The finished fourties-style blue Burda dress!

Fabric: cotton
Pattern: Burda magazine 10/2011 #125 'Little black dress with lace inset'
Time to complete: well, quite a few hours (again), mainly due to the seam finishing with bias band.
I wanted a vintage style dress with an inset and I fell in love with this pattern the moment I saw it! It is a petite dress, so I took size 17 (which is an equivalent of size 36) And again, it is a size smaller than my measurements. Since I'm short waisted I just lengthened the bodice by 1 cm. I didn't think the straight skirt of the original dress would look good on my figure so I adjusted the skirt pattern to make an A-line skirt of it. Here is how I did it.
The fabric I choose has a pretty, matte, satiny shine but ravels like crazy, so I finished the seams with bias tape. Unfortunately the shop ran out of the pale pink one so I had to do the skirt with a dark blue tape.
Instead of a lace inset I used the main fabric and added a few buttons.
The fit is great, it is fitted enough to look beautiful but there is enough room for me to comfortably sit in it.

The finished Ceylon dress!

Fabric: linen-cotton mix
Pattern: Colette patterns Ceylon dress
Time to complete: well, quite a few hours, mainly due to making the fabric covered buttons, the bound buttonholes and the seam finishing.

I love the vintage feel of this dress!
It goes together really easy, even if there are quite a few pattern pieces. I've cut size 2. The fit is great, the dropped waist is really flattering. I shortened the hem by 2.5 cm and finished it with lace and added an invisible zipper to the side seam.

The 'Rainy summer' dress

Well, the sun is back for a while so here are a few new pics.
And a review
Fabric: Gingham-style cotton
Pattern: Sewaholic Lonsdale dress
Time to complete: about 2x5 hours, mainly because of matching the fabric. For the same reason cutting the pieces took almost as long as sewing the dress...

The Lonsdale is my favorite summer 2011 pattern!
It goes together really easy, there are just a few pattern pieces. The fit is great, partly adjustable with the strapes. My bodice is made up from two sizes, size 6 at the waist and 8 around the bust and it fits just perfect! Adjusting the pattern pieces is easy as well. I really love the flared skirt on this dress!
What I did differently: I used an invisible zipper on my dress instead of a regular one and to save on my fabric I used a different fabric for lining the bodice pieces.

'Butterfly garden' Lonsdale dress finished!

Looking at Sew Weekly all the dresses have names, so I decided to call this one the Butterfly garden dress!



There are some lovely details on this dress: