One of the themed nights of the Portland Dance O Rama was Bohemian.  So, since that is a style that is very in right now, I thought it would be fun to make a dress that goes with the theme.  I bought a lovely blue floral rayon woven fabric from JoAnn’s, but I also ordered a floral burnout knit from Fabric Mart.  When the burnout knit arrived, I completely fell in love with the colors and I knew it would make the perfect long, flowy maxi.

But what pattern to use?  I looked through my huge stash of patterns and had some candidates, but I also searched on The Fold Line and asked in some FB sewing groups to see if there were any better, preferably PDF, patterns that would work.  But after all was said and done, I settled on Burda 6950 that I had in my stash of paper patterns.

I made the longer version as is without hemming it, then tried it on and measured how far away from the floor it fell.  I then added seam and hem allowances to that measurement and cut two panels of that height and the width of the fabric.  I sewed them together end to end, gathered it up, using the dental floss and zig zag stitch method and added a nice ruffle to the bottom.

At first I also added some eyelet lace trim and basted it together, but it looked a little too Little House on the Prairie for my taste.  So I ripped it all out.  I’m really sorry now that I didn’t get a photo of it before deciding to remove it.  I’m sure you would all agree that I made the right choice though.

The other change I mad to the pattern was I lengthened the sleeves to be long enough to reach my wrist plus an allowance for a narrow casing.  I just extended it straight, instead of tapering it and then added elastic at the wrist to produce a wide, romantic sleeve.

I wanted some buttons to match the magenta color in the fabric, but I couldn’t find any at the 3 different fabric stores I went to.  While I was at Pacific Fabrics, the ladies working there didn’t seem to have a lot to do, so when they asked me what I was looking for, I actually enlisted their help.  One of them suggested I use fabric covered buttons, which I hadn’t done before.  She then further came up with the idea to use a matching ribbon to cover them instead of just using the dress fabric.

I really love how it came out, even though the color isn’t quite a perfect match.  And the buttons exactly match the ribbon I used for the neckline and waistline ties.  Although, I’m thinking I might remove those and add elastic there instead.  The ties are cute, but it just feels awkward when putting the dress on.

The dress was a big hit at the event and I got several gushing comments on it.  Even though I only wore it for about 90 mins during dinner before I had to change back into my dance dress for the evening competition, I was very glad that I made it.

I had hoped to make a slip dress to wear under it in a peach knit fabric I have in my stash, but I had a lot of sewing to do for my event and since I already had a dark brown RTW slip dress, I made the peach dress the lowest priority in the sewing todo list, so it ended up getting cut.  Since I don’t really have any other plans for that fabric, I’ll probably go ahead and still do it to wear with this dress in the future.  But the brown looks nice as the under layer, so I’m not complaining.

I love how this dress is so light and flowy.  When a breeze kicks up or I’m walking fast, the skirt whips against my legs and just feels cool.

I’m sure I’ll be making some more of this dress, but next time I’ll probably do it as the pattern is drafted.