Dresses! Dresses! Dresses!

I had this burda pattern for a while now but I have been looking for the right time and the right fabric to make it... I was in the mood for it a few weeks ago and i started cutting! Its a Burda magazine issue 5/08 pattern 114. The dress is made of so many layers of fine chiffon... They have used a printed layer first, then backed it with plain chiffon, and added the lining and interfacing (were needed). The top part is gathered across and the skirt is very flawy...

I had a lot of plain pink chiffon lying around so I made the dress in plain chiffon only...  I bought matching pink lining to back the chiffon pieces and added some satin for lining the bodice of the dress. The original pattern used ordinary lining, but I decided to go with some lovely pink satin.

Lots and lots and lots of cutting first!

Then I had to baste around a few pieces and treat them as one... just to dive more body to the chiffon and to help it hold the gathers a bit better...

Lots of gathering and hand stitching!!! Lots and lots of it! Every part of the top is made 4 layers of fabric, one gathered chiffon layer, one flat chiffon layer, one lining and one iron on interfacing.... after sewing the top completely will also need to finish it off with a satin layer! Upeeeeeee!

This is the top front part all gathered up!

Back top bodice all gathered:

Since my top chiffon layer was plain, I decided to add some beads to follow the gathered front... Yep! more hand stitching!

Back view with an invisible zipper:

Overall I am very pleased with the result! There was lots of cutting and hand stitching involved in this dress so it did take a long time to finish (with 2 kids running around, things only got slower) but its done now and I can tick that pattern off my list!

I had done another pattern from Burda with lots of gathers years ago, and that really encouraged me to go for the new pink dress... It is worth posting here, Burda 7919 in plain and embroidered taffeta:

The pattern is made of two separate pieces, the top part is gathered and do need a bit of hand stitching to hold in place but it was way less than my recent pink dress, partly because taffeta is much much easier to work with than the crinkled chiffon... 

The other great thing about this dress is that since its made out of two pieces it can be used as a top only on a pair of pants in less formal occasions.... I absolutely love this dress and highly recommend it!!!