Burda 9-2005-115 - Construction

My first thoughts upon getting the dress cut out and the front assembled was, "it's a lot of work for such a subtle effect."  Seriously, I think if I'm standing  on the corner all anyone would see is the raspberry dress. You would have to walk up to me to see the seaming detail.  So this exercise has been more about the sewing challenge than the end result...unlike the Macy's dress where you can clearly see the effect of the fabric piecing.

Exhibit 1 

The dress front constructed and hanging from the closet door:

I guess I need to ask if the time and effort was worth it?  I would say yes for a few reasons. 

1.  I survived the dreaded Burda tracing experiment.
2.  I did actually take a pattern that was sized much smaller than I am and enlarge it to fit me, thereby proving to myself that it can be done.
3.  The actual shell of the dress is very appealing on.
4.  It will be a different type of sheath dress than is presently in my wardrobe.

So do you want to see how the dress looks so far?  Here is a close-up of the front on me:

Here is a back view:

(I think it's reading truest to the color in this pic)

Some construction changes:
~ You know that I opted to only cut the front pattern pieces for the dress.  Because of the fabric requirements in the magazine, I thought that the 2 yards of raspberry doubleknit I had would make the dress...well it didn't.  I had to creatively cut the back.  So I added a seam at the hip area.  I think it works okay...and if you think it doesn't, that's okay.  I'm wearing it this way! *LOL*

~ I am going to add short sleeves to this dress.  The sleeve will be made with a seam down its center and a slight opening at the hem.  Hopefully this will go with the pieced affect of the dress.

~ A lining will be added to this dress.  This is a lighterweight doubleknit than the Macy's dress and I think the lining will help with the overall look of the dress.

Some thoughts:
Putting this dress together was a step by step process.  I couldn't miss a step or everything would have been out of whack.  And as I stated before this was definitely more about the sewing challenge than about the dress.  I'm lucky the experiment worked.  It easily couldn't have.

Finally you had some questions:
Laura asked:
"Would you mind terribly doing a tutorial on how to grade up a pattern using a TNT dress pattern?"
You know this is a really simple process if you start with a TNT pattern piece.  I traced the Burda pieces, then laid them on top of a traced copy of the TNT dress front.  Each Burda pattern piece was then elongated width wise.  Here's a pic to show my starting point more clearly:

And here is a picture of the pattern pieces after they've been elongated and seam allowances added:

You can refer to my last post for more information on the process or the pictures in my Flickr Album to see the entire progression.  But really I didn't do anything extraordinary or something that you couldn't do yourself with a TNT pattern.

Meredithp asked the same type of question that Laura asked:
"Did you get the curved pieces that you enjoyed tracing so much, and just draw them on your TNT?"
Hopefully the picture explains it.  If not, please feel free to ask a more detailed question.

Couturearts stated (btw, is this you Claudine?):
"A suggestion, if I may. You might want to consider incorporating the bust dart into one of the horizontal seams. It will look more elegant that way."

Here is a picture of my top with the dart:

The way that Burda instructs you to cut out the pattern pieces, there's no dart.  I don't know if it's included in the seam or not.  However, since mine is not a precise duplication, I did include the dart from my TNT pattern into the piece, figuring that it would help but that no one would notice it but me.  If I were to make this again, I would definitely like to include it in the seam but would have to seek out some expert advice on how to do that.

Several of you stated that I would get better at the tracing if I did it more.  Ummmm, I don't think so.  This is the second Burda pattern that I've attempted in 10 months.  Does that tell you something about how I feel about tracing patterns?!  *LOL*  Gawd, I have a boatload of Hot Patterns and still haven't made one yet because you have to trace them!  Sad, I know.  I'm still working on that part of my journey...okay!?!  ROTFLOL!

So I have to add the lining, cut the sleeves out from the scraps and hem the dress.  I probably will have fashion shots of both dresses tomorrow.  I just wanted to give an update on this dress' progress.

...as always, more later!