Wednesday, May 23, 2012

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!

16 comments:

  1. Wow! So pretty. I agree about using more obvious prints, but I really like this one. The colors are nice. And I know what you mean about jumping photos. I tried to take some mid-leap/walking photos in my pink pants. I never posted them! I looked ridiculous ;)

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  2. Lovely. And I agree about jumping shots.

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  3. It's a really pretty dress. Congrats !
    I have Pattern Magic at home too but I've never tried it... Burda is always a simpler way :)

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  4. Oh my goodness, I absolutely LOVE this dress! The fabic is gorgeous.

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  5. Such a pretty dress! It'll be great for warm weather. I've tried to take jumping shots ... so silly! Never managed to get one that didn't look like I was about to have a heart attack!

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  6. I love your jumping picture, you literally do look like you are levitating...soo cool! Your dress is just gorgeous and it looks so comfy too, good work ;o) I also love your hair and makeup...very pretty indeed!

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  7. I love this! It's so pretty!

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  8. bellissimo il vestito e troppo bella la foto dove sei in levitazione :)

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  9. Oh my, I LOVE that fabric, which is no surprise since it's blue and white. I've been looking for something similar for so long! Great dress, and I'm very impressed that you can jump up in the air and still have your face and hair look calm and lovely. I won't even attempt...

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  10. Love your dress, that fabric is so beautiful! And the levitation photo leaves me speechless. (How many times did you have to jump???)

    My relationship with this pattern is pretty much the same as yours: love at first sight from the preview, wanted to do a vichy but going for a print (see my recent post, the one with brown in it), Petite so will have to do some MAJOR choping etc.

    About that, did you take length out only in the skirt, then? I'm considering doing a "real" Burda Petite-izing.

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  11. Gorgeous jumping shot with that pretty dress. I love the print and style of this..different one from your previous dresses.

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  12. Very pretty and I love the fabric. You have fabulous photos!

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  13. You look so lovely in your dress! So perfect for summer.

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  14. I think you made a good fabric choice for your dress. A checked fabric would have been cute, like the example you linked to, but I like what you did better. :) Congrats on making such a cute dress! And lovely blog, by the way!

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  15. What a gorgeous dress; I love the print and your levitation skills! heh Looks perfect for summer... I'm adding it to my burda favs now! :)

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  16. Ohh how did I miss that gorgeous dress..

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