Summer Dress Serie - The Paisley One

I have quite mixed feelings with this dress, which is probably due to the context of its making, the fabric etc. I cannot quite decide whether I love it or not.

So, first the fabric: I must have bought this fabric the first year of my sewing because I reaaaaally liked the paisley on it. It is a raw silk, little bit scratchy and fine at the same time. I had 3m of it, but I think of only 1,2 m width. I was in love with this fabric for 2 years, but never sewed anything from it. Then I completely forgot about it for another two years. And I rediscovered it this summer again. So I decided to finally make something from it, before I completely fall out of love of it.

Then started my search for the right pattern. I ended up buying Burda 106 from July 2016 issue. I have always liked the lines, even without the pockets. A quick muslin later and I was cutting my fabric carefully to make sure the paisley matched. 

And honestly, I am really proud of myself because apart from 1 vertical seam and some slightly rounded seams, the pattern matching is quite good actually.

I have used up all my fabric, even though I still have quite a lot of scraps.

Another issue was the fabric transparency. Once you folded the fabric (e.g. for seam allowances), you could actually see through the dark parts of the paisley - no good at all. So instead of purely lining the fabric, I have interfaced the pieces with white silk-viscose. It is also helping significantly with the scratchiness.

Overall, I am happy with the fit of the dress - not too large and not too narrow, just what I like. However, me being very pale, I feel it is just too white and pasty for me. Maybe with a black jacket, that might work better. I will have to try.

Summer Dress Serie - The Origami One

I have bought this fabric little bit by chance this summer - it is a linen/viscose mix and it has such a nice feel and shine that I just could not leave it in the shop and had to bring it home and find a project for it. I also quite love the violet colour, so the dress had to be something special.

I had the Burda pattern 101 from last year June edition bookmarked for "when the right fabric comes" and I figured this was the right combination. Seeing the top part of the dress, I had to muslin it, and I was right, I narrowed the "Star-Trek" flying bands and narrowed the bodice in general so that they fall in the shallow part of m shoulders, not on top of them.

When looking at the pictures, I think I could have done it even more, but once everything was cut, it was hard to play with the pattern.

The dress is of course fully lined and has pockets. I have recently been lazy and did not add pockets on some dresses which I definitely miss when wearing them, so the rule now is clear: add pockets whenever possible :)

The dress came out very nice, as the structured bodice fell into pieces just perfectly, the only thing bothering me a little bit is the fit of the dress: I think I could have fitted it little bit more, but at least I have a dress for eating huge lunch when at my in-laws.

This dress might be a great example of a frosting sewing, as I did not wear it to work yet, ad am looking for the right opportunity (maybe just because both the fabric and pattern feel so special and maybe I should just get over this and wear it :)

Summer Dress Serie - The Easy One

From the whole serie, this one was probably the easiest one.

It is actually an exact copy of a silk dress sewn some time ago which always gets worn when the high temperatures arrive. So it was kind of obvious I needed another one.

Also, last year I found this fabric. It is actually the same as this one, just in different colours. The violet one was used for a very nice Anna dress which I considered too short to wear last year and gave it to my sister.

So I was really happy when I found this fabric in green and I just had to sew another summer dress with it. So there we go: Burda 115-07/2015 back again.

I do not think there is again much to say about the pattern, it is an unlined dress, I only line the little sleeves as it enables me to enclose the shoulder seams and finish it nicely. It is all sewn with French seams. And contrary to the pattern, I sewed on the belt. I tend to do it all the time, as I am afraid I would loose it anyhow and it works pretty well, so why not.

In the end, it is also kind of relieving to just pull out a pattern from your stash, have all the adjustments done (including the skirt length) and just whip up the dress in a few hours. It does not happen often to me and I would not want to sew everything like that, but yes to the instant gratification of this make!