Burda 9/2007 #128: simple skirt in a stunning floral

Sometimes a project is all about the fabric, and not the pattern. It certainly is the case for my latest finished project - a simple straight skirt:

Nothing too groundbreaking about the skirt style, but oh! the fabric. It is so gorgeous. It's one of the pieces I bought in January from Tessuti during their sale - a cotton with slight stretch in a dark floral print on a black background with white mini polka dots:

Because the fabric is rather busy, what with the polka dots and a floral pattern, I decided to keep the pattern relatively simple. I say 'relatively' because even though the pattern is a simple shape, it needed quite a lot of fitting changes to make. I used a pattern from a 2007 Burda magazine, one of the random issues I used to buy purely because I really liked the patterns before I started subscribing in 2009 and took the good issues with the bad. Being such an old pattern it's not available for download on the Burda Style site, but for reference it's skirt #128 from 9/2007 which looks like this:

The thing is though, that this skirt is actually a plus size pattern and is mid calf length with a godet at the back, so I basically grafted the bits I liked - the wide waistband and pockets - onto another pencil skirt that I had made recently (this one here). It took a bit of fiddling to get the fit right, and even a muslin (yes I do make them sometimes) but in the end I think it's turned out great.

I love those pockets, they sit really flat against the body without gaping open but aren't too deep either that causes funny lines or extra bulk in the pelvis region.

The pattern for the side hip piece extends all the way across the front of the skirt, which helps keep the front flat and stops those pocket pieces flapping about or folding back on themselves. This is an excellent feature that Burda patterns quite often incorporate but not always:

Even though the skirt is quite straight and not as pegged as I made my last pencil skirt (here), it's still a close fit and looks quite flattering from the side view. This is probably dodgy pattern making on my part, but I usually angle the seam line in below the zip towards the hem line so that it sits close to the body without making it too tight overall. I put in a walking vent so it's still comfortable to walk in. As I said, it's probably all sorts wrong but it works for me.

So if you're wondering about the grey tshirt I'm wearing in some of those photos above, the explanation is that I was trying to be cool like a Pinterest worthy fashion blogger. These are my inspiration photos:

credits l-r: uberchicforcheap.com; pursuitofshoes.com; bittersweetcolours.com 

And this is my reality:

Not quite as cool. In fact I quickly realised that I'm a middle aged mother of two working in a government job taking photos in my sewing room and not a cool fashion blogger running about town with a photographer boyfriend in tow to scout out quirky locations for a public photo shoot! So my reality is I probably won't wear a slouchy grey t-shirt with this skirt because it just looks like I forgot to take off a tshirt I wore to bed when I got dressed in the morning, and instead I'll wear it with a tailored cotton shell top (made here) and more than likely with a black blazer on top because it's really cold in my office:

So overall - really happy with this project despite my cranky face in some of these photos!

Pattern Review Featured Member! and old school Burda: 3/2008 #114 skirt

For many years sewing for me was a solitary hobby - I didn't know anyone that sewed and when I was younger I was in fact rather embarrassed to admit that I sewed my own clothes! Which is why it's really great these days that not only do I know loads of like-minded sewists in real life and on-line, but sewing isn't a solitary thing anymore since I sew with the lovely Australia Sewing Guild ladies which has been immensely helpful in expanding my skills and shop with the Sydney Spoolettes (for which I need no assistance or encouragement but it is fun sharing the guilt!).

Nor am I embarrassed anymore to admit that I sew my own clothes either, in fact I'm rather proud to be part of this great community of creative and skilled people. So it is extremely flattering to be recognised first in Burda Style magazine and now by Pattern Review as their current featured member. The Pattern Review thing came completely out of the blue and was really something I wasn't expecting - there are so many members doing wonderful things and I've really only been active in the last year after being a very slack member for many years. So thank you Pattern Review!

Ok, enough showing off from me I think - on to my latest creation. Would you believe that until a few months ago I hadn't ever owned a piece of jungle print fabric or RTW garment or even an accessory? Even Anna managed to rock a leopard print faux fur jacket when she was just two years old!

But that might all be about to change with my latest skirt:

This is made from yet another Burda magazine, this time quite an old issue - 3/2008 #114:

I bought this leopard print fabric from fabric.com back in March, and it is quite a stiff cotton, a bit like quilting fabric which is the perfect weight for a skirt. The fabric faded quite a lot after the first wash, which at first annoyed me, but now I think the faded, worn in look makes this skirt look a bit more casual and less va va voom which is what I traditionally think of when I think animal print.

The pattern is really simple - a pegged skirt with no walking vents so it's quite fitted but still reasonably ok to walk in, with angled pleats at the waist to give a slight tulip shape, although those details are pretty much lost in this busy print. The pleats at the front don't puff out too much, so the side view is still quite streamlined:

It has a wide waistband and a centre back zip which I used an invisible zip because that's the easiest and neatest looking finish:

The pockets are nice and deep which is useful not only for standing around in a slouchy pose whilst taking photos of the side of the road while motorists drive past staring at you, but also for carrying all the bits and pieces that end up in the pockets of a mum to a little boy - rocks, feathers, snotty tissues and the like!

I took these photos about 2 weeks ago when we were still having extremely warm weather which is why I'm dressed like it's summer and not winter! But I can see this skirt being quite versatile, perhaps with a chunky polo neck jumper and opaque tights for a winter outfit, or keeping it simple with my denim jacket which is also a Burda pattern - (4/2009#116) which I made back in 2011 and still wear all the time:

So if you have this issue of Burda I can thoroughly recommend digging it out to make this skirt. It has the streamlined look of a pencil skirt with that added extra casualness and quirkiness of the angled pleats and deeply curved pockets on the side front. If you want to wear a pencil skirt style but don't want to feel like like you're wearing office wear, then this is the perfect skirt style.

And happily I can report that we are now experiencing proper winter, albeit Sydney style - no frost, snow or extreme cold temperatures of course, but cold enough to finally get out some lovely wool and tweed and make some winter clothes.

Burda of the month: 11/2013 #103 Back keyhole blouse (and Burda of the month replay!)

I finished my November Burda project yesterday, so despite Burda not sending me the magazine until the 20th of the November I still managed to get it done in the same month! Big pat on the back for me. Thanks to my husband taking the kids out to see a Hi-5 concert and shopping in Chatswood on a Saturday afternoon (those who know Hi-5 and Chatswood will know that it was more than suitable compensation for all the client dinners he had last week!) I managed to get not one, but two garments started and finished in the same day.

Of course it helped that I chose a rather simple top to sew this month. I must admit that I struggled to pick a project this month, because after reading some rave reviews of this issue when it arrived I was a bit blah about the patterns. Some were ok (narrow pants, raglan sleeved dress, panelled dress etc) but since I had made similar type garments in recent months I decided to go out on a limb and sew something quite different to my usual style. I made the pleated neck, voluminous sleeve and shapeless top, 11/2013 #103:

 

 

And actually I don't mind it even though it's not my usual overly fitted style. I made a few small changes to make this more summer friendly - the fabric I used is a thin cotton voile from the stash in a small navy blue and red floral, and I made the sleeves elbow length instead of full length. This way it's still light and breezy enough to wear during summer but has good coverage for keeping my fair skin out of the sun. I probably should have either made the sleeves slightly longer or slightly shorter, because the narrow cuffs tend to get pulled up into my elbow bend and the result is that super puffy sleeve you can see above!

The back has a keyhole opening and two pleats at the neckline too. A word of warning to anyone planning to make this - the neck opening is really tight and probably needs widening to make it easier to get on and off and for more comfortable wear. I ended up sewing on a long loop from hat elastic so that neck opening sits wider open at the back so that I don't spend the day feeling strangled:

And the other tip I have for anyone making this is to trace the sewing line of the shoulder dart properly otherwise you'll end up with really pointy shoulders. Because I added my usual 1.5cm seam allowance when I traced the pattern and just sewed according to the cut edge, my darts ended too abruptly and needed rounding off:

And when I checked the pattern I could see the fault was all mine - I should have traced the curved sewing line from the pattern rather than charging on in my usual style!

But overall I quite like this pattern, I can see it made up in a soft, draping fabric like washed silk with full length sleeves for winter. And the bonus is that it only took me about two hours from cutting out to finishing, although admittedly I had already traced the pattern during the week which is the most fiddly, boring part of sewing with Burda.

But wait, there's more! I was worried that I wouldn't have anything to wear this with so I decided to make a new pair of simple, black shorts to wear with it. It turns out that this top looks good with jeans and my denim skirt so I need not have worried but I needed a new pair of shorts anyway, so no harm done. I used Burda 10/2013 #127 which was my Burda of the month project from last month:

I sewed this pair from a stretch cotton drill that I bought on Saturday morning when I popped into Spotlight to get a zipper. In fact by the time I started sewing these shorts the fabric was still a little damp from prewashing - how's that for stash avoidance! It's been quite a while since I bought some fabric specifically for a project, but unbelievably I didn't have any stretch black cotton in my stash.

The last pair I made from this pattern was from a cotton linen blend that didn't have any stretch (although it did bag out) but was quite soft, and it's amazing how different the garment fits being made in a stiffer, stretch fabric. This version sits higher on the waist because the fabric doesn't slouch down, the pockets stick out a bit at the sides and I had to take in the centre back seam a lot more because it was gaping at the back. I got a decent fit at the back I think, if you can ignore the VPL (sorry, it's not a good look is it?) and the gaping side pocket.

The other changes I made to the pattern (besides cutting it off a knee length of course) was to sew two welt pockets at the back just to break up that expanse of fabric - I've read somewhere that well placed pockets can make your derriere look smaller and more shapely than not having any. The other change I also made was to cut out the pattern with a fly extension like this:

instead of sewing on a separate fly extension. It just cut out a few steps and simplified matters. I also ignored Burda's instructions completely this time for installing the zipper because I recall being thoroughly confused by them last month, and instead used Sandra Betzina's super simple and effective method, seen in this Threads video.

So happily I've got a 100% success rate when it comes to sewing from my Burda mags this year - but if Burda waits until a few days before Christmas to send me the December issue I doubt I'll be able to pull off another swift project like this one.

Burda 02/2013 #126 - the little tshirt that took ages

Happy thanksgiving to all my American readers! It's not something we celebrate here in Australia, but there are a few things I'd like to give thanks to - thanks to Toby for choosing not to sleep at night time anymore, it means we get to spend sooo much more time together! Their childhood is so fleeting why would you waste it on a silly thing like sleeping? Thanks also to Toby for passing on his annoying cough to me - it's a great way to work those abs without doing a single sit up. Thanks to Oscar for pulling through his near death experience last week on my birthday no less and is now practically back to normal. Thanks also to family for their wonderful birthday presents of a Japanese sewing book and some new camera lens, and especially to my husband for organising the kids to have a sleepover with their grandparents while we stayed in a fancy city hotel.

And I'm thankful that I've finally finished my latest project: a simple tshirt that turned out to take a long time to finish. Well actually sewing it up didn't take that long, but sewing on the neckband four times until I got it right certainly did!

I used Burda 02/2013 #126 which was made quite successfully by many bloggers when it was first released:

Isn't that model photo from Burda absolutely absurd styling? The whole point of the tshirt is the gathered sleeves, yet the model has a jacket and a scarf covering them up.....

I sewed mine from a mystery knit found deep within my stash, which is very soft and very stretchy. Like Sharon's version, my neckband was very droopy and too big which I also blame on the fabric, and I ended up taking in the neckband incrementally four times, until I ended up with it a smidgen too short (of course!) so there are a few puckers around the neck. Ah well, I can live with it because there was no way I was going to do it again!

Apart from the neckband issue it's a pretty straightforward project - the sleeves are gathered and then just sewn on raglan style so it can't be much easier. I made the smallest size knowing that the significant ease of the knit meant it would be fine size wise and hopefully take care of any fabric pooling at the back since I didn't do a swayback adjustment. Seems fine to me:

I quite like this top - it's as easy to wear as a standard tshirt but the gathered sleeves make it just that little bit different.  It's really long though, you can see in that photo above that the hem of the tshirt sits halfway down my skirt that I've tucked it into. If I were to make this again I would definitely shorten it a fair bit because it's too long to wear out but too bulky to tuck in.

Overall it's quite a good pattern, maybe I will make another one day when I've worked myself back up to working with knits. For now though it's back to sewing with well behaving woven fabrics, so much easier and more predictable!

Burda of the month: printed pants 10/2013#127A

I was reading Paola's blog recently where she was wondering whether she was too late to join the coloured pants trend with her lovely green pants (definitely not). But I was wondering the same thing because I had been thinking about making some floral pants for spring/summer, a trend that has been around for a while but after a bit of snoop shopping I figured they are still pretty much current. And besides the point of sewing for ourselves is to be able to make what we like, when we like without being dictated to by seasons or fashion designers!

This is quite out of my usual sewing zone - to be sewing pants first of all which I rarely ever do, and to be making a pair from a print fabric instead of a subdued solid colour. But the good thing about my Burda challenge is that everyone now and then I like to try something new and different to what I would usually sew and see what comes out.

So for my October Burda challenge (made during the actual month of October too!) I chose to make the slim fitting trousers 10/2013 #127A:

These are pretty simple pants, rather quick to make but as we all know it's the fitting that takes the most time and effort to get right. Being rather cavalier as usual, I chose not to make a muslin instead just doing some flat pattern measurements. Surprisingly it turned out pretty well (phew!). I wanted to make some slim fitting but slouchy summer pants so I didn't narrow the leg to match those worn by the model in the photograph. I cut out a size 38 to fit over my hips, and took in a little at the waist to stop the gaping that inevitably happens. The back view really shows off my pear shape in an unflattering way, but hey I'm all for truth in reporting around here!

There are some diagonal folds emanating from my saddle bag thighs downward to my knees, but apart from that the fit isn't too bad. What I really liked about this pattern is that it is sewn like men's pants - the centre back seam is done last after the waistband is attached to the pants in two pieces, which means you can take in the centre back seam to fit:

As you can see I did make the centre back seam a little deeper at the waist to get it to fit snugly. I also like that this pattern, like most Burda pants patterns uses an extended pocket piece that connects to zipper, which is a much neater way of doing things:

The fabric I used is a cotton/linen blend bought from Spotlight a few years ago. The fabric didn't wrinkle very much at all much to my surprise, but it did 'grow' a lot after wearing as I suspected it would. After a few hours it bagged out at the knees and the seat giving me the dreaded saggy butt look but I made the waistband facing from interfaced cotton poplin and put belt loops on the waistband so I could wear a belt and make sure they stayed at my waist. So since they didn't fall down I can live with a bit of sagginess - they are meant to be slouchy linen summer pants.

So overall, I'd say this pattern is pretty good (but I'm not all that experienced with pants pattern so I can't say definitively that it's any better than any other pants pattern). One thing I didn't like at all was their instructions for the fly zipper with shield. As much as I read and read those instructions, I just couldn't understand them at all so instead I used this very helpful tutorial with lots of pictures over at Grainline Studio. If I make these again though I would add fly extensions to the centre front of the pants when cutting out rather sewing on a fly extension - it's just a bit quicker and simpler to do it that way.

I took about 4cm off the length of the pants and still have a 5cm hem on these - clearly my legs aren't as long as the leggy models in the magazine that these patterns seem to be drafted for. I did hem them to wear with flats and not heels so they are a bit shorter:



I wanted to try wearing these pants with heels to see how they looked, but my mini-me decided to wear my heels around and copy my poses instead:

How scary that at 4 and half years of age she thinks that posing for photographs like this is normal!

Burda of the month: 9/2013 #130 a.k.a the skirt that tried to break me

So I have finally finished the evil sewing mojo sapping skirt. Not my finest work, for sure, but this is one of those projects where the whole is more than the sum of it's parts, because the skirt was made purely to form a suit with the red blazer I made recently:

I never imagined myself wearing a red skirt suit, it always screamed 80s power suit stereotype to me, but after pinning quite a few lovely red outfits (such as this, this or this) I thought why not try it?

 

Plus I had some left over pieces of the red wool crepe I used to make the jacket recently that were just the right size to make a skirt. And since I needed to do a project from the September issue of Burda I decided to kill two birds with one stone and make the designer pattern - 9/2013 #130:

Just a simple, pegged skirt with a bit of interest at the back (let's not talk about that jacket though shall we?). I've made a similar style skirt a long time ago with great success from Vogue 7937 that with hindsight I should have stuck with and made something different from this issue of Burda!

So what went wrong? Well it started with me not reducing the skirt length by 5cm when I traced the pattern (a typical change I have to make for Burda patterns), which meant that those back splits were about 2cm long when I folded the hem up which looked quite silly not to mention not achieving the function of a walking vent. One of the suggestions at the ASG sewing day was just to instead make them splits rather than lapped vents, which is what I should have done because my next mistake was to use the very last bit of fabric to cut out new centre back panels with the jutting out bit for a mitred vent at the right length instead of the side back panels. This meant that the centre back piece now lays under the side pieces and looks a bit strange in my opinion because it's not how I've seen any vent made:

So I may just undo that again and make it into splits anyway! Then again no one will probably notice and I should just get over myself.

The other mistake I did was to over fit the skirt because the wool crepe has a bit of stretch to it and having it too tight really highlighted my pear shape in a very unflattering way, but that was easily fixed by letting out each of the seams a little bit. I also stitched in the ditch down those side seams to anchor the skirt to the lining because the lining seams kept showing through if it wasn't aligned perfectly. I think if I had underlined the skirt to give the lightweight wool fabric a bit more body it may have prevented the lining being so obvious underneath the fabric. Again live and learn.

Letting it out a little means the skirt is a little looser than the Burda model version:

but it's comfortable to walk in and I can sit in it without showing too much leg (this is a work skirt after all):

What's not shown in the line drawing is the deep hem - it is about 8cm deep which is a nice touch. I topstitched my hem since my thread matched the fabric almost perfectly and I wanted the deep hem to be a feature on the rather plain front. Overall the pattern is ok, nothing special, so if you want to make it go ahead but I for one shan't be tempting fate with this pattern again in case it tries to rob my sewing spirit again!

And did you all notice that polka dot top I'm wearing with it? Well that is a success story in it's own right - I salvaged it from another Burda of the month project and remade it into a wearable top that perfectly matches this suit. The cream with grey polka dot silk was far too nice to remain as this abomination I made in September last year (Burda 7/2012 #116):

Using a shell top pattern from Vogue 1826, an OOP Michael Kors pattern, which is a TNT of mine because I've made it quite a few times now (here and here) instead turned it into this with a bit of help from some left over pieces of the fabric (yay for holding onto scraps):

I used some buttons from the stash that happened to match perfectly as closure at the back seam rather than a zipper:

It's the perfect top to be worn under suits, and since I fully lined the silk fabric with a thin cotton shirting fabric it will be nice and cool to wear during summer and our so far very hot spring. Plus I've made a complete outfit so there's no risk of the red skirt or jacket becoming orphans and rarely worn - how very grown up of me!

Burda of the month: 8/2013#106 red wool crepe jacket

It's becoming a bit of a habit of mine to finish my Burda projects in the following month instead of the month of issue as I originally vowed to myself - but I'm getting them made and that's all that counts. Plus this month I made a rather involved project instead of something simple, and lo and behold it's not a dress for a change!

Yes that's right - I made a tailored jacket. It's jacket #106 from the 8/2013 issue which looks like this in the magazine:

I admit that I may have been more than a little bit influenced by the magazine photo, but I've had a beautiful piece of raspberry red wool crepe in my stash for a while just waiting for the perfect project which turns out to be this pattern.

This pattern is the illustrated step-by-step guide for the month. Confusingly the page says it's both easy sewing and a "sewing lesson for the advanced" - although now that I've completed it I realise that what they meant was that it's an advanced pattern that they show you how to make in the most basic (but not best) manner to make it easy. I did read the instructions, and they were helpful to figure out the collar construction but mostly I did it my own way from experience and other resources.

Here's what I did differently to the pattern instructions:

1. Used way more interfacing than suggested. The pattern calls for interfacing only on the front facing piece, collar and hem lines, but I chose to block interface all my fabric pieces with a light weight interfacing, and then put an extra layer on the collar and front inset piece for extra stiffness. This gave the crepe a bit more substantial body appropriate to a jacket, although I suppose if you were using a fabric that was more substantial to begin with it wouldn't be needed.

2. I used the organza patch method to finish the back of the inseam buttonhole. Burda gives instructions to cut a slit in the fabric, turn under the edges and hand sew. Instead I used the method described in the Vogue Sewing book to use a square of organza to make an opening that you would use on the back of a bound buttonhole - it looks neater than the hand stitching I could achieve and is less likely to fray.

3. I bagged the lining instead of hand slip stitching the lining down at the end. I don't know why Burda didn't recommend this method - it's much a quicker and neater method and isn't really that difficult. The first time you do a bagged lining you don't think it could possibly work but it does! I like this tutorial over at Grainline Studio which clearly shows how it all comes together. For my lining I used a pink polyester of some sort that has been in the stash for years - one side is a soft, furry feeling which I used as the wrong side and the other has a slight ribbed texture that is more slippery - I have no idea what it is but it's a nice enough colour match with the raspberry red.

4. In addition to the suggested shoulder pads, I added a sleeve head cut from some wool melton to support the top of the sleeve as recommended in many tailoring books. It's the first time I've done this, but I do think it's made a difference - the sleeve sits so nicely. I also narrowed the shoulder by 2.5cm which is my usual adjustment.

Apart from the shoulder adjustment I made no alterations to the pattern which I cut out using the smallest size, size 34. Of course it's not perfect, but since I didn't make a muslin what can I expect? If I make this again I would take out a small wedge of the centre front panel because I'm rather flat chested and this bit sticks out a bit from my chest.

But overall I really love this jacket and am glad I put in the effort to make it properly. I made a fabric covered button because I couldn't find a perfect match, which I think looks quite smart. And the best thing is that the jacket sits equally well open or closed:

So well done Burda - a lovely pattern and well drafted. I'm actually thinking of making an evening version of this jacket in a tuxedo style in black satin with a matte finish for those front inset panels. I'll just add that to my very long to do list!