Sweet + simple: Burda 11/2019 #105

Saturday 20 June 2020
As the world is slowly emerging from Covid-19 social isolation bubbles, I am still working full time from home and will be for the foreseeable future. My employer, the NSW Government has decided that all back office public servants will keep working remotely to reduce the pressure on the public transport systems. Which suits me, because I quite like working from home especially now that my kids are back at school and my husband is back at his office!

I did re-evaluate my sewing plans because I don't need to be making corporate clothes since these days it's all casual. However I realise that what I like sewing the most is tailored and structured garments, so I'm going to keep on making them even if I won't be wearing them for a while yet.

I recently made three simple long sleeve blouses that will be perfect for layering under a blazer when I'm back in the office, but also work well for video conferencing even I'm wearing them with sweat pants. First version is from a very soft cotton voile with white polka dots:

woman posing in a pale pink long sleeved top

Then I made a much brighter version in a glorious emerald green linen floral:

woman posing in a bright green floral top worn with a navy blue pencil skirt


And finally a version from a jumbo sized navy gingham which I cut on the bias for a bit of a difference:

woman posing in a navy blue gingham top worn with a yellow necklace beside a timber fence

The pattern is Burda 11/2019 #105 which is a really simple top with three pattern pieces - the front and back on the fold and the sleeves:

photo and technical drawing of a sewing pattern for a long sleeved top

For each of my tops, I shifted the neckline opening to the back and drafted a facing instead of self fabric binding for the neckline. I find making and sewing binding for necklines really fiddly and I prefer the cleaner look of a facing.

close up photo of a womans face wearing a pink polka dot top


close up photo of the back neckline of a womans top

I really like the elastic cuffs to the sleeves - it brings in the volume of the sleeve nicely at the wrist which means it doesn't flap around and makes it possible to get the sleeve into a jacket when needed.

photo of a woman holding a tea cup and showing the cuffs of a long sleeved top

For the navy gingham version, cutting it on the bias made it slightly more difficult because I tried my best to pattern match. For some reason, I managed to get a good match on one side but not the other! I don't know how that happened, but as we all know hardly anyone else ever notices these things so I'm not too worried.

photo showing the side seams of a top to demonstrate the matching of gingham stripes in the fabric

It's not often that I make the same pattern multiples time in a row, but this pattern seriously takes about 2 hours to make and only uses up slightly more than a metre of fabric so it's a good way to quickly turn fabric from the stash into something wearable.