dark blue silk, but in a sturdy weave, almost like cotton, with some irregular thicker threads in it. It looks more elegant that cotton, but it's not glossy, and it feels fantastic on the skin!

I didn't line the dress, because I don't like lining on my skin in summer so much, especially since the fabric feels so great. Instead, I drafted front and back facings for the neckline and armholes.

The problem was, the fabric was only the rest of the bolt, cut in two pieces, with 140 cm total, whereas the pattern instructions called for 170 cm, and in one piece!
I solved this by adding a waist seam to the back and with cutting the bodice parts on the crossgrain, otherwise it wouldn't have been possible. Luckily, my fabric was a few centimeters wider than the one in the instructions. At the end, there were only a few small fabric scraps left.

I used a center back lapped zipper instead of an in-seam zipper. I like lapped zippers so much and also hoped it would make the back view less boring.

I'm really happy with how the dress turned out! I was wearing it with a pink cardi, and I felt very appropriately dressed in it! (I'm even thinking about making a second one from this pattern in a printed cotton as a summer dress, but am not sure if a printed cotton would work with the pattern.)

Retro Bubblegum Dress

I was bored last sunday, and wanted to sew something, but I didn't have a specific project planned, and still didn't feel like making another big project, too. But I still had the pink poplin I had used to line my bag (I actually had bought it to make some piping, but didn't do it in the end). I wasn't sure at all if the color would be nice for a dress, since it is very... well, pink! But when I was browsing through my vintage patterns, I found this one from 1968, with a very pink dress on the envelope:

I was not sure about the pattern as well. Although I like the illustration on the envelope, I thought it might be too girly for me. So as there was nothing to lose, I decided I would make an experiment and try the pattern with the pink poplin and see what happens. 

And I still can barely believe what I did: as the pattern came in my size, and I assumed that it would not be too "fit sensitive", I used directly the old vintage pattern, without tracing it before (which I normally do). I did use a smooth copying wheel instead of the serrated one, though. 

I fitted the dress while sewing, which means there was quite some basting (and ripping), but this time I managed to make the armholes not too small, phew!

As I didn't have any matching zipper in my stash, I used the next best, a white one, which I put in with a center lapped zipper so that it is not visible when I'm wearing the dress. I also stitched the back darts only at the upper part and left the lower dart parts as a kind of pleat. (Excuse the wrinkles on the dress, please, I stupidly took the photo after I was wearing it.)

The dress was finished very quickly, so I put it in my suitcase to go to Vienna last week, and wore it there, and I have to say that I like it a lot!

I think I'll make a dress again later from this pattern (after tracing it, as it somehow felt wrong and rude to use it directly on the fabric, doesn't that sound stupid?). For the moment I'm glad to have another summer dress. The photos were taken in Vienna when we went to the castle to listen to a concert, by my friend and colleague Gieri (thanks, Gieri, you're the best!)

And of course I took my gala evening dress out! The event took place in Schönbrunn Castle, it was a nice evening, and I felt comfortable and dressed appropriate in my black dress. I even found some long black gloves to go with it over there (try to find them in Zurich, it's hopeless)!

Here I am posing for photos with my friend Evelyn, we had so much fun!

Red Dots Summer Dress

After my last big project, I was seeking for a nice, quick and easy made project (the bag project wasn't very successful, so I needed another one). And I had this nice fabric in my stash: An off-white cotton with lots of tiny red dots and a three-dimensional self-fabric embellishment at the selvage. The fabric was calling for a full skirted dress!

This is pattern no. 108 from Burda magazine 3/2011, with a "normal" skirt instead of a balloon skirt. It is in fact a fitted bodice with a gathered rectangle as the skirt part.
Since I was very impatient, I did not make a muslin at all, just made the usual alterations directly on the paper pattern just with measuring. So I did not expect it to be perfect, but I am a bit unhappy with the too small armholes. Which I could have noticed when trying on the dress several times during the construction process. Well, I did try it on several times, but for some reason I never noticed the armhole problem until the dress was finished. So I let out the shoulder seams afterwards for as much as possible, but it still feels a bit too tight around the shoulders. The dress is still comfortable enough to wear it, luckily!

Die Armlöcher sind etwas zu klein - selber schuld, ich war ungeduldig und habe auf ein Probeteil verzichtet: ganz schlechte Idee!

So I think it is still a nice dress to wear in summer. I lined only the bodice with a cotton voile fabric, as I don't like the usual synthetic lining fabrics directly on my skin on hot summer days. So the dress feels really light and airy. Conclusion: not perfect, but still wearable (at least I think so), and after all, you can never have too many summer dresses, right?

Reading other sewing blogs!