Burda World of Fashion 09/2007: my first foray.....

I just bought the latest available Burda World of Fashion magazine in a big bookstore in the city today - it's the December 2007 issue...... Yeah it's a few months late, but since we here in sunny Sydney are coming into winter in a few months it's actually good timing to get all the fabulous winter patterns in a roundabout way!

Anyway, even though I buy the Burda WoF magazines and have accumulated quite a few, until now I haven't actually made any of the patterns. All the effort of tracing off the patterns and trying to figure out the correct sizing without going cross eyed seemed far too much effort for this little black duck, but after seeing so many totally hip and happening creations from it's pages I thought I'd finally give it a go.

And here is my first creation - the pleated tulip skirt from the 09/2007 issue.

This was such a quick project, once I had spent an hour tracing the pattern out. I couldn't figure out where the hip line was on this pattern due to the unusual pleating, so it was way too big at first, but a little taking in at the sides and making the pleats at the front a little deeper fixed that issue and now it fits perfectly. I made this from a brown linen, no stretch and maybe a little too heavy for this skirt because it doesn't really drape, it just folds and sticks out a bit. It is really comfortable too - the wide waistband sits at just the right height for me.

However, despite the technical success of this skirt I think it is completely the wrong shape for me as I am already a severe pear shape and certainly don't need any more volume around the lower half. I did wear this skirt to work on a casual Friday, and whilst I got nice comments I think they were more polite than enthusiastic and my husband certainly summed it up by saying it looked weird. But I don't think most men 'get' women's fashion anyway......

So, this skirt may end up in a refashioning post shortly - I am thinking of converting the pleats and draping in the front to a plain centre seam with an inverted pleat to reduce the volume.