Hello all! My name is Anna and you find me on our family sewing blog PeterSilie&Co (IG: @petersilieundco). I am really bad with sewing plans and sticking to time tables. But when the theme month came up last year, I decided to participate, and I therefore have to deliver something. I said “I will probably sew a hoodie-sweater-dress with this amazing fabric I have in my stash”… But 3 months is a long time to change plans. And I got fed up with sweater fabrics, because of two similar projects before. So today, there is no striped sweater-dress. Instead, I have (just for you) finally finished an UFO.
It all started in (I think) July of last year. I had just seen the preview of the latest issue of burdastyle and there was this dress: fun, cute back detail, maybe a bit short and “American shoulders” in the German version — whatever these are called in English. I was just so in love that my boyfriend had to make a bit of a detour, so I could pick up the magazine right at that moment. It was a Sunday, ~19:50, the only place open was at the train station, closing at 20:00.
The beginning was really quick: tracing cutting, sewing… Even the direction of the stripes was decided really fast. The biggest issue was the order of when to sew what. A typical burda problem. I had to hand sew the inside of the shoulder seam and I am 100% sure that there is an easier and neater option for getting the facing in — maybe the burrito method?!
Fitting was quite funny. According to the measuring table, I needed a bigger size for my bottom than for my bust area. I decided to use the smaller one, to get a good fit on the top part and added a seam allowance of 1.5 cm for any adjustments needed. Fitting was done by my mom via Skype and the help of my boyfriend, who never ever used a pin before. He held the pins as if they were poisonous. So he got a short sewing lesson in how to operate a pin and fit a dress. We had a good laugh about it and most importantly we got the job done.
The only thing that I did not have at home at the time was the zipper. In the original project (see here as reference) it had a metallic one on the back. The next shopping trip showed how hard it could be to get a nice metallic zipper. So I decided on a invisible one. Since this was my first ever invisible zipper, I bought a special foot for my old Bernina lady, read a lot of tutorials and phoned my sister quite a few times, and then basted it in wrong (like a normal zipper…)! Motivation was gone.
Anyway, this put a sudden break into my otherwise quite fast sewing project. At the time I actually already started writing a blog post, because I thought: “This will be the first time that I get something ready, while the magazine is still available in the shops.” A goal of mine since the beginning of blogging, and it had never happened until now. Since than I deleted the post, brought the dress home to my mom, left it there with the zipper, and went home quite happily without the dress and more or less forgot about it.
During my Christmas holidays I got the idea of using the dress for this blog post, because I was quite fed up with sewing sweaterknit fabric. My sister helped a lot by sewing in the invisible zipper (thank you!), and I used white bias tape from my mom’s stash for the hem. And then there was only one problem remaining: how to photograph a super cute, but very short, summer dress in winter. We postponed it from weekend to weekend, but than we just got it done. It was cold, we had a little mishap with a showing facing and fought a bit with reflective windows. But the photos turned out really well in my opinion.
By the way, I finally cut into the striped sweater fabric and it was really great to sew with!
Happy stripe sewing,
Anna
Beautiful! I love it!
Thank you. I am really happy with it
Your dress is absolutely lovely and looks great on you! No wonder you fell in love with the pattern. The cut you are referring to is called “racer back” in the US, although this is a very unique version.
Thanks! I found the description interesting, especially since the English version did not include it.
Anna
What a gorgeous dress and the back detail is really unusual. It is lovely and well worth all the effort. Xx
Thank you! The back was one of the reasons, why I fell in love with it. I adore interesting back details…
Anna
Lovely work! Those bold stripes are perfect for the dress.
Thanks! The stripes gave the dress a totally different style. My association is yachtclub and a martini. =)
Super-cute! I really like the directional play with the stripes.
Thank you! I just had to. (Although the zipper was all the harder to put in, due to the necessary stripe matching…)
What a fantastic dress! Great choices with the stripes and the design and fabric are great. Glad you finished it.
I am super excited about it! Making photos was the first time I wore high heels with the dress and got the overall impact. Shoes make such a difference…
Anna
The stripes are so amazingly matched! And I have to say, the zipper looks perfect!!! You look lovely in it, thank you for sharing! 🙂
Thank you. The zipper is really my sisters work. I just nervously jumped around her and was not really helping (at all).
But you were there! And that counts for something!!! 🙂 You will get it someday!!! We all are at different stages with our sewing skills, so no worries!
I am not avoiding them, but also do not seak zipper projects out… but i am at least thinking about a backpack (with zipper) 😉😎
I banished her to the next room so that I could sew in peace and follow my stripes perfektionimus.
Anna was all the time: like sew it sew it sew it, I need the dress, with a zipper.
But I allowed here to sew the final seam with small stitches, after getting the zipper in with big stitches and matching the stripes.
I love this! Looks gorgeous! Yes, burda instructions….. Ugh!
Thank you! I managed, but sometomes they could have been a lot clearer.
Glad you finished the dress in the end. 😊 it looks gorgeous! Love the cut in the back -and the red shoes with this dress.
Thanks! I am really glad I did. Wanted to completely toss it at one point… 😉
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