The rest of the pinstripe fabric

I had bought 4 meters of the pinstripe fabric, and to  my surprise, there was still plenty of it left after the three pieces (blazer, vest and pants) I had planned to make. My first idea was to make a skirt using the rest of the fabric, but then I came across an even better idea.  It was a dress that's basically a combination of a vest and a wrap around skirt. It is from Burda 2/2020, pattern 113.

I used the pattern, but discarded the instructions after reading them and finding them unnecessarily complicated. Also, I had to make some alterations and that would be easier with a different sewing order.

I started by making the bodice. I used the same lining fabric as for the pinstripe vest. The main difference in this dress was that the facing was much wider.

Here is the bodice ready for sewing the waist seam. So it's basically a vest with the hem seam left open.

One thing I made according to the instructions were the pockets. They looked nice in the magazine pictures and were quite easy to make. I was running out of the blue lining fabric, so I used another fabric for the pockets. It's not like it's going to show, and even if it does occasionally, so what?

I sewed all the skirt pieces together, and here you can see the pockets pinned in place. The back of the dress is in the middle, so the pockets are facing the correct directions.

I sewed the lining to the right edge of the outer part (on the left in the picture). Then I sewed the upper edge to the hem of the bodice. That left part of the upper edge on the left unsewn. I sewed that part and the left vertical seam (attaching the lining) separately. The reason for doing it this way was that I wanted to get the bodice attached first, so I could then tackle the front left separately.

I didn't have quite enough of the pinstripe fabric and the front left (that would go under the front right when wearing the dress) was shorter than in the pattern. The front left should have reached the right side seam, but it ended up falling 20 cm short, even after I had made it from two pieces instead of cutting it on fold as it was supposed to. Fortunately, none of this matters as the additional seam is hidden under the front right and the missing 20 cm do not affect the wearability or looks of the dress in any way.

Finally, I turned the hem of the outer fabric and lining, and sewed the buttons. The buttonholes were another thing I made according to the instructions. They required leaving parts of the waist seam open and then finishing the edges of the holes by hand sewing. The last part was to sew a snap on button to fasten the upper corner of the front left underneath the front right at the waist.

I'm using this dress with long-sleeved shirts and pants. The weather is getting colder, so it's nice to have an extra layer on top of them. And I really like the big pockets. My mobile phone fits in there even in a horizontal position.