I put this dress together for a July wedding. It had been a while since I had a new dress, since I don't wear them often. I'm a big fan of separates. And pants. There were three things that came together to finally check this off the to-sew list. 

#1- The yellow seersucker. I picked it up at Hancock Fabric's long before they closed. I would guess probably around 2013. Back then I did not have as much time to sew, and I wasn't as confident as I am now. Not that I'm an expert, but I can insert an invisible zipper without too much yelling. I'm crazy for seersucker, so the yardage was too precious to waste on a project that I might not be able to wear.

#2- This pleated short-sleeve dress from Riva la Diva. I was digging through her archive a few months ago and it caught my eye. I quickly picked up the Burda pattern and started making a toile, but I was discouraged as I struggle to get a good fit out-of-the-envelope on most close-fitting patterns. I have a length of denim earmarked for a look-a-like, but the pattern still needed some work. 

#3- Allie Jackson live-blogged through Instagram stories her process of developing a custom fitted bodice block. Check out her summary here.  As she was going through the various modifications she was making to her block, I recognized her fitting issues in my own bodice. This gave me a good list of the areas I could look at to improve my fit. 

Ultimately, I ditched the bodice from Burda 7034 in favor of Simplicity 1419. It has waist and bust darts at the front rather than just the waist darts. The back fit well enough after grading between sizes, but I worked very hard to get the front to fit better. I did a slight forward shoulder adjustment and a couple SBA techniques. I found my favorite use for Pilot Frixion pens; marking up my traced pattern for each toile, and then erasing the parts that didn't work with my iron. I only had to trace it off the tissue once, and there weren't too many markings cluttering my pattern. There were no fewer than four toiles before I cut into the seersucker. I think in the end I may have over-fit the front of the armscye, but it's still better than anything I've sewn before. 

I had intended to still use the Burda pattern for the skirt. Not until I laid it out on my fabric did I realize that it called for 55" width fabric and my seersucker was only 45". This was a hidden blessing though, as the Burda skirt's pleats wouldn't have aligned with my Simplicity darts anyhow. Late at night, I carefully measured my bodice and calculated the width of the skirt panels for the appropriate pleat intervals. The layout of the pleats is the same as the Burda but with narrower 3" pleats. I slept on it and double-checked my math in the morning (with coffee) before cutting the fabric for the skirt. The Burda pattern did end up in the final product; I cut the pockets using the Burda pattern piece. 

I lined the bodice and skirt with a lightweight pale yellow material. A burn test concluded that it's most likely polyester. Yuck. I was concerned that the poly would take away all of the breathability of cotton seersucker, but I needn't have worried since the day of the wedding was a chilly one. The lining is pleated with the seersucker on the skirt, but the side seams and hem are loose. I machine stitched the lining at the neckline, but everywhere else was hand-sewn. I cut it close on timing, but the dress was hemmed and washed before we had to leave town for the wedding.