Sewn: Burda 9/2020 #102 Pleated Shirt Dress

I thought there were quite a few potentials in the 9/2020 Burda Magazine, but my first sew was the pleated front tunic/shirt dress. In my head, I wanted to recreate a gorgeous navy linen dress that I loved (and outgrew) from Monsoon. I ordered some navy brushed cotton from Pound a Metre because I had this whimsical fancy for something really warm and cosy for Autumn/Winter. 

However, would you class this as navy? At best it is slate grey. But, oh well, it's warm!

Well I have to say that the fabric choice was great because it actually feels like wearing your gran’s nightie (and no, I never have)! It was also super stable to sew, although it does make the pleating a little bulky.

The one thing that I worried about was pulling it over my head because that is where it all went horribly wrong with the Monsoon dress - I hate that feeling of being imprisoned in your clothes. This led me to making a size 42 which is too large.

Alterations

However, my solution was to just add a shirring panel in the back - problem solved.

The dress was ridiculously long though and the waist didn’t sit anywhere close to my waist. I removed a good 8 cm from the bottom of the front top and am much happier with the result.

The pleated top has snaps to fasten and mine are a couple of mismatched ones lurking in the button box, but no-one will ever see them.

One other change I made was to shorten the sleeves, because (ahem) I didn’t order enough fabric! Story of my life. However, the positive side to this is that not only do I prefer the sleeves this length, I also ended up with zero scraps from this sewing project, which is good. If I end up with scraps I always feel guilty at throwing them but they are never really big enough to do anything with either!

A great start to some Autumn sewing!

Love

Mrs Jones x