More flowers and v-shaped back necklines: Burdastyle summer dress

I mentioned in my last post about the Rifle Paper Co. dress that it wasn’t the first time I have made this bodice. So here it is, along with the original panelled skirt, made from a lovely printed cotton from my local fabric shop Nanitce.

The pattern is from this year’s April issue of Burda, and I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. The patterns in the magazine can be a bit of a hit or miss sometimes, but this one is definitely worth putting your Sherlock Holmes hat on and finding the correct pattern pieces amidst the mess of intersecting lines on the patternsheet. The dress comes in two variations – one with the adjustable tie straps and a panelled skirt and another with thicker fixed straps and a pencil skirt. You can combine them, as well. For this version, I used the thicker straps and the panelled skirt, while for the Rifle Paper Co. I tried out the tie straps with a different skirt altogether.

I knew I would probably need to make several adjustments to the bodice, as Burda patterns usually don’t fit me all that well straight away, so I was a good girl and made a toile. The back was gaping quite badly, so I slashed horizontally across the back and overlapped at the neckline edge, as you can hopefully see from the picture. I took about 3cm out either side. I also did a swayback adjustment and reshaped the princess seams to reduce gaping at the underarm (you can see the original shape in the picture). In hindsight, I probably should have gone down a size and made and FBA, but it might not have been enough. Besides, this seems to have worked fine too.

The skirt is made up of 8 panels and came together easily, creating a lovely full shape, without taking up much fabric. I used less than two meters for the whole dress, so it’s a great option for the smaller cuts of pretty fabric you have in your stash.

I have been wearing it often throughout the summer and will definitely give it another whirl in the coming days that seem to be the last days of warm weather.