BurdaStyle 6/12 146 Girls Dress

A patten from Burdastyle.com / Burda magazine for a girls dress in Euro sizes 104-128. Link here.

This dress is designed to be sewn with two lightweight coordinating fabrics, one for the main body of the dress and one for contrasting placket and hem band. In the magazine it is presented as a summer dress, shown as part of a beach collection.

I sewed sz 104 for my newly-four-year old in one mid-weight brushed poly something or other, all in one fabric. I lengthened the sleeves (from 3/4 to full length) and finished them with elastic (so they are gathered as per the design at the sleeve cap and at the wrist). I also added two little patch pockets.

I found the instructions for the placket (the only truly complicated part of the dress) impossible to work from. I am sure the inner placket is supposed to conceal the inner raw edges, but I could not for the life of me make this work. The placket is in two sections, so at some point there is going to be a break where the raw edge of the dress front will be exposed, even if it's just a teeny weeny amount.

In the end, where the instructions say to stitch the inner insert [placket] pieces to inside of front, I stitched them to the outside of the front of the dress, so any fiddly raw edges could be turned to the inside of the dress. I then used a strip of bias tape to bind the lower raw edges of the placket.

Other changes I made (aka deviation from the instructions!): I used a length of top-stitched bias tape for the button loops, finished the back neckline before I sewed the shoulder seams, and sewed the sleeves to the body of the garment before stitching the side seams (in my experience, Burda patterns always want you to sew set-in sleeves, but in my experience this is not so often necessary).

I liked the idea of this dress more in my head than on the hanger. Hopefully I like it on my daughter more (and hopefully she likes it!). I might maybe possibly make this dress again if we like the style when worn. I wouldn't recommend trying it without getting a clear picture in your head of how you will finish the placket.

In my frustration at not being able to finish the placket, google led me to this lone blog review/SNS. She says "Once you finish the bib, it goes easy." That's like the understatement of the year!

SNS link.