The Wonderland Dress!

Ah, what I wouldn't have given to have this outfit finished when it was boiling hot here in Austria... But well, it was the other way around.

The weather inspired me to make this outfit, and by the time it was finished, the heat had also vanished. But chances are I will still like it next year...

This is the Maxidress from BurdaStyle 5/2013, it can be downloaded HERE.
As other people experienced, it takes a little longer to make than one might think. My decision to make it out of this fabulous silk had nothing to do with that though...

Look at this italian silk, isn't it amazing?! And working with it was very easy!

...and if you look closely, you'll know why I've called it the wonderland dress... It's Alice and the rabbit!

The bust draping is the trickiest bit on this dress, well, along with the general fitting of it. It's worth making a muslin, and it's worth spending time on the draping and stitching it into place nicely. The latter I did, the muslin, uh, not. So it ends up being a bit of a wonder that it turned out so well anyway...

Fitting this dress on yourself is very difficult. If you have a friend who can help, it would be a lot easier! I had to shorten the straps a lot in order for the bust part to be in the right place. Ideally though, I would have had to change the whole shape of the straps slightly, too, but getting that right on myself was nearly impossible. In the pictures with me wearing the dress you can see that the straps are not exactly the right shape, because they warp just a little bit.

Another difficulty was making the under-bust-band the right width. I made it too tight at first and had to let it out in a bit of a rescue action (picture of that later in the post). But you don't want it loose either, because then you wouldn't be covered... So this pattern really takes a lot of custom fitting!

As you see, the straps are so short that they pull up the under-bust-band a little bit, but in the end, I feel covered safely even without wearing a bra, and that was pretty much my goal. These pictures can't show how amazing it feels to wear this dress - it's so light and flowy, simply fabulous!

And here is my rescue action! I had to put in extra fabric, which I did at the side zip, where it is hidden quite well and unobtrusive. I also tried to make it look "on purpose" as much as I could...

I also made the hat, the pattern is from Anna June 2009, but I used the instructions from a very similar hat in BurdaStyle 2/2010, which has a wire in the rim.

Last but not least, I also made the sandals myself, and I posted a full tutorial on this blog, to be found HERE. They are quick and easy to make and I only used materials and tools I had at home or found in a regular hardware/DIY store!

Well that's all for now. This should definitely be my last summer outfit. I need to learn to work in advance of the seasons. So I guess I'll take out those knitting needles...
Or I might just have to move to the other side of the equator...

Take care,
Katja