These are some not-very-good pictures of a dress made from my favorite Burda Modemagazin dress pattern:


I made this a while ago, right after I got the issue, I think. (I was a bit slimmer at the time that I made this dress than at the time of the photos, so it looks a little overfitted here.  But I wear it and love it anyway.)

I haven’t seen model 125 from the May 2008 issue of Burda reviewed on Pattern Review, or seen any other versions of it made up.  I can’t understand why this pattern doesn’t have a cult following.  Just look at it! Elegant, classic, but with just the right smidge of clever detailing to make it fun to sew and distinctive, but still a relatively quick and manageable project:

I know you’re all thinking the same thing right now: Why haven’t I made this dress? (Well, I’m not thinking it.  Because I HAVE ONE.) Maybe you weren’t drawn to it because when Burda made it up, they insisted on using that crinkly fabric  (yawwwwwn) that they love so much (why would you use this for a tailored style with ruching??) and letting the model swim in the upper part of the bodice:

That photo nearly threw me off too.  But thank goodness for line drawings!

My version is made of some $1.79 bargain table fabric that feels like cotton poplin, but was probably too cheap to be 100% cotton.  It’s deep olive green and has an interesting cobalt or navy blue sheen to it from certain angles, I think because some of the warp threads are a slightly shiny blue.   The dress is fully lined, and it has a mock wrap front.  The skirt is actually a regular pencil-type skirt with an extra flap over the front to give the wrap look. The bodice has princess seams and a waist seam in the front but not the back.

I love the style lines and the slim silhouette of this dress so much. Look carefully- it almost gives the impression that I have a waist rather than being shaped like a slightly flattened cardboard tube from the center of a roll of toilet paper! I also used the lining pattern from this dress as a block when drafting my Audrey Hepburn-style little black dress and I suspect I’ll use it again for future variations.  

Why are you still reading this?  Shouldn’t you be hunting eBay or your giant Sterlite container of Burda back issues in desperate search for this pattern? GO NOW.