BurdaStyle Twister Dress

Are you looking for an edgy dress that is almost instantaneous to make and has a FREE pattern? Here it is, a downloadable pattern from BurdaStyle. This dress takes longer to download and tape together than it does to cut out and sew up. That is because there is only one pattern piece, placed on the fold with two shoulder seams and one long underarm/side seam. If you leave the edges raw as I did that is all you do. You could choose to finish the edges which would add another half hour to the 15 minutes you spent so far!

You need a knit that stretches both ways for this dress. My first try was using a fabric I no longer liked that was stored in the garage. That was the most time consuming part of the project, finding that fabric. Really, once I found the fabric, I cut out the dress, sewed it up, tried it on, decided it was too tight in the hips, fiddled with it, picked out jewelry, took it off, got redressed and only 30 minutes had gone by.

As I found the first attempt to be a wee bit overly snug through the hips I have decided to wear it as a long top, ruched up over my torso. I didn't even trim off the extra length.

For my second effort I added about 2 inches at the hips and cut it from black rayon jersey/lycra. Much better look, both in the fit and in the dark, solid color. I made one for my DIL as well. Why not? It only takes a few minutes. I offered to make one for my other DIL but she declined. It isn't for everybody after all.

If you are interested in trying this, I cut the larger of the two sizes. My hips are @39". You take it from there. Plenty of room for a full bust. No need to alter there. Go to http://www.burdastyle.com/projects/my-neon-twister-dress to download the pattern.