{Blogiversary Week} The 'Hawk's Eye View' Dress

My new dress is from the BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook that I got for free as part of the Sew Weekly challenge this week!  I'm so curious if any of you have sewn with BurdaStyle patterns?  This is only my second dress and it's something I'd like to do more!



The book includes five patterns: a dress, a skirt, a blouse, a coat and a handbag.  In addition to these five base patterns, there are countless variations on each pattern (2 variations for each pattern with detailed instructions and up to 30 different photos of variations of the pattern from BurdaStyle readers!).  I choose to  use the basic dress pattern as my inspiration and starting point!

Similar to the BurdaStyle magazines, the patterns are printed on the same page.  The book has two patterns to each big sheet of paper.  Below is the skirt and bag pattern (each one in a different colour):

You're supposed to trace off the pattern.  Unless, of course, you can't find your tracing paper and you know you're not going to use the bag pattern (or the flounce on the dress) in which case you can cut the pattern directly!

I wanted a bit of a mod look but with a longer hemline, so I took the basic collar line of the dress pattern (which is very 60's!) and didn't cut out the keyhole or ruffle bit for the dress.  I also knew that I wanted to have different fabric on top and bottom--to create an illusion of separates!

One of the dress variations in the book is from our beloved Casey (of Casey's Elegant Musings)!  I really like her variation and hope to go back at some point in the future to make it!  For that pattern there is a great illustration of how to self-draft front and back facings for the dress.  The fabric I was using for the bodice is a delicious Japanese Kokka lightweight gauze fabric.  It's slightly see-through on its own so I ended up underlining the entire bodice with white cotton. The original dress design has instructions for lining the entire dress, but since I was only underlining the bodice, I used Casey's instructions for creating the facings!

I also had a bit of fun hemming the dress with some matching red bias tape:

I handpicked the zipper using Tasia's tutorial (switching thread colours between the top and the skirt).  I used a 22 inch zipper, which runs down the back of the dress.  The gauze fabric is great because you can't even see the handpicked stitches:

We trekked up to Arthur's Seat yesterday for these photos.  It's has such an amazing view over the city and I just love the look of the volcanic rocks!

 

We saw some amazing Harris Hawks on the hill!  They were moving too fast for us to catch them on our camera. Apparently, there's been a hawk that escaped from the nearby Holyrood Palace that now lives on the hill!

Here's what they look like close-up (photo from Free Photos):

I can just hear you now...'Debi, don't you live in Scotland?  Doesn't it get cold there?'  Why yes, it does!  I would never wear a sleeveless dress this time of the year....without a jacket.  Actually, this dress is perfect for layering to get a suit effect!  In fact, this is how I was wearing it at work yesterday--with a nice wool jacket (from....guess where?  You're right....it's from Ness).  This was the first item I bought from their autumn/winter line and I wear it nearly every week!  I must say that I have also been eyeing a certain Burda cape pattern that I think would look delicious in this navy twill (with red piping?) to go with this dress for a bit of variation!!  I can't decide if I will make the Burda pattern or use a delicious vintage cape pattern??

I do love the Ness jacket (it's called the 'Laura' jacket in Garnet) because it's got elbow patches!!  I must remember to put those on my own sewing projects--they are so nice!

I really like the shape of the dress and can see so many different variations!!

Giveaway
I'm offering up reader's choice of one BurdaStyle downloadable pattern. This giveaway is open to all my readers anywhere in the world. To enter, just leave a comment on this post and talk to me about your thoughts/experiences on sewing with BurdaStyle patterns (downloadable, from the magazine or the Burda patterns).  I definitely want to learn more about these patterns.  Enter your comment by midnight (London time) on Saturday the 19th for a chance to win a BurdaStyle downloadable pattern (it comes as a pdf that you print off, tape together and use).