Sew-along: Burdastyle 05/2018 118 polyester dress

So this fabulous dress is featured in the May issue of 2018's Burdastyle.

The pattern

Burda's own website describes it as following:   

• Wow! A bright striped chiffon, a sexy halter neckline that twists to the back of the neck and the extravagent balloon sleeves: This sizzling dress is brimming with fun details and is a perfect look for an evening out.

Additional info:

• EU 34-42 (US 4-12)
• Recommended Fabrics : Lightweight, translucent dress fabrics, lining
• 4/4 difficulty
• pdf download and featured in May 2018 issue.
  

The fabric

And it looks amazing, I had to see how it worked. Firstly it asked for 6 meter of fabric, something I defensively would have second thoughts on spending on one dress. Then I found out the voile costed nearly €30,- pro meter, making the top layer of the dress cost €180,-. So that would be a big no.

I choose a voile from Textielstad.nl instead and tried to make it do with 2,5 meter.

The line-drawing

We see the dress as a halter style dress, with a zipper in the back. The beautiful baloon sleeves are attached but you can't see in these drawing what happens under the arms. Is the side seam cut to give room for the sleeves? Perhaps for the more trained eye, which mine is not, you can see the sleeves contain elastic and the back part does not.

The pattern instructions.

The pattern makes it clear that a 2 inch circular hole is 'cut out' of the side seam and forms the bottom part of the sleeve. This part does not contain a tunnel for elastic, but the sleeve part does have a tunnel. That would mean the elastic would be in the fabric on top of your arms, but under the arms it is just bare on your skin. This weirdness, and the fact that I tried to make the dress with less fabric, I skipped the sleeves. I 'restored' the side seam by placing the copied pieces together and connect the top lines as I showed in the picture.

Furthermore I estimate the dress asks for more then three meters of fabric for the skirt alone. I made the skirt out of 1,2 meter fabric. The fabric is 150 cm wide which I cut in halve. That means I have a skirt circumference of 2,4 meter.

The top of the dress is placed horizontal on the fabric instead of the instructed vertical. It uses less length of fabric and it allowed to make the ties a little bit longer. Mind you, this is not an option if the fabric has an obvious direction of the print.

The lining of the dress is instructed as made from two layers of lining. Fusible interfacing is used on one of the layers. I choose to make it from crepe satin. It holds itself up better then lining. Although it is still a warm layer of fabric I thought it would be more breathable than two layers of lining and interfacing.

The line drawings show a belt, but there is no belt in the pattern pieces nor in the instructions.

Furthermore there are some discrepancies in the written instructions as well. The list of notions call for boning (ribs or baleen) but is not mentioned in the instructions. 

Sewing

Okay, so the pattern is a bit of a mess, but I like the neckline enough to give it a try.

The lining of the dress has beautiful princes seams and the bodice fits like a glove. It looks like a bad pair of leggings, but trust me, it will look better.

My finished creation you can find here.