A solid-color version of Burda 02-2012-117

Here's another dress I've been wearing for a while now but hadn't blogged about.

Ever since I made my color-blocked version of the wonderfully geometric Burda 02-2012-117 I've wanted to make one in a solid color. Catherine Daze's version in particular looked wonderful in that daaaark shade of blue.

So I bought a heavy, super dark navy ponte knit and set about chasing my visions of solid sophistication.

What do you think?

If you thought "OMG, that is too much undifferentiated darkness!" I have to say I agree with you. :-)

I really must laugh at how I am constantly improving my sewing skills, constantly getting better at this or that technique, and still I find a way to make new mistakes! LOL!

In this case, the mistake was my deciding to topstitch all the seams. I usually love the definition that topstitching brings which is why I thought it would be a great idea for this dress. And if I may say so myself I did a pretty good job keeping this topstitching straight. But what I didn't expect is that in ponte knit the topstitching actually makes the seams less visible instead of more.

What I've now figured out is that seams in ponte knits are quite visible because the fabric doesn't lay perfectly flat. The shadows that are thus created are what make the seams so apparent. But of course, what the topstitching does is flatten the seams hence making them less visible. Why didn't I figure that out first? Oh, well!

As you can see, I added long sleeves so that I could wear it in winter. I used the sleeves from my TNT t-shirt pattern (which I will blog about one of these days) and modified the dress's armholes to fit the sleeves.

I still love the dress, I have to say. It is incredibly comfortable and in real life the seams are not really that invisible, really! :-) It's been in constant rotation as part of my work wardrobe.

Plus, I've figured out that it is the perfect background for my so-ugly-it-is-beautiful-again bat pin.

Well, what do you think?

Don't worry, you don't have to answer that one. LOL! :-)

My Galaxy dress!

Celebrities (and me!) in Roland Mouret's Galaxy dress. Original photo from Diamonds and Lions blog

Roland Mouret's Galaxy dress has got to be one of the most famous dresses in the world. Obviously I couldn't let Dita and Cameron and the rest of the girls have all the fun, so I had to have my own Galaxy, even if I am 6 years late to the party!

Mine of course is made using pattern Vogue 8280. I made view A and added 3/4 sleeves, and from what I can now see in these photos I didn't do a very good job, hmmm.... I wonder what causes all those wrinkles on the sleeves? Did I have the sleeve on twisted for the photo? I'll have to investigate...

Vogue 8280 technical drawing, courtesy of Vogue Patterns.

Anyho... I do like my Galaxy dress and have worn it many times to work already, but there are two things that I must definitely change for v 2.0. First, is that I feel a bit too sexy with such an open neckline at work. So I think in the next version I will try to bring up the horizontal piece by 2-3cm. Or maybe I'll try the version with the sweetheart neckline.

The second thing I would change is something that many of the reviews on Pattern Review already pointed out: the side flange pieces are a bit too large and stand away from the body. I should have made the alteration that Pattern Review member Cristinagf describes in her Galaxy dress review. Instead as usual I forgot to read any reviews until after I was done with my sewing. My solution for the too large flanges was to ease some of the additional length at the bottom where they join the front bodice piece. Well, that worked to keep the flanges close to the body, but it also brings the bodice up a bit. That distorts the front skirt by bringing the hemline up a bit on the front compared to the back. You can see this on the side view, middle photo above. Not a good solution!

But I would say these two things are somewhat minor. I am quite happy with my Galaxy dress and I do wear it often. It looks stylish and because I made it with a pin stripe wool it brings just the amount of serious business for the office. Perfect combination if you ask me. :-)

I usually finish my posts with a link to the pattern review, but there are enough reviews of this pattern at Pattern Review, so I got lazy and decided to skip it this time...