My lovely and talented friend Peiyi took loads of beautiful pictures while we were in Budapest. Of course I had to ask her whether she’d do a photoshoot with me for one of my sewing projects! The pictures turned out beautiful – thank you so much, dear, for taking the time to help me out! Also, the first time I went outside to get my photos taken went so well I felt encouraged to do it again! This is in the inner court yard of one of the university buildings in Heidelberg. The tower behind me houses the history faculty, actually. It’s called the witch tower and dates back to the Middle Ages.
This is the second fabric I bought in Budapest. Usually I take much longer to get around to a project, but a fabric with autumn leaves on them naturally had to be used up before the end of autumn. I knew pretty much from the start that I wanted to use this pattern, but I’m also a complete idiot and forgot that as a patchwork fabric, it did not, in fact, have enough yardage for the very wide skirt pattern. The longer I’ve been sewing, the more I’ve been feeling that improvisational talent is the skill you need to develop most to succeed. I cut out the top as intended, but dug up a basic skirt pattern from my stash. Then, with a little help from my mom (patience and accuracy isn’t my strong suit), I made three box pleats in the front and two in the back to mimic my original plan.
As a sidenote, Burda’s sizing is whack! According to my measurements I’d have had to cut size 42, but since that just felt wrong (size 38, okay, makes sense, but 42? Come on!) I chose to make size 36. It fits perfectly – sometimes you just have to follow your instincts. After these initial difficulties, sewing up this dress was a breeze. I had to shorten the hemline by 4cm and cut off a couple of centimetres of the sleeves, but otherwise not even setting in the sleeves posed any problems. I’m very pleased with this dress. It’s my first dress with long sleeves for colder temperatures! Basically I want to wear it all the time.
As you can see, it was very windy that day and I had to be careful not to flash the entire court yard. (Especially since one of my profs taught in a room adjacent to the yard! That would’ve been awkward.) Next to us, people cleaned out furniture for garbage removal and a remarkable number of old men hurried by for some reason. Then a group of Asian tourists came by to look at the tower. Basically your typical day in Heidelberg. I’m also wearing my new grey hat because it was cold and that way at least my ears were warm!
12 responses to “Falling Leaves Dress”
What a lovely Autumn patterened fabric, it’s good you didn’t wait too long with using it for a dress! *^v^* I also love your boots!
Thank you! It fits the season perfectly. 🙂 (The boots are my favourite, but unfortunately they’ve seen better times. They’re suede boots and I’m rubbish at looking after them.)
Love the dress! And what a clever modification for the skirt. Pretty adorable hat as well 😉 (I think we know who wrote that pattern)
Thank you! I’m actually pretty pleased with myself that I managed to get the look I pictured in my head despite all those stumbling blocks… 😀 (Heh, I wear the hat pretty constantly right now. Awesome pattern.)
Oh this turned out beautiful! You couldn’t have used the fabric in a better way :D! (ps: is your foot alright again?)
Thank you! 🙂 The foot is much better by now even though it still hurts once in a while.
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