Up In The Air dress

I finally made a dress that enhances my levitation skills!

I've had this dress in mind ever since the March preview of Burda came out.

The (apparently) complicated design reminded me of something from the Pattern Magic book, which for the moment I've been too lazy to tackle.

Originally, I wanted to make this dress in a checkered fabric, just like the one shown in Burdastyle Magazine, but then I found this beautiful viscose that reminds me of a stormy sky. I usually prefer more obvious prints, but I thought this one was perfect for this pattern.

My only problem was that the fabric was pre-cut and the piece was too small for the pattern. My solution was to add a seam at the center back bodice (which thanks to the print is barely visible) and to shorten the skirt part.

By the way, I'm quite short and the pattern is intended for tall women, but I took 10 cms off the pattern piece, I didn't include any allowance for the hem, and then I cut 8 more cms from the bottom before sewing a narrow hem. That's a lot!

So, if you plan on making this dress, take accurate measurements before cutting the fabric, because you might end up wasting a lot of it.

The only other modification I made to the dress is to add a couple of hand stitches to keep the two top front parts together in order not to show too much cleavage.

I didn't even think of making an FBA because I was quite scared by the pattern pieces, so the draping at the chest is a bit different than it should be, but I still like it a LOT.

The construction is easier than you might think. Thank God, Burda included some images to explain the process, because there is some twisting and tucking to do that I would have never understood in written form. If you're curious, you can check the English instructions for free here.

I can picture myself wearing this dress for a fancy date this summer, maybe at the seaside (a girl can dream, right?)...
I feel so girly in this breezy dress, it's really an attention grabber!

p.s. If you never tried them yourselves, be aware that jumping self-portraits are HARD!