Burda 9545

What do you do when your daughter prefers to dress like a Vegas show girl and you prefer to dress her like J.Crew? For several years I’ve been making my daughter beautifully simple dresses in linen and cotton with little embellishments other than some embroidery. And for years she has been avoiding these dresses on Sunday morning (most of the time) in favor of anything that has sequins, glitter, ruffles, etc. I’d buy her a dress here and there at Costco that fit her criteria and sadly those are her favorites.

I decided to finally compromise. And this pattern was the one to do it.

I used an Amy Butler cotton print and dressed it up to Hallie’s liking with a taffeta slip and sash. The taffeta/toole even has glitter sequins on it. She picked out the turquoise taffeta at the fabric store. The dress pattern calls for the toole/taffeta to be sewn onto the hem of the dress. I wish I had done it that way as the slip I made her just won’t stay in place. You can see the uneven-ness of the slip at her hem. Grrrr. I’ll either sew it to the dress at the waistband or accidentally throw it away. Kidding!

I love Burda patterns—they have that simple European cut, with true sizing,  and have easy directions. I love to sew with European patterns like Onion and Burda. Simple classics.

I sewed the belt to the dress as I think having a removable belt will mean she’ll take it off and on all day in church. I see it every week in Sunday school—little girls in church chew on their dress ties and little boys use their clip on ties as whips. Lovely pious children.

I made two other changes—not pleating the hem of the sleeves—too lazy and using an invisible zipper instead of a centered one.

The dress only took about 2 hours of actual sewing, minus all the glitzy additions. I made a size 10 which is the actual size for Hallie. Most american patterns are way off on sizing but not Burda. I think I hit a home run as Hallie has been wearing that tacky  slip and saying she feels like a mermaid. Have mercy.