Burda of the Month: 1/2012 #113

First I want to say up front: I'm still pregnant.  Official due date is only 4 days away, but with no signs, twinges, niggles or feelings at all I doubt it's gonna happen soon.  Family and friends, I promise you I will let you know when it happens - there is NO NEED to phone or text me everyday asking about it!!!!  Here is today's belly shot, see the baby is still in there:

Ok, so now that is cleared up I can happily move on to all things sewing related.  With Anna off at daycare three days a week I've managed to get a heap of sewing done lately, I just need to catch up with photos and blog posts.  Good thing I'll probably have another week or two to do just that.....

I have finished my second garment in my Burda lite challenge.  This one is from the January issue, a quite plain looking top which was the pick of rather lame offerings in this issue:

What I didn't notice until I had traced the pattern and tried to decipher the instructions is that the sleeves are cut in two pieces, with a zipper along the upper edge from the neckline on the left side.  That makes this garment a little more interesting, but since I didn't have any suitable zippers in the stash and wanting to get this finished I decided to leave them off and sew up the seams instead.  Don't worry, I checked whether my head would still get through before doing this (it does, phew!).  My fabric didn't have a huge difference in texture or colour on the wrong side, so I didn't do the reversed sleeve fabric either.

I made mine from some fuchsia duchess satin (you know, the heavy weight stuff) that I had in the stash leftover from when I made this fabric belt.  I don't know why I bought so much of the fabric at the time, but I thought this project would be a good use for it.

For the back I briefly thought about putting an exposed metal zip with black zipper tape down the centre back for a bit of interest, but I wasn't sure if that fad has passed or is about to so I just used an invisible zip instead.  The pattern is supposed to have a zip down the left side seam, but since there is centre back seam anyway I chose the easier option and put the zip in down the centre back, with a black button at the top instead of an internal hook and eye.

Obviously this isn't going to fit me for quite some time, but when I do get my waistline back and have somewhere to wear it, this is how I'd style it:

a very high waisted black pencil skirt because this top is quite cropped and a glimpse of flesh around the midriff would not be a good look (image source).

a statement necklace, possibly in black to coordinate, plus I already own a chunky black bead necklace (image source).

and a fierce pair of black pumps which sadly I do not own (image source).

So that's two finished garments from two magazines and I'm on track with my challenge! The March issue still hasn't arrived yet but thanks to a tip off from Renata who emailed me with the newsflash that you can subscribe directly from the BurdaStyle website which is not only cheaper but also more timely than the company I'm subscribed through currently.  I'll be changing my subscription in 3 months when it expires - how did I never notice the subscription button during all the visits I've made to BurdaStyle?