Burda Style 02-2011-101 Dress

I wanted to make this dress when the magazine first came out, but it had slipped off my radar until Tigergirl made it a few weeks ago while ago, and wrote a rather amusing post about its shortcomings. It looked perfect (with adaptations) for a quick dress for my younger daughter, who has been in social demand of late, and was feeling a lack in her wardrobe. She picked out this fabric at Spotlight (embroidered cotton-linen), and taking Tigergirl's pithy comments to heart, I made a slightly altered version of this pretty summer dress. (Lined with cotton batiste at the bodice only) Burda Style 02-2011-101 My daughter is under 160cm. I scaled down to a size 34,made a petite adjustment of about 7cm in the bodice, raised the neckline by about 2cm,and squared the shoulder slightly. The skirt is shortened to a length half way between her choice and mine. Neither of us is completely happy about this, which sounds like an excellent working arrangement for a 15 year old and her mother concerning skirt length. The skirt is pleated towards the centre, front and back, in an ad hoc manner involving picking up the centre of each embroidered stripe and pinning it next to the previous print. I did not press the pleats, wanting a soft appearance at the waistline. I used the full embroidered section of the fabric for each of the front and back of the skirt, giving me around 130cm in width for each section instead of the 90cm for size 36 that Burda used in their gathered version. The centre back bodice seam is shaped in an upright posture adjustment, taking in the centre neckline by approximately 3cm on each side, tapering to just below the shoulder blades. The side zipper is a hand picked standard dress zipper, instead of an invisible zipper. I made this dress on the day of my older daughter's graduation, which is the punishment of the sewing gods for complete smugness at having completely finished my older daughter's dress, and my own, a full 96 hours before the due date. This unfortunately created a window of opportunity for my younger daughter and I to review the garments she had available to wear to the informal part of the evening..... Next time I will try to be less organized ;) Maybe I just don't feel normal unless I am sewing to the last minute.