Burda 7517 FAIL

It looks really nice on the dress dummy.
I like the curved pleats and the cut-on cap sleeves.
The back darts/tucks stuck out in a most unattractive way, so I removed them, using a belt instead to rein in the fullness.
The back neck darts give a nice fit there.
But you should be very, very wary of a dress pattern that is afraid to show a clear full view of the dress. Notice that neither model looks directly at the camera, and that an arm or handbag obscures the dress in both pictures?
That's because the pleats pull out whenever the wearer moves or breathes. It's not just me. Susannah at Cargo Cult Craft had the exact same problem.

Read my Burda 7517 Pattern Review for the full rant. Bigger pictures of the dress are on Flickr.

The fabric:
The same green/black cotton I used in this skirt (Butterick 3133). I love this fabric and still have nearly 3 yards left.

The changes I made:

• The dress was ‘not quite right’ and I kept futzing with it. The pleats in the back would not fall gracefully, no matter what I did. So I let them out, took off the ribbon ties and used a belt instead.
• But the front pleats were not quite at the waist, but not quite empire. I tried to bring them down 1.5″ to my real waist, but then the pleats wouldn’t stay put. I then elongated the pleats to extend from the pattern start point down to my waist.
• Still .not.quite.right.
• The bell shape of the skirt also poofed out in an unattractive way.
• The neckline is cut very, very wide. As printed in my normal size (38), they would have slid off my shoulders. I brought them in to a size 32.
  
• The bateau neckline was so high that it was uncomfortable; I lowered it half an inch. It still felt uncomfortable.

Conclusion:
This pattern is a huge FAIL. I put the dress in the donate pile and the pattern in the recycling bin. This is very unusual because, normally, if a pattern doesn't work for me, I donate it. But this pattern was so bad, I didn't want anyone else to waste time and fabric on this monstrosity.