June Burda of the month: panelled dress 6/2013 #117

Friday 19 July 2013
Ta da! June Burda project finally completed.  Yeah I know it's actually the middle of July, but the good thing about a self imposed challenge is that there's no real harm done if you miss a deadline by a little (or a lot!).

Burda-6-2013-#117-color-blocked-dress

I realise the colourblock trend has been around for quite a while now, and I've probably either come in at the tail end of it or have missed the boat completely, but I don't care because I quite like the look. I was heavily inspired by these dresses that I had pinned sometime ago:


I used Burda 6/2013 #117  with a few changes to take it from a summer dress to a winter dress which is more befitting of our current weather:


As soon as I saw this pattern I immediately thought of a colour blocked dress, the only problem being what colours and fabrics to use.  I've proudly made this all from stash fabrics - a grey wool flannel and a white textured wool/polyester blend both bought from Spotlight ages ago, and some black wool crepe leftover from some other past project. I lightly interfaced the black wool crepe to give it the same weight and body as the grey and the white fabrics, and while there's a lot of texture within the one dress I think it works pretty well.
 

Sewing this dress was just like putting together a big jigsaw puzzle, albeit a fiddly one. Getting the yoke and the white side panels to line up at the side seam and zipper required some hand basting to get the panels to line up and not slip when I sewed them. And sewing those white panels in to the grey fabric was really hard to do - the corners are a bit more rounded and not as pointy as I would have liked, and now that I'm looking at these photos I can see that the left side front corner is puckered which I'll have to redo although it's not as obvious in real life.

Burda-6-2013-#117-colour-blocked-dress

Burda-6-2013-#117-colour-blocked-dress

I changed the pattern to have a centre back seam with an invisible zipper instead of cutting the back piece on the fold and putting a zip into the side seam. I did this mainly so I could do a small swayback adjustment, but also because I don't like side zippers all that much.  I only did a small swayback adjustment because the body of the dress was quite narrow at the waist line, and instead I treated the vertical seams of the white panels as darts, and deepened the back seams a bit to get a closer fit. The dress fits like a glove as you can see from the side view, although there is a little bit of fabric pooling/rippling at the back:

Burda-6-2013-#117-colour-blocked-dress


For the sleeves I just used the pattern pieces from a previously traced Burda pattern. I did check whether I needed to alter the armscye to fit, figuring that it would be a slightly different shape for a sleeveless dress as opposed to a sleeved dress but they were exactly the same. I guess Burda uses the same basic block for their pattern designs which is useful to know.

The original pattern is for an unlined dress, with the neck and armhole openings simply turned and top stitched down. Because I've made this from wool and I always wear pantyhose during the winter I lined the dress from the yoke down in a light grey lining fabric from the stash, making the black yoke doubled so that it also acts as a facing to the neckline.

It took me such a long time to sew this dress, thanks to a cranky toddler letting me only sew in short spurts here and there. But overall I quite like this dress, and might make it again in summer from a cotton fabric in a sleeveless version as per the original pattern.

And now onto the July Burda, hopefully done in July and not August......

50 comments:

  1. Very Pretty, I Love It! I Love Color Blocking But Dont Believe I've Ever Make One Just Yet. Soon I Hope! :) The Mix Of Textures Also Is Gorgeous :)

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  2. Aren't you so trendy? I love this dress on you! Great job interpreting the pattern to get just what you wanted.

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  3. It is very nice. I love the colors.

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  4. Gorgeous dress, and the fit is perfect! I like the combo of colors and textures.

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  5. This is so pretty, you look great in your new dress.

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  6. Super dress. It looks fantastic on you. Great fit.

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  7. Oh, I love it, it looks better than the original pattern. I might steal your idea.

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  8. Wow! This looks great on you!

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  9. This looks great! I like the color blocking idea, but choosing the colors is the hard part for me. I love yours and the different textures too.

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  10. Awesome! I love the way the color blocking worked out. I haven't tried any color blocking yet. Perhaps this is the inspiration needed.

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  11. I love this! (And I might also steal your idea...)

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  12. Gorgeous dress and love the use of the different textured fabrics,, a real winner.

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  13. it really fits you beautifully....i really love our color-blocking. and i think it's still in. one trick i learned for those fiddly bits is ti baste the pieces together then topstitch the pieces together. it goes faster and you avoid pivoting nightmares

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    1. I shall have to remember this for next time, because it really did drive me nuts!

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  14. You've done a great job with the colour blocking. Mostly you see them with the dark colours on the sides but you've reversed this idea and put the light colour on the side. It looks terrific on you. And the length is absolutely perfect.

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  15. Looks fabulous! And stash fabric too.

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  16. That is a jaw dropper dress for sure! I totally love it and am very keen to copy it. Awesome vision and the texture definitely takes it even further. Well done (even more so for getting it done while dealing with kids).

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  17. What a great dress Kristy. Love the outcome. Great colour combination too.

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  18. It looks great on you with such great fitting! I love the black, grey and white - really fantastic dress.

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  19. That is such a great dress! Love the color blocking. And congrats on using all stash fabric!!! That's an achievement!

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  20. Such a sophisticated dress, with a color combo that is very flattering on you! And so well fitted, it shows your lovely figure! Great job!

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  21. Wow, what a gorgeous dress. Fits you perfectly and beautiful colors as Well. Vers sophisticated and absolutely beautiful. Well worth the effort.

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  22. Your dress is a perfect match of pattern and fabrics and style -- for you and your lovely figure! Your excellent sewing skills show in this project. Congratulations and I hope you enjoy wearing it a lot! Also, I hope that color blocking is not on its way out -- I haven't done my first color blocked project yet! Thanks for sharing this.

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  23. You are certainly setting a style, and you do look pleased with yourself, and so you should. I wouldn't worry about the puckers or corners or whatever. I am sure no-one is going to come up close to you and tell you they are less than perfect, although I might, ha ha. So now just get on with July. Oh, BTW, you look great!!

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  24. You look gorgeous in this amazing dress. I was only thinking about making a colour block dress myself. Now I have inspiration!!!

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  25. Holy heck! This is absolutely smashing!!!

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  26. what a lovely dress, I didn't realise that pattern had so much potential

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  27. What a lovely dress - and in the classic colours you have chosen, it is going to look great for years to come. Beautifully made, looks wonderful on. I like your backdrop as well :)

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  28. Great colour blocking! The overall vibe is very classic.

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  29. I really like this! I think color blocking is still on trend. Your version is really stunning!

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  30. Gorgeous! I love your fabric choices and I love this pattern!

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  31. This is very lovely and classy colorblocking! You look great.

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  32. Kristy, I just wanted to say I love this dress, it is my favourite item I've seen from you, which is saying something because I generally really like all your pieces!
    I just adore this, great job!

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  33. Kristy - this is just beautiful! I love your color and fabric choices. They really make the dress work. You did an amazing job and I like how you changed the season on this dress!

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  34. Love it Kristy, looks fantastic on your. Well done!

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  35. Kristy this was worth making. Your colour blocking is spot on. You look fantastic.

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  36. It's just gorgeous - both in fit and fabulous colour blocking!

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  37. I really love your interpretation of this pattern. Great colour combination.

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  38. Beautiful dress! I love your color and fabric choices. I like how you added sleeves to suit the season.

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  39. Wow, this is just gorgeous. What a great idea to convert this to a winter dress. I might have to try this trend too before it goes out of date....
    Ingrid

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  40. Kristy I'm really lovin' this one! So cute! Can't say
    enough about it! Great job... love the colors, textures,
    and it looks wonderful on you too! What's not to like?
    Way to make the pattern work for you! Lovely

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  41. I love this! I hope colorblock isn't passe; I'm making a colorblock dress right now. Ha! I don't think I'll ever make this dress because all those inset corners would drive me out of my mind. You are too honest in showing the one that isn't perfect. I totally would have hidden that under my arm.

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  42. fabulous! This is an awesome piece, well done. Love the creative thinking that went into it.

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  43. I love this colour blocking you did with this dress. I love that it has three colours instead of usual two. Now I'm really thinking about doing something alike for myself.

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  44. Kristy I love your Version of this dress. I would love to make this with the sleeves. Could you let me know from which Burda pattern you used the sleeves? Thank you very much in advance. Anita from Basle

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    1. Hi Anita - I used the sleeves from Burda 8/09 #128 because they were 3/4 length sleeves and I had already traced these out.

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    2. Thanks for telling me, am definitely going try this soon, for autumn/winter in Europe. Anita from Basle

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