Panel (Dress) Story

I fell in love with this dress years ago, probably on the first months of me sewing again six years ago. I bought it through Burda site when it was still available (the pattern goes back to 2012). I bought the fabric in 2015 (!!!), keeping track of my fabric stash is useful, but sometimes frightening. Part of the white fabric got sewn into something else in the meantime.

The fabric is a very nice, rather heavy and lose linen which I bought in three colours back then. The blue got sewn into an amazing summer dress, and then used for some baby projects, the green and white patiently waited their turn.

As I am now working from home for more than two months and definitely will for yet some time, I am sewing rather consistently, so the time came to get to these two pieces out and get to the Burda Panel Dress. Also, since I am working from home and basically living in casual dresses (so much more comfy than sweaters and leggings), I thought that I should get ready for when the weather gets warmer and I will still be at home. (Of course, we all wish to return to the pre-covid normal, but I do think it is happening this summer, and even if... I can still have one more summer dress, right :)

Back when I purchased this pattern, I have read a great blogpost of a sewist who applied all the couture techniques to sewing the dress and me being an obsessed with nice finishes on the inside, I got little bit carried away as well.

In the first place, I wanted to line the dress, but did not have enough of white lining and I am not really ready to go fabric shopping to Paris (aka take public transportation), so I had to find another solution. Also, a linen summer frock does not have to be lined, per se. But a combo of linen and no lining means that the finish needs to be perfect.

Who says perfect, says Hongkong-finish EVERYWHERE. And so, I went. I think the biggest challenge was definitely the curved seams in the front. Also, I wanted to iron the seam flat after clipping, but you could basically see it on the white part which I hated. So I did a very little bound seam, pressed to the green part and catch-stitched. 

All other seams are bound and catch-stitched for most part as well and it just looks soo nice on the inside.

I must say that I am so happy that I have finally sewn this dress and that it really looks exactly as I have imagined it.

I believe it will be great for wearing inside, as well as outside.