GBSB Drapey Dress

So much hesitation, so much ruminating and voilà, I have a new - for me - very unusual dress. I do not remember where I saw this pattern for the first time, but it was interesting, free and completely out of my comfort zone.

I was rather worried for different reasons:
- the dress is supposed to be made from jersey, a fabric I never work with
- the dress is drapey, meaning a lot of biais lines, meaning a lot of stretch potential, meaning worries about deformation
- the dress has two big pockets in the biais lines - in a drapey fabric, it means a clear route to disaster  for me

So I went with a compromise and used black wool crepe which seemed to be rather transparent. To maintain it and decrease the see-through effect, I underlined it with a black cotton-silk - this fabric is just magic, it works in double layer for summer tops, as well as a simple layer underlining. It is quite stable and extremely soft against your skin and does not add any bulk. I had bought it in different colours, but it is the black one I used the most.

Fortunately I did sew a muslin, since I had to take in at least 5cm on each side, as well as 10cm on the dress length. I am currently using old sheets for my muslin (found a huge bag during our recent moving which will last for some time) and my muslin looked more like a hospital robe than as my wished drapey dress.

I had made a huge mistake of not marking the right and left sides properly, so I ended up with the sides inverted compared to the center piece. But I realized it quite soon in the process and was still able to correct it.
I lot of sewists complained about the scarce instructions. That was definitely not my problem, I am used to Burda in 4 different languages, so instructions with pictures always work the best. Also, the pattern is not overly complicated, when compared to my usual dresses.

What to say about the result: it is neat inside, quite drapey but still stable. It looks better with a blazer than completely "naked" as on these pictures. The pockets are big, even too big, I ended up closing them little bit.

I a still quite sceptical on this type of dress for me. I know that it will get worn, as it is very comfortable ;o), but the silhouette is very special, I feel like being pregnant and trying to cover it, which is not the case.

The Quickest Make... EVER

I still cannot believe it, I did sew a top in about 2 hours, cutting included. It was Friday evening, staying home, I just fished a small piece of black silk from my stash (of which I have a certain amount, because you know, I wear a lot of black and you never have enough black tops), cut out this extremely simple Burda 125-08/2016 bow top and got it ready before I went to bed.

I admit I tend to sew rather complicated pieces, I focus on lined dresses a lot, and tend to neglect separates. So anytime I sew one, it is a surprise for me that a sewing project can be easily finished within a week-end.

Also, I made things simple here: there are like 4 seams on this top, all of them frenched, and a lot of borders which I baby-hemmed. No closing, yeah! Easy peasy, all done on a machine, not a single handstitch. As for the fitting, I just compared the pattern quickly against another already sewn top and that was it. The pattern should be sewn from jersey, whereas I used a simple non-stretchy woven, so I also omitted the bottom hem as I did not see any utility for it.

The best thing is that I really like the result: yes, it is a large top, yes, I do not have to overfit everything and yes, it might move over to one shoulder some time, but that is perfectly fine. I have another black top for next summer.

Inspiration: August Burda

Pattern: Burda 128-08/2016

Pattern changes: omitted bottom hem

Technique: baby hem

Fabric: black silk

Time to Complete: 2 hours

Total Cost: 6 EUR