Sunday 21 June 2009

BWOF 06-2009-101 Pleated front knit dress

Thank you to the Sydney people who suggested lovely shops to visit and invited me to meet for coffee. Unfortunately only my children are having a 10 day holiday in Sydney (with their grandparents). My husband is accompanying them for the first weekend, then my in-laws will bring the children back after the following weekend. I am staying home to work, but am planning an intense remaining 3/4 of a weekend spent on sewing. I will subsist on a diet of chocolate and ginger and do no housework. It is lucky my husband will only be away for 2 nights!
I will be in Sydney for a long weekend at the beginning of October, and again over Christmas, so maybe I can take advantage of the shopping (and coffee) later on.
Due to a full day, instead of a half day at work on Saturday, I did not finish the BWOF dress in time to wear to the drafty party last night (I wore last year's wool jersey SWAP dress instead) but I was easily able to distract myself from the urgent calls of camo pants and long sleeved t shirts, and to sew the dress today. I am hoping to go out to dinner with my husband whilst we are temporarily childless so I have an excuse to wear it.
 

I am much happier with this pattern as a dress than as a top. The fabric is a lovely teal wool jersey from Michael's Fabrics. It looks a bit too green on my monitor, in real life it is a beautiful colour. Although the fabric is thin, the pleats seem much better behaved in the wool jersey. However, I did not trust them at all, and topstitched them for a few centimetres, top and bottom before pressing them with lots of steam. They drape quite nicely IMO. Maybe lycra is not such a good thing for pleats! There is still a slight poufy tendency. I did cut the pleated bodice 1cm shorter than the lining to encourage the pleats to pull in against the body, and I think this has helped a lot with the fit.
 

As Elizabeth pointed out in the comments on the last post, the t shirt length version seemed to ride up a bit in front. In the dress version, the weight of the skirt pulls the bodice down, so the dress fits better. However, I did need to shorten the back bodice a little after construction.
 

After my experience with the shoulder seams showing at the neck in the t shirt version, this time I sewed both the front and back shoulder seams by sandwiching them between the front and back pieces and their linings. I like the enclosed seams on the inside.
The dress is rather plain at the back. My daughters like the dress with this wide purple belt, but I am not so sure.
 
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13 comments:

Gail said...

I love this dress. How to come by issues of BWOF so soon after publication?

Sharon said...

The dress has turned out very well and looks fantastic on you. Enjoy wearing it.

Carol said...

Looks great on you. The colour suits your colouring. I've never sewn with wool jersey, but I think you're probably right about lycra and the poofing up. I've been sewing with wool all day and I love the way it behaves when you steam it. I see a wool jersey garment in my future.

wendy said...

Gorgeous! I like it with the purple belt as well.

The pleats do hang really nicely in this version- I wonder if it's because wool always presses into shape so well.

Uta said...

That's a very elegant, and I bet comfortable dress. I love the color!

Lisa said...

You look lovely! I hope you have fun with your hubby!

Shannon said...

I love that dress! You look spectacular in it!

gwensews said...

That's a very becomming dress.

Lori said...

Great dress.

Little Hunting Creek said...

Beautiful dress! I like the belt too.

Kicsoda said...

It turned out really great!
I made the shirt version, and had the same problems, the top is just too long and the pleats...:-) I will stitch the pleats from outside but under the pleats, so it will be invisible.
But be honest, this was the first burda pattern where I did`nt do FBA:-)

Diana said...

This is a beautiful dress and it looks lovely on you!

Anne-Marie said...

You look lovely my dear ! I like that color on you!