Burda Front Knot Dress - 3/2012 108b

I have been a bit quite on the blog front for a while, but i am not the only one. Its been quite in blog land for a while, i assume that this is because it is summer and we all have better things to do than to sew, knit, and then blog about it.

For me i have been on holiday, then to London twice; once for tennis at Wimbledon and another to catch up with a friend from my travels. And i have two weeks of holiday coming in a few weeks time, so i shall be off again then as well. 

Wow, this must be my most showy offy pose of all time.

Yesterday i finished the Knot Front Dress pattern 108b from the March addition of Burda Magazine. I was so excited to finish something,  i jumped up and took some photos in the fading light of my flat. So sorry about the quality it was so dark, i might try to take some better photos next time i wear this dress. (p.s. I have now taken better photo's).

Sewing this dress took longer than i thought. I had been reading all the reviews from other bloggers and sewers on-line and they nearly all mentioned how easy this was to put together and sewing it in just a few hours. So i went into this with a slight underestimate of how long it was going to take me. I started tracing it a few weeks ago and it has taking me a week of evenings and a Saturday to actually finish. 

I cut a size 80 tall or size 14UK. I did not make any adjustments as usually i need to lengthen the bodice as i have a really long body even though i am only 5'5". The length of the skirt came out a bit strange as the front panels were 5" shorter than the back panel. I must have made a mistake tracing the pattern but as of yet i have not gone back and evaluated what went wrong. So i ended up with a slightly shorter skirt than expected. 

Their was a lot of basting involved in the process of piecing this together and i was never quit sure when i should be removing the bastes. I made the mistake of removing the baste along the bottom of one of the knot pieces as i was making the knot. I now realise that the instructions don't tell you to remove this because it should stay, else the lining piece wont stay put.  So i spent a good hour restitching the lining back on. I therefore recommend that if you are reading this post with a view to making it, that you make this baste in a matching thread, or if you know a better way please let me know as i plan on making another. 

As i don't like my clothes not having pockets i added an inseam pocket to the right side, i would have added one to the left as well but the zipper was in the way. Next time i make this i might add a shorter zipper so i can get a second pocket.

Just a note. this dress looks so similar to two already on the Burdastyle website by lazylinchen and tsedai. I did not copy their fabric choice i swear. But we three do have great dresses.