Zebra Shirt Dress (Burda Style Magazine 112 03/2016)

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As those with a more discerning eye may be able to notice, here we have another round of playing catch-up with my unblogged, yet photographed, makes of last year. For those with a less discerning eye, I will subtly draw your attention towards the varying carpet colours and, let's face it, likely some varying degrees of youthfulness in my face. And on that note, let's get on with the blog!

This zebra print crepe was something I was most generously given back in winter 2018 as part of a customer of the month bundle from the aptly named Cheap Fabrics (read all about that here), and right from the get-go I'd been thinking of making it into a shirt. I had toyed with the idea of doing something more out there, but well, as you can see, that didn't happen. I often find it's a difficult line to tread, between the things the designer in me wants to make, and the things the person who exists in the real world will actually be able to wear. In this case, I decided to go for what was most likely to be wearable time and time again, rather than yet another cocktail dress I'll only get to wear on a couple of occasions. Having said that, cocktail dresses still certainly get more than their fair share of attention from my sewing machine as my recently blog posts can likely attest to.

Anyway, back to this make. Versatility being the name of the game these days, I decided to make this a shirt dress rather than a shirt, so that it is technically 2 items in one. Though it would be too long to tuck into a mini skirt without hanging out the other end rather strangely, it does work to tie the ends together at the waist, and I could probably wrangle it into a pair of trousers without it looking lumpy and weird, too. The pattern I went for was 112B (with the pussy bow neck of 110) from Burda Style magazine, March 2016, a shirt dress with side slits and covered placket.

I do often find Burda magazine patterns quite confusing to follow. Luckily, this one didn't have too many pieces, and I've made enough shirts before to kind of know what I'm doing with the buttonholes etc without following the instructions, so all was good here. I believe this pattern was meant to be oversized anyway, so it's hard to say how accurate the fit was. Though I guess it shows the pattern doesn't run small, since it certainly is pretty baggy on me without the assistance of a belt.

As a slight aside, now it's time for spot the difference! There'll be a prize for whoever guesses correctly how long there was between these two lots of photos. Wait - in case anybody actually does guess it - there is no prize, that was a lie. But for those interested, the trousers I'm wearing are also from a Burda Magazine pattern, and the post on them can be found here.

Anyway, back to the actual blogging, it was during the making of this dress that all buttonhole settings on my sewing machine decided to stop working, so I was very grateful for the concealed buttonholes in this design, as these were not my finest work. I've now gotten myself used to handsewing buttonholes (yes, I know I could just have my machine fixed), but at the time, I opted for a tight zigzag stitch, which did work, but was in no way shape or form neat.

Buttonholes aside, I'm actually really happy with this one. It's great for a bit of low-maintenance pazazz, and the fabric doesn't crease, which gives it extra brownie points for trips away. And it's animal print, and there's something inside me that will never be able to resist animal print.

Until next time!