Burda 9/2009 #127 and Burda 1/2009 #128: the green suit

I've finally finished my green skirt suit, green in both colour and eco credentials because it's made completely from thrifted materials. Seriously, the fabric, lining and buttons are from op shops, the zipper is pulled out of a doomed project and even the interfacing was bought at a garage sale. Only the thread is newly purchased, because I've had heartache in the past using very old thread and it's associated snapping, tangling and fluffing as it passed through my sewing machine.

So if I just ignore the cost of the pattern, which is probably astronomical given how little I use the Burda magazines compared to the cost of the subscription, overall this suit cost me next to nothing but turned out fantastic:

The jacket is from Burda 9/09, pattern 127. This jacket is so easy to make, particularly if you're wary of setting in sleeves or dealing with notched collars. The sleeve is in two parts, and the sleeves get sewn on to the front and back pieces separately, and then you sew one long sleeve from the neckline along the shoulder seam, down the outside arm seam to the cuff. This makes it very easy to construct, but I found it hard to get a close fit. The Burda description is that this is a loose fitting jacket, but while I got the front to sit well, the back is a little baggy:

I guess a muslin would have come in handy here! Oh well, I have to keep reminding myself that I don't normally stand around in a photographic pose, and in real life it may not be noticeable.

The fabric is a wool or wool blend possibly, and it presses easily especially since I block interfaced all of the jacket pieces. Interfacing and putting in a back stay was about the extent of proper tailoring techniques I used, because I couldn't tell where the roll line was for the collar to do any padstitching, but there is an internal button just under the collar point on the inside which holds the collar in place properly anyway.

The skirt pattern I wasn't overly enthused about. It's the exclusive design from Burda 1/09, which is the first time I've sewn one of the exclusive designs in the magazine. Even though they are supposed to be designed by international designers and not Burda designers, I didn't find much difference in terms of pattern design or instructions really. I picked this skirt because of the vertical lines to match the jacket, and so that the tabs at the waist would make the skirt interesting if worn on it's own. The tabs at the waist are just decorative, and are actually sewn to the front skirt panel. They were super fiddly to sew on. Even with a thorough pressing and clipping the curves they still look a bit dodgy.


I also found the skirt to be very boxy, the side seams had hardly any shaping to them whilst my body has lots of shaping! So I ended up taking the side seams in a few centimetres above my hip and below my hip to the hem line just to give it a little more shaping.

I underlined the skirt with organza because the fabric is a loose weave and I hope that interlining will help prevent it bagging out as well as reduce wrinkling. The real test will come when I wear it for a full day at work next week. I used fabric covered buttons on the skirt to match the jacket, but they are hidden by the jacket when worn together.

I possibly will make this jacket again in a funky colour or fabric to wear casually with jeans, although I will pinch out a fair amount of excess in the back and probably make the sleeves full length. I meant to make these full length sleeves, but somewhere between deciding that when looking at the pattern photo and tracing out the sleeves I completely forgot! I think it looks ok though with a long sleeved top underneath poking out, my wrists get far too cold at work otherwise.

And for my next trick, I've threaded my overlocker with red thread so be prepared for some primary colour happening here soon!