Burda Cherry Blossom Collection Dress - Oct 2015 issue

When I saw this dress in the Cherry Blossom Collection, I immediately bought the magazine- in fact I loved that whole collection but I knew I HAD to make that dress- the shape just looked perfect for me.  And infact I had the perfect fabric in my stash that  had been waiting for the perfect dress pattern.

Of course being from the Burda magazine it takes most of the time to get the pattern traced off, working out which lines to follow & which pieces are required from the crazy pattern sheets!  But once I had got that done, this is a super, super easy make.  

There are just 4 pieces- front, back and 2 armhole facing pieces.  The front piece is a odd shape as it has the cowl neck plus pieces which wrap around the back to form a v neck down to the mid point of the back:

So you simply sew the sides together, put in a zip & do these darts.  Its the first time I ve done dart/pleats like this and it won' t be the last, I loved them.  They are like darts but you only sew the middle section like this, then at the top & bottom it looks like a pleat.  I find it perfect on- it gives a nice fullness around the bust, pulls it in to give a good shape at the waist, then again has enough fullness to comfortably fit around the hips.

 this is what it looks like from the right way around:

The most tricky bit I found on the dress was the neck line.  For 2 reasons.  Firstly I ignored the pattern and put the zip down the back instead of down the side as I always prefer back zips.  But then I came to realise that this doesn't work with the back neck detail... Oh well, too late.   Then, the pieces that fold down to complete the v down the back turned out to be too short. I guess I just didn't cut enough seam allowance on it - next time I d cut those sticky out bits much much longer, then trim to size when I m sewing as too big would be no problem, too short is a problem.  Anyway as a compromise I did this:  The back pieces fall short of meeting but I figured it looked ok & like a 'detail' to have it stopping a bit before the zip.  The pieces are supposed to meet & be sewn together which would not have been an option anyway given I had put the zip there.  So learning 1. follow pattern and put the side zip and 2. cut those v bits extra long.

Final job was just to do the armhole facing & the hem.   And here is how it comes together.  I really, really love it.  Its difficult to photo in this print as you can't really see the detail too much but I do adore the fabric too- its from Fabric godmother.

 Neck view front:

Neck view back:

Full dress:

And of course, here it is on:

I'd highly recommend this one.  Happy sewing, Messyessymakes x

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