Burda 7287 + Semi-Crazy Hair Color

I was born a redhead and though I'm swiftly going gray, it doesn't take much to remind my hair of its previous inclinations. The past few years I've been striving for a natural-and-yet-not-too-drab shade, and it's been tricky. Any bit of actual red in the hair color is seized upon by my hair with a fierce intensity, with results that are not likely to pass as natural in any light.

In this quest for a natural appearance, though, I'd gotten more and more monochromatic. I noticed I could hardly wear any colors, and black was too harsh, too. Only tawny shades, peaches, golds. Which are nice. But what about everything else?

Cutting to the chase, I didn't mean to go this red. But my hair surely did. The color is L'Oreal Feria 56, and my neighbor dropping in halfway through the coloring process probably didn't help my focus.

Even though it's nothing like my supposed color goal, it's growing on me. I feel an obligation to rise to the occasion of this bright hair, and that can't be a bad thing.

The dress is Burda 7287. I'd made it before as a top, which I thought a success.

For this dress, I wanted the great fit of those French bust darts, but with a slightly different neckline. I wanted the dress to work as a jumper, but also as a casual dress for evening (read: swing dancing) with no shirt underneath. The Burda neckline is very high and round. So I borrowed the neckline of New Look 6130, that cute peplum pattern that so many people have made, and that I have attempted with unflattering results twice.

I had already narrowed the neck edge of the New Look pattern to fit my very narrow upper chest, making it a good candidate for remixing with the Burda dress. Here are a couple of views of the altered pattern tissue. The white is a tracing of the New Look neckline and the tan tissue is the Burda pattern. You will see that I left the original neckline in place, and just turned it back to cut my alternate neckline. This way I can keep my options open for the future (without totally retracing the entire pattern).

Front

Back

The big thrill of this dress is NO GAPING at the armholes!! High and tight! Without a shirt underneath, my bra straps are covered and stay that way.

I do hope the unfortunate striping of the stretch velvet fabric (which came from it being rolled on a bolt and sadly did not disappear with washing) is less striking in real life than in photos. Even so, I'm not deterred from wearing my comfortable and versatile dress in many different combinations.

Oh, I did make the t-shirt too. It's some bastardization of a Kwik Sew pattern.