Burda Cover Dress Reveal!

I am totally diggin' this dress. And not just because it's orange.

First off, it was remarkably easy to sew and fit for a dress with so many seams but not any side seams. So, kudos to Burda for a complicated-looking dress that came together more easily than expected. Also, the style and fit of this dress are pretty great, IMHO. The strong shoulders help balance my figure out and all the seaming really flatters curves. Also, as a few other sewistas have noticed, this dress has mystical bum-flattering properties. At least Phin seemed to agree. LOL

I did make a few alterations to this dress. It originally was a petite pattern, so I had to lengthen it. In addition, I altered the back shoulder piece. The area between my shoulder blades must be narrower than normal.  I don't usually need to adjust the arm/shoulder joint area, but am often left with extra fabric gaping at the nape and upper back. If there is a center back seam, I can adjust there, but when there isn't, I've found that the method that I used with my seersucker dress - namely make a dart, press it well and then use the darted piece as a pattern to recut the piece in question - works shockingly well. That's what I did in this case.

There are one or two things that I'd do a little differently if I was to make a second version, but they are picky things at best. First, the collar does not seem to want to lie perfectly flat and it is slightly larger than I would like. So, I'd tinker there a bit. Next, the directions for the sleeve/arm band were not at all clear to me. So, I kinda winged it and I'm sure I got it wrong. It looks fine from the outside, but I will not be showing the messy inside to anyone else who sews. Ever.

 

And lastly, I'm rather displeased at how visible the hem is. I was very careful ironing just the edge to avoid any kind of crease or show-thru, and then I hand sewed it with a catchstitch. But it didn't come out invisible! So, I'm wondering if I should just go back and use my double needle to make it look deliberately more visible. It is a knit after all. (Any suggestions are welcome.)

When I wrote my review over at PatternReview, I commented that there really is only room for one of these dresses in a wardrobe. But I'm actually feeling very tempted to make another. I'm kind of kicking myself now that I didn't think to use some color blocking for this dress. Wouldn't it be fantastic done up in a few bold colors? I feel like this dress definitely would outshine any of Burda's current offerings of color block-appropriate patterns. What do you think?