Butterfly dress for graduation ceremony, Burda 115B, April 2011

Here's the other graduation number I sewed, in case (impossible!) it's hot as blazes on the day of the university ceremony of the eldest for whom thankfully I haven't had to sew since I made him a bathrobe ten years ago. He's a history major and a rower, and heads off to India this summer under a sponsored "entrepreneurial" scheme, then to Japan for an intensive language course. You can't keep a good Swiss-American down on the farm. Last summer he did a stint with NYC US Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney who sponsored and finally got  the 9/11 health care bill for the rescuers/responders passed.
 We love her for her determination to see justice done for the heroes of 9/11, and were thrilled that son was in the House to see that bit of history made. If you watch her presentation on YouTube, Kid made the US maps showing health-giver locations. Carolyn Maloney Zadroga Bill. Check out the Big Map!

Everybody in London is talking about Kate Middleton's influence on the popularity this season of white, but at my age I look like a mental-home nurse in all white. We'll pass over the fact that I feel like a mental-home nurse these days. Anyway...cruising Zara with daughter last April in Lausanne, I recognized a butterfly-patterned silk as coming from Thai Silks, made up by Zara in the neckline featured in dress and blouse versions in the April Burda.

Ain't that sweet, only if it were me and my kids, they'd be the ones leaning over me...

 I didn't like the unbound neckline used on the cover photo at all, but did like the variations with bound necklines and armholes. I ordered up the silk thinking to replicate the blouse, but found I could squeeze a whole dress out of my shipment. I made a second dress (just a column, really) from fine white silk and then bound the two together at the neck and armholes, finally stitching a tunnel for the elastic using the two layers of silks. Easy peasey.