Friday, July 23, 2010

Burda 06-2010-123, Silk Jersey Sack Dress

Burda 06-2010-123 Thumbnail

Right after I posted last week about my silk jersey score from G Street Fabrics I visited AllisonC's blog to see her fantastic self-made border version of Burda 06-2010-123 (you have to scroll through to the pink dress). Not only did I love the dress, but it was the perfect pattern for my find. The motif is 36 inches long, which is a dowdy, stumpifying length for me, but because the front of this wraps over the shoulders to the back I was able to use the whole length of the print, and the straight hem of the dress was made for a border print. Note that because of the limited length of my motif, I cut the dress about two inches shorter than drafted and with no hem allowance.

Bias Tape Neckline Finish Burda tells you to finish the neckline with bias strips after it is all put together, which is crazy because there is very little room to maneuver at the center back neck once the front and back are sewn together. I used a cotton batiste bias strip because I wanted a woven to stabilize this very wide neckline. I sewed the bias strip on before sewing the center back neck seam--because I find it easier to apply bias to a line than a circle--and before sewing the front to the back.

Finish lower edge with zigzag This actually ended up being a little short and I didn't want to lose any length in hemming, so I used a closely spaced zigzag stitch instead of turning up a hem. I considered a faced hem, but the zigzag doesn't look bad so I stuck with it. I checked out how DVF finished one of her silk jersey dresses; looks like she uses either a coverstitch or a twin needle. You can see that I also pinked the side seam edges rather than finishing them with a zigzag or serged finish. I was given a pair of pinking shears recently and I wanted to try them out.

Hand Stitch Although I took shortcuts on the hem and the side seam finishes, I decided that the best looking finish for the neckline and armscye edges would be a hand stitch. It didn't take *too* long, and looks quite nice from the outside--mostly invisible. I always get nervous doing a hand stitch and only taking one thread of the outer fabric, because it seems like all that will do is break a bunch of threads and your hem will fall out anyway. So I took more like 3 or 4 threads with each stitch. It still worked.

Saks.com - Peter Pilotto - Silk Jersey Dress I wore the dress to a party on Saturday and felt very luxurious in silk jersey. Mine cost about $14: $5.22/yd for the jersey plus tax and I used two yards, plus about $2.50 for the magazine (each issue costs approximately $6.67 and I assume I will use an average of 2.5 patterns per issue, though that is a bit generous), plus thread. I decided to see what I'd pay for a similar dress in ready to wear. I love how Sewspicious Minds does this for all of her pieces--it's such fun. The closest match is probably this Donna Rico silk jersey dress ($128), although I think mine is much prettier. However, I prefer to compare myself to these babies. Unfortunately, Spring/Summer clothes are already gone from my snoop shopping websites so I have to compare to Fall looks. The Peter Pilotto dress has sleeves and some ruching along one side; these features cost an extra $1781.

Saks.com - Emilio Pucci - Ruched Silk Jersey Dress Admittedly, your extra $2081 will buy you much more from Pucci. I love the allover ruching on this with the wandering external tucks, which create slimming lines. So I can't *really* compare my dress with this one. Not quite ready to pay the price tag for it, though.

Totally love this dress. It's trendy, luxe, and yet still me (I am usually neither of those things). The pattern was the perfect find. You can see how the vines wrap over the shoulder (pardon the hunchbackedness of the shot; my photographer decided to get cute and do "candids"). I did not even glance at it in the magazine, so a huge thank you to AllisonC for bringing it to my attention!

Vine Wrapover CloseupNot only is it stylish, but it was super easy, other than grading it down two sizes on the new roadmap pattern pieces over one of those odious "extra pattern in pink"s. It does not present any fitting woes, though I should have taken a wedge of fabric out at the upper back, about 1 inch at center back tapering to nothing at the side seams, for a swayback adjustment. I may go back and do that at some point. You could make this in an evening, especially if you are not compelled to try on every shoe, belt, purse, and accessory you own once a garment gets to a stage where it will stay on your body in one piece. Not that I do that. (I would have worn cuter shoes for the photo shoot, but we were on our way to the party which was about a mile walk each way and I didn't want to carry a ginormous purse with extra shoes in it.)

The back on this is not bra-revealing low, but it is kind of office-inappropriate low and the dress is short, so this will be play clothes. I'm getting a little too many of these lately, gotta focus on work stuff. Luckily, my work is casual so I can still wear bright colors and prints, I just need to be mostly covered.

All photos are here and the pattern review is here.

29 comments:

Diane Drexel said...

Crazy question, but how does it look when you put it on backwards? When I saw the line drawings, I thought the back was the front since it has the detailing.

Super cool fabric for the dress.

BConky said...

Love the print. Perfect pattern to showcase it.

Anonymous said...

Perfect for the summer! I love seeing your knits.

meli88a said...

Gorgeous fabric. You really rock this dress. Nicely done.

Carolyn (Diary of a Sewing Fanatic) said...

What a great use of the fabric! I'm loving this dress on you!

Little Hunting Creek said...

WOW! What a great dress - perfect use of this fabric.

Trudy said...

Beautiful dress. Love the fabric.

Trudy
www.sewingwithtrudy.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

I just adore this dress. It looks fantastic on you. The fabric is gorgeous. LOVE it!

Unknown said...

This dress is gorgeous! Really love how you made the most of that border print fabric.

Marie-Christine said...

Too bad it's not office material, because it looks really good, and it must feel really good too :-). Surely you have another piece of silk lying around to whip out a longer one? I really love your choice of prints more and more..

Pinking shears are great, I love them. But they only work on wovens! The principle is that each little tooth-shaped dent ends up generally on the bias, which doesn't ravel, or at least ravels less. That is why you aren't supposed to pink bias clothes, you'd make the seams ravelly when they aren't.
But there's no such thing in knits, and pinking them just means you have a lot of little teeth that'll inevitably ravel, while the intact edge would have been just fine.

It's not mandatory to finish everything. Even if you live for couture, it's not always -appropriate-. Moreover, the ways of couture were set in concrete when knits basically didn't exist, or weren't worn in the daytime, when everything was done to manipulate wovens and their properties. But if you looked at one of Chanel's wool jersey pioneering samples, you'd see that she didn't do anything to finish the seams either. You've got to work with your materials..

AuntieAllyn said...

Love love LOVE it!!! I may have to give a second look at this pattern, as I never would have considered it . . . wonder if I have any knit border prints in my stash?

ValHalla said...

Wow--you could not have used that print more perfectly!

Nancy K said...

It's perfect for you! The colors make it look cool and isn't silk jersey the easiest thing to wear? Luxury and comfort all in one. Great little party dress.

Venus de Hilo said...

Fabulous dress, perfect use of that charming fabric. The Pucci version is STUNNING, too, but hey, for $14 yours wins!

Now I'm curious how it would look worn backwards, too...

Adelaide B said...

I love how you used the border print here. Very chic.

Uta said...

I love how you call your dresses - although with a belt it's not a sack at all! The fabric/print is gorgeous, and it's showcased very well in this pattern. Also, the Pucci is so pretty! You should do something like that.

Birgitte said...

Like Uta, I was intrigued by the title of your post... Sack, hmmm I wonder how the beautiful nicegirl will look in a sack... :) The way you accessorized this is just perfect and your figure was meant to be wrapped in silk jersey. Buy it whenever you can!

Loren said...

I just discovered your blog. I'm a decent seamstress and I love sewing but I can never seem to find anything that I think will look good on me.
Everything your sew just seems so flattering for you. It's a great inspiration. Just wanted to say keep it up. This dress is awesome, so is nearly everything else I've seen on your blog..

McVal said...

Love the dress and the comparison!

Rebecca said...

I am so envious of your fabric find! I love how you used the print. The dress is awesome!

Amanda S. said...

Very nice pairing of fabric and design. It's simple and chic. Very pretty!

Faye Lewis said...

Your dress is really cute, better yet - it's a knit!

AllisonC said...

Perfect match of pattern and fabric, I love it. Its interesting that your dress looks completely different to mine which makes me think I can make another one of these easy to make and wear dresses.

gwensews said...

Another winner! The print is gorgeous and what a cool looking dress for miserable hot weather.

Eugenia said...

You always make such gorgeous dresses!!! The fabric drapes perfectly for this style and the print is so pretty. For $14 it is amazing - what are you going to do with the $2,081 you have saved by not buying the Pucci :)?

Peter Lappin said...

Beautiful job with a challenging print! Love it.

Anonymous said...

Oh wow. This is a great dress. The fabric makes it, but I also really like how you accessorized it with the belt.

ELMO said...

I love the way you planned the print, it looks great.

Cennetta said...

Great little chic dress.