Sweet + simple: Burda 11/2019 #105

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:

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

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

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

I'm back! Meet Burda 11/2015 #112

When my enthusiasm for blogging petered out last year, I thought that would be the end of my blog. But someone emailed me recently to ask about a pattern I'd made many years ago and as I was scrolling through my old blog posts to find it I realised that I missed recording my rants and raves about various patterns as well as other snippets of things going on in my life. Instagram is good for a photo, but obviously you just can't capture the details of a pattern and project in that space, so here I am again!

These are strange times aren't they? I am very thankful that I am healthy and I still have my job when so many others have lost theirs due to the COVID-19 shutdown but I am busier than ever with work, two children to homeschool and a dog demanding pats all the time! Working from home has also forced a rethink in my wardrobe, as I don't have enough smart tops to wear and I can't be bothered putting on a dress for the camera.

Enter my latest project - a simple funnel neck top with a neckline zipper which helps get it over my head and adds a bit of interest. This fabric - a Marc Jacobs wool bought from the Fabric Store in Surry Hills a few years ago - has had a long journey into becoming this project. Firstly I made this fabric into a shapeless sweater dress but I really should have known better that shapeless looks like a literal sack on my curvy body so I pulled it apart and instead made it into a fitted dress with darts. Which was great until the next wash when the fabric shrunk a little more even though I did prewash and it became too tight to wear.

Finally, I've made it into a top using Burda 11/2015 #112 and I plan to hand wash and stretch it into shape from now on in case it still has a bit more shrinking to do.

images from burdastyle.com

The only changes I made to the pattern was to lengthen it by 5cm as it is a cropped length and I graded out to the next size below the waist. I really like the centre back seam even though I had to pattern match the plaid because it made it easy to get rid of that sway back pooling I often get.

Although it's a simple pattern the Burda magazine has illustrated pattern instructions in the magazine. However (and here is my rant!) I don't think the method for the neck zip is the best way of doing it.

Essentially you sew cut the seam allowances off, sew the zipper tape on top, then hand sew the ends of the zipper tape together and sew the ribbon over the top of the zipper tapes. Doing it this way leaves a gap between the end of the zipper tape and the shoulder seam, unless my zipper tape is unusually short because I'm sure I transferred the mark from the pattern where the zipper stop goes correctly. I had to sew a small square of fabric to the underside to fill in that gap. I think a better method would be to sew the seam from the shoulder edge to the mark for the zipper stop, and then install the zipper as an exposed zip with a welt pocket type opening instead - this would hide the zipper tape, leave no gap at the end and keep that shoulder seam strong too. Or at lease use a zip longer than the magazine recommends!

Ironically it turns out that I should have narrowed the shoulders anyway because this sits off my shoulder point - that would have solved the problem of that little gap! Although looking at the pattern I think it's designed with an extended shoulder.

Because of my forward rounded shoulders (thanks to being a side sleeper and having poor posture) I'm getting a fold of fabric across the front below the neckline. For my next version I would do a forward shoulder adjustment by taking a bit of width out of the front and adding it to the back instead.

So if you're still here reading - welcome back and thanks for sticking around! I hope to get into more a regular routine with my posting. So many projects to catch up on....

Bypassing the stash - the lightning quick project

After many weeks of cleaning up my sewing room it's almost back to normal. We had used it for storage during the last 18 months while our house was being rebuilt so it was full of furniture, books, clothes, bed linen etc but now I finally have unimpeded access to my fabric stash once again. And while I continue to find my stash a thing of beauty, it turned out that the fabric I've bought in the last 18 months didn't quite fit into my shelves, and I knew I had to have a clear out. Here is my stash now:

That's the stash after I've pulled out a big bag of fabrics that I love but know I'll never sew with and will instead give away at the next Spoolettes swap day / donate to the Fabric Cave:

So keeping in mind that first photo, I really have no business at all buying more fabric. None whatsoever. But of course I did. I haven't really bought much at all this year and had done so well ignoring all sales at the various fabric stores that I would usually flock to at the merest mention of a sale until Wednesday this week. I happened to have a work meeting down near The Fabric Store in Surry Hills and I popped in to have a look at their sale on my way back to the office . I was however a bit restrained and only bought these three pieces:

I haven't even put these into the stash yet - the bottom fabric is a medium weight linen that I'm currently prepping Sandra Betzina style (hot iron + hot wash + hot dryer to minimise wrinkling) to make into some wide leg pants, and the top fabric is a silk cotton that I'm going to hand wash this weekend and probably make into a dress. The middle layer is a medium weight knit that went straight into the wash on Thursday morning, line dried during the day and got sewn into a new top Thursday night!

It helps that I made a pattern that I've used twice before so I already had the pattern traced out, knew how it fitted and knew how to assemble it. It's also a super simple top with three pattern pieces - front, back and sleeves. This is Burda 9/2010 #121, a funnel neck top with super long sleeves:

I've made this twice before - once in a French terry fabric (blogged here) which I still wear quite a lot and another unblogged version. I found the original neckline is a little too tight to fit for my liking so I have widened it by 4cm and shortened it by 4cm which was pretty simple to do:

Now the neckline sits wide open so I don't feel like I'm being strangled, but it comes up high enough to cover the back of my neck to keep me warm and doesn't sit too high either which is exactly how I wanted it.

I also shortened those sleeves by a huge 15cm to remove that scrunched up look that the original pattern is drafted for since I found readjusting those sleeves supremely annoying and this fabric is quite thick for a knit and it just wouldn't have worked.

Because that neckline folds down in half there's no fussing around with a neck band - all that it needs is to sew the side seams, sleeves and hem the bottom + cuffs and it's all done. It makes for a very quick project to sew.

If only I could make something so quickly out of all my other fabric purchases I wouldn't need to worry about the vastness of my stash! 

McCalls 7194 - cowl neck cosiness

One of the quick and simple projects I sewed whilst away on my sewing retreat was a cowl necked knit top from McCalls 7194. It's only been in the last few years since I bought a cover stitch machine that I've started sewing more with knit fabric and I can see the appeal - so quick to sew and pretty easy to fit!

It looks like this pattern is now out of print which surprises me because it seems very popular. Lots of people have made all the views and they all look really great. I made view A but used the long sleeves of the other views:

I've made this from a knit fabric I bought from Darn Cheap Fabrics on a trip to Melbourne more than 2 years ago (a relative newbie in my stash!) that has little gold polka dots. I'm pretty sure it's 100% polyester and is quite thin without much stretch to it but it's a good layering piece.

I particularly like the big old neckline. Honestly, some days I wish I could walk around like this:

Because my fabric is quite thin the neckline is a bit floppy and falls in on itself instead of rolling over nicely but I still like it. It's pretty cold here in Sydney today so I'm wearing this over another long sleeved tshirt which is causing that bunching around my shoulders but otherwise the fit is fine.

The back is pretty simple view - a bit of gathering around my swayback but more importantly it is long enough to cover up the waistband of my pants and keep my back warm when I was freezing on the sidelines of a soccer match early this morning.

I can highly recommend this pattern. Other cowl neck patterns I've made tend to be quite low in the front and show off too much chest area which can get cold and it's awkward to wear a scarf with it. But this one has a nice high rounded neckline that you can either show by pulling the cowl down like I have in these photos, or hide by pushing the neckline towards the back so it's more turtleneck like. Gotta love options!

And here is a photo from the actual sewing retreat, there were about 35 ladies there each with multiple machines. The room certainly was humming when all those machines were sewing and everyone chatting!

Frocktails outfit! Burda of the month 10/2017 #109 and Style Arc Skye

Last Saturday night was another fabulous Sydney Frocktails, organised by the lovely Caz of Useful Box. Lots of ladies wearing beautiful frocks, drinks a plenty and a night out in the city sans husbands and kids - all the right ingredients for a great night!

Even though I have loads of outfits already in my wardrobe that I could have worn, of course I had to make a new one. In a fit of efficiency I combined by Burda of the month project for last November with a bit of stash busting to come up with this outfit:

The top is Style Arc 'Skye' and the skirt is Burda 10/2017 #109 which is the cover pattern for that month:

The skirt is a pretty easy project to sew although there are quite a few pattern pieces to it. You just need to piece the yoke pieces together and sew those to the main skirt pieces and then it's just a matter of sewing it up as a normal skirt so it didn't really take too much longer.

The fabric I've used is a raw silk I bought in Cambodia or Laos (can't quite recall) way back in 2008 when I travelled there in my pre children days. It was rather cheap so I have several metres in a few colours that I've never really found anything to make with it. It's a bit thin but stiff at the same time and the black is a bit of a faded black colour.

It looks like Burda have used a jacquard fabric with quite some body for their version, and I was hoping that my stiff fabric would work just the same at making those pleats stand out.After pressing the skirt though it's turned out rather flat.

And I'm just not sure that a pleated skirt is the most flattering cut for a heavy pear shape, even with the flat fitted portion over the hips. I think this skirt accentuates the heaviness of the bottom half of my body.

The back of the skirt is a plain a-line skirt, which reduces bulk there, and the lining is also an aline skirt shape. Please excuse my posture in the photo below, I don't know what I was doing but it looks terrible!

I've made this Style Arc top several times now and I still love it. It's a simple shape but it has nice curves and is a very quick sew. The fabric I've made this version from is a metallic woven fabric in a copper colour that I bought from the Remnant Warehouse last year:

The fabric frayed like crazy so I had to overlock every edge, and it didn't really hold a press very well either so the seams look a bit puffy but I think a sparkly fabric pairs well with a simple pattern. The fabric is also quite stiff, so when it was tucked in it was quite bulky which you can see in the photo below :

The top also didn't stay tucked in either, so even though I prefer the look of it tucked in to the skirt I ended up wearing it loose. I have lengthened the front by 3cm so that I don't have any bare flesh showing at the side slits which is my usual adjustment for this pattern and usually sits in the right spot but looks a smidgen too long with this skirt:

Although the fabric wouldn't press that well it certainly did wrinkly around the bottom where it was tucked in - typical! The back neckline is a simple slit opening that I held closed with a hook and eye instead of the recommended loop and button.

So my verdict on these patterns: the skirt is great pattern because it looks exactly as the pattern picture and was an easy sew, but I think it's a frumpy look on a pear shaped body. So I give it a pass for me, but it would look great on other body types, especially in a lofty jacquard or brocade in a fabulous print like Burda has used. The Style Arc Skye top remains a favourite but I will pair it with a more fitted skirt or slim fitting pants so that I can wear it out because it's too bunchy to wear tucked in.

And yes your eyes aren't deceiving you - my hair is now a brighter shade of red! I used a home dye kit on a whim because I was a bit bored with my hair but I didn't want to cut it shorter. I feel like a teenager again with crazy bright hair and it's certainly getting lots of comments but it's only hair - it'll fade soon enough.

What to wear on top of the world

Apologies for the blog silence but I have had an eventful few months lately. I spent most of November having a solo holiday in Nepal, most of October preparing for my adventure and the last few weeks since I've returned dealing with the normal busyness of this time of year!

The highlight of my trip to Nepal was spending 20 days hiking in the Himalayas, trekking to Everest Base Camp via the spectacular glacial Gokyo Lakes. It was incredibly hard work as the terrain is either steeply up or steeply down, the trail is rocky and uneven and of course it's all done at high altitude and in extreme cold. But the scenery of the Himalayas is amazingly beautiful and I had a huge sense of personal achievement, especially on some of the harder parts like ascending Gokyo Ri which is a lesser mountain (5373m peak) and crossing the Cho La Pass which involved climbing up a very steep rocky path to a height of 5545m and then descending on the snowy and icy side.

Gokyo Lakes, Nepal

Coming from Australia it was really difficult to prepare. We don't have any high mountains in Australia - our highest peak Mt Kosciusko is only 2228m which is barely considered a hill in Nepal! So I focused my training on increasing my physical fitness as much as possible. Nor do we get particularly cold weather in Sydney, but I knew it was going to be cold so I made a stack of merino wool tops to wear while I was travelling.

I bought the merino wool from The Fabric Store who have a great range in various weights and colours. I made two tops in a fleece back merino wool to wear as outer layers, and three tops in a lightweight wool to wear as inner layers and wearing these in various combinations depending on how cold it was kept me very warm. Plus despite wearing these for a month without washing they didn't smell or even look dirty at all.

I used McCalls 7261 which is a top with princess seams, raglan sleeves and collar variations that is actually meant for activewear fabrics but the wool had a slight amount of stretch so I figured it would be ok.

I found this pattern to run rather large - I used the correct size for my first version in black wool but it's rather sloppy and has excess fabric under the armpits in particular. I do like how the back dips down because it covers my lower back nicely when sitting down - no cold drafts there!

I also like the lapped neckline even though it's quite bulky and there are numerous layers at the front where the two ends of the collar overlap. It did keep me warm though when popped up which is the main thing!

mountain views, Himalayas Nepal

suspension bridge, Himalayas Nepal

For the next version I used the same fleeceback wool but in grey, and used a size smaller so it would be more fitted and it looks much better while still being big enough to wear over other clothes. For this version I also used my coverstitch machine to stitch along the seam lines, with the bobbin thread on the outer side so it has a real active wear look to it.

Durbar Square Kathmandu

I also made three tops in thinner merino wool using my go to t-shirt pattern Burda 2/2011 #106 to use as lightweight layers. These were fantastic - in Kathmandu I wore them on their own, and up in the mountains I just layered two or three depending on the time of the day and the coldness and they were just perfect.

image via Burdastyle.com 

One top is in a vibrant green, one in a black and white fine stripe and one in a grey marle which I didn't get a photo of but trust me looks just like the others!

Narrow shopping street in Bhaktapur, Kathmandu

So as you can see from the few photos above, Nepal is a remarkably beautiful country. The city of Kathmandu is still recovering from the earthquake 2 years ago, and the lowlands are still recovering from the damage caused by the monsoon floods and landslides from earlier this year but it is still an amazing place and the people are so friendly. I travelled by myself leaving my husband home looking after the kids for the month - it was my 40th birthday present to myself. I joined an organised group for the trekking part but met lots of locals and other tourists during the times I was on my own - I never felt lonely or unsafe at all. I can highly recommend a trip there if you need some excitement in your life!