I first made this dress here, in a jungle themed fabric. I loved the fit and style of the dress and decided to replicate it however creating a different look. The dress is from the Burda World of Fashion magazine, edition 11/2008. I made dress 111, a fitted sheath dress with a wide jewel neckline and waist seam.
My fabric is a printed cotton sateen #10 in a latice multicolour 127cm wide (97% cotton/3% spandex) and I left the dress unlined. I feel that’s a bit of a sin sometimes but please forgive me, I am currently living in a very hot and humid climate and am all for minimal layers. I figured I can always wear a slip if need be.
Construction wise everything went together trouble free as mentioned with the first version but I should have realised that the stretch in the sateen made the fit a little loose in this version. I’ll see how I go but might end up taking in the side seams a smidge. I also removed about 2 inches from the centre upper back as per my usual alteration. This time around though I shortened the bodice by 1 inch and lengthened the skirt by 1 inch.
I wanted to make this dress a little more edgy so sewed on a 70 cm metal zipper from my stash for this version. Not sure how to tackle this I did lots of research on the web and kind of made up my own instructions. I interfaced the dress edge where the zipper was to be inserted, turned the fabric towards the inside and sewed on the zip. I was mostly concerned the zip would be hard and scratchy upon wearing because I didn’t but an inside protective flap but so far it hasn’t been an issue. I also tried to pattern match at the waistline and the back seam as to not disrupt the flow of the lattice pattern, which I am quite happy with.
I had white serger thread already in the machine and didn’t bother changing it as you can see. For the hem I serged, turned and handstitched. For the neckline I used the included facing and for the armholes I bound them with bought black binding and topstitched both neckline and arnholes.
My only issue this time around is because the fabric is a little more stiff, the flared, slightly a-line shape is more obvious and I would prefer it straighter so might make that adjustment too. I have taken some “before” and “after” photos below where I’m holding the skirt tighter at the back. What do you think? Also the poofy pleats at the front weren’t as obvious I think again the weight of the fabric made a difference, although the pleats aren’t obvious at all full stop because of the nature of the busy fabric.
tinkerandstitcher 