Burda 6910 dress

I’ve always gravitated towards bodycon dresses – there’s something about a figure-hugging, just-below-the-knee length dress that I just cannot get enough of. So when I found Burda 6910 pattern and saw the waist ruching, all this combination could not sound more enthralling to me 😍

Pattern details & Fabric:

A figure hugging dress (or top), with ruching at the side seams, boat neck as well as raglan sleeves with options for short, 3/4 and long sleeves. Best fabric for this would be any two-way stretch knits, crepe or other lightweight stretch material. I used this pink two-way stretch cotton knit, which was so soft and oh-so-lovely to touch.

Size:

Burda runs at least 2 sizes large for me. However, with bodycon dresses, I always end up modifying the bust to waist to hip curve to match my measurements so I cut size 10 for the Bust, 8 for the waist, and blended to size 12 for the hips and then of course adjusted the curve. Keep in mind the ruching on the seams makes the final torso about 0.5 inch shorter so make sure to take that into account when finalizing the bust to hip distance.

Mods:

• The ruching length in the pattern extends just above the hips, however, I ended up cutting the elastic about 1.5 inches shorter to just cover the waist area.

• The neck binding for some reason did not quite lay snug even though I didn’t alter any of the patterns in that section. So I did another approach than the pattern instructions for attaching the binding to the neck: I pinned the ends of the binding together, and then matched the end seam of the binding with the back seam of the sleeve and pinned the binding all the way around. I thankfully ended up having extra binding so I cut the excess from the ends. Keep in mind you want to stretch the binding a tad bit when sewing it into the dress but not the other way around (do not stretch the neck when sewing the binding). So once I was happy with the fit, I then sewed them together. And I love the look of turning the band inside and topstitching!

What I will do differently next time:

Certainly cut the size smaller! I seemed to forget that the knit would stretch, so next time I’ll definitely make the waist area a size smaller, so the gatherings won’t sag.

Conclusion:

Definitely recommend this dress for all knit lovers out there, who want a quick and easy project. The design of this pattern is very simple and versatile – you can make an evening dress or a casual top/dress from it. Just ensure to select a comfortable lightweight fabric since this is very close-fitting dress (for example, I wouldn’t recommend any wool blends). It’s already on my plans to make the top, in long sleeve in the near future.