Finished Vintage Day Dress, Burda 01/15 126

My first vintage pattern. This was reproduced in last months Burda Style, but unfortunately didn't make it to their website. Here it is in the magazine:

The recommended fabrics are silk chiffon and pongee for lining. I used cotton voile for lining and polyester chiffon like fabric for the shell which are both a bit heavier but I think it worked equally well. Here is the line art:

The skirt is a full circle skirt and as drafted came to my ankles so if shortened before cutting this could be made in a lot less than the 3.1-3.2 metres suggested.

I did an FBA which was tricky as I didn't want to add a side dart as there was already a lot shaping the seam attaching the front yoke to the front. I did it in two stages, first adding width:

I cut as shown,

then moved the right side section along, overlapping the left so it laid flat. I redrew the dart, but should have left it to the end as I did it again then any way. Then I attempted to add some length. I spread the pattern in half horizontally keeping the side seam intact.

I needed to keep the centre front straight so I slashed up through the dart again and moved the bottom right piece up and in. My dart is now taking up all the excess. A bit improvisational but it worked! I laid the back over the front to check the side seams. Although I didn't alter the side seam the back was longer so I added to the bottom of the front to match.

There is a lot of nice neck shaping in this pattern but I couldn't get it to fit me nicely, it needs to be a really close fit in the back of the neck to work as it is supposed to hug the back of the neck. Perhaps it is just the shape of my neck and shoulders but I had to cut it much straighter as the fabric was drooping down not sitting on my neck as intended.

The instructions were hard to follow, no diagrams at all. I'm not sure if they were reproduced exactly from the original from the 50's, if not they certainly didn't add much. One tricky point was when stitching the front yokes to the front the front is supposed to extend past the edge of the yoke but there is no direction for how far. This is to create a small underarm seam. I copied the shape on the back piece and used that as a point to start stitching.

Easy Peasy!