La petite robe noire

Who said you need one Little Black Dress in your closet when you can have two?

The famous Burda dress! As soon as I saw it on the August issue, I knew I wanted to make it. It’s a lot more mature and sophisticated that what I am used to wear on a daily basis, but the picture on the magazine was so beautiful I could not resist.

The fit was great, I just had to taper down the hips a little bit, take the bodice in a couple of centimeters and shorten the bodice; the usual. I followed the Sewalong Sonia did on her blog (La pequeña Aprendiz) with some delay but it was great to read what she and all the other seamstresses did beforehand.

Obviously, at the beginning, I wanted to find some jacquard fabric similar to the one used by Burda, something metalic in black, silver or gold. But it was impossible or way too expensive. Then, I found this black fabric with great relief, I am not sure what it is but it looks like a very heavy cotton piqué. The dress is fully lined in grey lining fabric and I did a lot of hand-sewing to overcast all the seamed inside in order to reduce the bulk to a minimum. Because of its texture, the fabric felt quite dressy and I decided to go with it and add some pearls and sequins on the shoulders, as the original model.

I found the appliqués already made and hand-sewn them on the shoulders pieces. I guess I could easily take them off if I ever get bored. But for the moment, it’s a great party dress! I wore it during this week while in Paris and I have to admit it’s the best scenery for such a dress, very Parisienne…

The beautiful original: dress nº 120, Burda Magazine from August 2012.

I am now ready to start sewing some autumn-winter clothes: a coat or two, some skirts, some dresses to wear with cardigans and tights, a jacket, some blouses… So many things! If only the weather would behave appropriately and just get a little bit colder…