I real­ly don’t know what I was think­ing when I decid­ed to enter Bur­daStyle’s pat­tern chal­lenge and down­loaded their cas­cade dress pat­tern. Not only did I think I would have time to sew the dress, but I also planned to embroi­der its top crossover edge!

(Vote for your favorite dress here)

For­tu­nate­ly, I was able to bypass sleep and fin­ish sewing the dress just before the dead­line. How­ev­er I was unable to fin­ish the embroi­dery. At this point, I’m not sure if I will add its embroidery.(I think I will save it for a dress I know I’ll wear more often.)

This isn’t my favorite dress pattern.There’s too many details going on for my taste and the I don’t like the ruf­fle on the shoul­der. (I had one sis­ter laugh and call the ruf­fle a crois­sant, while anoth­er sis­ter called it a per­o­gi.) If I was­n’t enter­ing the BurdaStyle.com pat­tern chal­lenge, I would’ve elim­i­nat­ed the ruf­fle, (with no hesitation).

Despite the ruf­fle, I love how beau­ti­ful the cas­cade skirt drapes and moves. I also think the silk wool crossover looks espe­cial­ly slimming!

I recent­ly received this real­ly spe­cial Christ­mas gift from my aunt. It’s a neck­lace with a pho­to of my babcha (grandmother)on one side and pho­to of my dido (grand­fa­ther) on the oth­er side.

The top bodice is lined with ivory silk charmeuse.

Orig­i­nal­ly the skirt was lined with ivory silk charmeuse, but I ulti­mate­ly elim­i­nat­ed it.

The two silk lay­ers did­n’t drape nice­ly togeth­er and it cre­at­ed more bulk at the hip. (This was a headache con­sid­er­ing I had to seam rip every­thing apart and then hand-stitch the skirt edges again!!)

The dress is made with cham­pagne silk wool and cham­pagne silk charmeuse.

The silk wool was used for the top bodice crossover and the back of the dress.

I used Bur­dastyle’s #157 05/2011 Design­er Cas­cade Dress pattern.

Thanks for read­ing and please vote for your favorite dress on BurdaStyle.com!