Inspiration Strikes Again - Burda Style 6322 Dress

Good evening everyone,

I hope everyone is enjoying this lovely weekend.  It has been sunny and the air is crisp.  I love this time of year.  

Yesterday afternoon I was finally able to get some photos of me wearing my first dress of the fall season.  It's becoming more and more difficult these days to get photos of me wearing my newly sewn garments.  My daughter is my photographer, and our schedules don't always allow for photo shoots.  I'm lucky when our schedules do.

I love my new pony print dress.  Early summer, I saw this photo of Vivica A. Fox on Instagram wearing a cute little dress.   Her outfit inspired me to make this dress.  Of course, Ms. Fox's dress is a whole lot sexier than my version.  Lol.  So, let me start with my review of the process of constructing my inspiration dress.

Pattern Description:  Burda's description is just as poor as their instructions at times. Lol.  So, I'll give my little two cents of a description.  A shift dress with cut-on sleeves (long or short).  It has a high scoop neck.  The dress has a center back seam with invisible zipper.  View A has a slit and belt.  This pattern is rated super easy. 

Pattern Sizing:  8 to 18.  I used 16 with modifications.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? The silhouette looked like the dress.  I did make several changes so that it looked more like the inspiration dress.

Were the instructions easy to follow?  This pattern is exactly as stated, "super easy."  And the instructions were easy to follow.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? I have several likes and only one dislike.  First the likes.

 Likes -

• The silhouette was perfect for the inspiration dress.  
• The dress pattern was only five pattern pieces and a quick sew.
• The pattern is versatile.  Once I finished my dress, I started dreaming about other projects and uses for the patter.  I plan to make a tunic and top.  
• All the design changes that I added to make this dress special.

Dislikes -

• The scoop neck is a little too wide for me.  I will adjust it for the next project.

Fabric Used:  This year I purchased a lot of fabric from Hobby Lobby.  They have a 40% off sale nearly every other week.  Anyway, My fabric is a polyester pony print fabric that has the hand of faux suede.  I pre-washed and dried it before I cut out my dress.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:  Here's is where the review gets lengthy.  I made several changes.  But here again, I didn't make a FBA, swayback, or broad shoulder adjustment.  Below is what I did change:

 

• Center Front Seam - The easiest change was to add the center front seam.  All was needed was to add seam allowance instead of cutting on the fold.

• Re-Draft Front Facing - The front facing was extended and also has a center front seam.  After I tried the dress on with the belt, I realized that the front facing was just a little too long.  This is easily corrected.
• Eyelets were added to the front of the dress to copy the design of the inspiration dress.
• Drawstring was added to the front of the dress.

Application Process - Eyelets

Every time I add buttonholes, eyelets, snaps, etc., to any finished garment, my hands get a little sweaty. Lol  I get nervous.  I’m scared of ruining the entire project.  So I must do a test before I do anything.

1.     Test applying an eyelet on a piece of scrap fabric.

2.     Measure the length of the area where the eyelets will be applied.  Determine the distance between each eyelet based on the length and number of eyelets to be applied.

3.     Mark the placement for each on both sides.

4.     Punch the holes.

5.     Carefully, install each eyelet as directed.

6.     All done.

 

Dress Belted

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?  Yes and yes.  I will sew this pattern again.  This is a good pattern for beginners as well as other level sewists.

Conclusion: I'm really happy with how my dress turned out.  Though it isn't exactly like the inspiration dress, it is how I envisioned it for my life style.  The dress was very easy to sew and I got exactly what I wanted out of this project.

 

Happy Sewing!

C