Finished - Burda Magazine Bow Skirt!

My new skirt (pattern 125 from April’s Burda Magazine) has a bow, some pleats and a flounce – what more can a girl ask for!

and here's the front -

and the back -

I used a black 100% wool crepe, purchased last December in New York Elegant fabrics, which has just the right amount of drape for this style. I lined it with Bemberg rayon.

Once I had got over the shock of the tracing difficulties with this month’s issue of Burda (see my last post), I have to say that this skirt is very nicely drafted and went together without any trouble at all. The instructions were reasonably straightforward but I did make a couple of ‘improvements’.

Burda tell you to fuse shaped strips of interfacing to the upper edges of the skirt lining to stabilize the waist. This worked well but I also sewed ¼” seam tape to the wrong side of the outer fabric along the waist seam to be certain that it wouldn’t stretch out when worn.

To hem the flounce Burda instruct you to press the hem allowance of 1 ¼” to the inside and sew by hand but I decided to make a very narrow machine stitched hem instead. I would really recommend doing this because it makes the flounce hang much better.

When making the bow you might find (as I did) that you prefer not to press it flat. After sewing the lengthwise edges of the bow together you have to turn it right side out and press it so that the seam is centred on the back. When doing this I very carefully used the point of the iron to press the seam flat but made sure not to press the edges of the bow – this way the bow turns out a bit puffier not flat and sharp edged. Personally, I like a bow to be puffy!

When I saw this skirt in the magazine I knew I just had to have it and now I’ve got it, I’m delighted with it! I’d really like to make another one for summer - maybe a bright pink, or even a flowery print, would be nice?

More soon but, in the meantime ………….

A Very Happy Easter to You All

Whoa! What are the folks at Burda Magazine up to?

I was so eager to complete the lovely skirt that I had picked out of the latest Burda Magazine (see my last post) that I dropped everything and rushed to get out my tracing paper and pens. I eagerly found the right pattern sheet and, my goodness, my head started to swim! Now I’m all for saving paper but this is ridiculous. This month the folks at Burda seem to have decided that it’s ok to print twice as many patterns on each of the pattern pages. Well, can I just say, it’s not ok with me!

Here is a picture of the page from the April issue


And here is a picture of a pattern page from the March issue

Can you see the difference? All the previous issues of Burda that I have in my possession have pages A to H (8 pages) yet this latest issue has only got pages A to D i.e. all the patterns have been printed on to 4 pages. It’s a crazy maze and makes working out what lines you have to trace, and identifying the pattern markings, very difficult. Has anyone else noticed this or have I got one of a weird batch? I am hoping that this is only a temporary glitch and that next month normal service will be resumed, otherwise I’m going to have to get some new spectacles or maybe an industrial standard magnifying glass!

However, I persevered and did manage to trace the skirt pattern – thankfully it’s only four pieces – and I’m pleased to report that it’s coming together very well indeed. I shopped my stash for the fabric and picked out some lovely black wool crepe which has just the right amount of drape for the flounce at the hem. I am now working on the finishing touches but here is a sneak peak …..

….. of the bow before I stitch it to the back. I just love bows!

More soon ……….

BWOF dress - finished!

And I’m pleased to say that I like it a lot. In fact, I really love this great pattern – it’s from Burda Magazine, November 2008, pattern no. 111. I love the pleats at the neckline and the waist. Here’s a picture

And here’s a reminder of the line drawing
I think this style lends itself well to being made up in two different fabrics. I used a silk charmeuse for the bodice, which means that it drapes nicely, and a wool crepe, which has more body, for the skirt. Both these fabrics were purchased from New York Elegant Fabrics during my visit there last November. If you’re thinking of making this pattern you can have quite a lot of fun going through your stash and coming up with some interesting fabric combinations – I’ve already got one or two ideas for making another one. And, of course, it would also look great made up in one fabric.

You will notice that I didn’t make the belt that goes with this pattern, mainly because I’m not a big fan of those thread loops that you have to sew on the dress to carry the belt. I don’t think I could manage making one that didn’t look nasty and I always think they look messy if you decide you don’t want to wear the belt. But, hey, that’s just my opinion – you probably make them much better than me!

This pattern is not very difficult to make – Burda give it an ‘easy to sew’ two dot rating and, as long as you feel up to darts, pleats and putting in a zipper, this would be well within the scope of an adventurous beginner. I did, however, make mine a little more complicated by putting in a full lining, which the pattern doesn’t give instructions for but, if you’ve made a dress lining before, it’s not too difficult. To deal with the bodice pleats I attached the bodice lining pieces to the neckline facing pieces, pleating the front lining in the same way that the outer fabric was pleated. I ditched the armhole facings and just sewed the lining up to the edges of the armholes. Here’s a peek inside the bodice

Now that’s completed, I’ve already got a couple of spring things cut out and ready to go. So, more soon …………

BWOF dress - fitting a bodice with neckline pleats

As I mentioned previously, I decided I am going to make one more dress in a winter fabric before I plunge into my spring sewing. After flicking through an enormous pile of Burda magazine back issues I have decided that this is the one

It’s pattern no. 111 from November 2008. I have had my eye on this pattern for a long time but wasn’t quite sure how I would go about altering it to fit. I usually need to do an FBA and the bodice pleats had me a little puzzled. However, I armed myself with a lot of tissue paper, some coloured pens and the book Fit for Real People, by Pati Palmer & Marta Alto, and came up with the following.

This is my original tracing of the pattern for the bodice front (as I usually do, I traced a size 36 round the neck and shoulders, grading out to size 40 for the rest of the bodice).

These are the alterations I made (I have given the page numbers I referred to in Fit for Real People).

I drew a line on the pattern where a horizontal bust dart would normally be (Altering No-Dart Fronts, page 147)

Then I made the usual alterations for an FBA (Full Bust Alteration, pages 142-143) but I didn’t fill in the bust dart in with tissue.

I drew a straight line through the centre of each of the pleat marks from the neckline to the point of the open horizontal dart. Then I rotated the bust dart into these by closing up the horizontal bust dart and opening up the pleat marks (Moving Darts, page 136). I filled in the gaps between the pleat marks with tissue and taped it all down.

The finished pattern piece had more bust width and bigger pleats at the neck. I also made my usual petite alteration above the waist and I raised the armhole by 1/2”. The final pattern piece looked like this

That’s quite a lot of alterations, isn’t it? But I've learnt that if that's what the body I've got needs, then that's what has to be done!

I decided to get creative with my stash and I’m making this dress up using two different fabrics – a black wool crepe for the skirt and a printed silk for the bodice. I hope to be finished and posting pictures soon ..........

BWOF jacket - finished at last!

I have finally completed my Burda magazine jacket. Here’s a full length picture

Here’s a close up, so you can get a better look at the construction details

And here’s a picture on a hanger so you can see the crazy lining – it’s bold but I thought that it would be fun!


This is the line drawing of the pattern (which is no. 120 in the August 2009 issue).
As you can see, I omitted the front flaps. Because the wool fabric I used is quite thick, I decided that these flaps (which actually serve no real purpose because there are no pockets there) would just add more bulk than I wanted to have around my waist.

Fitting this jacket wasn’t a problem. I made my usual FBA but that was the only alteration I had to make. I did, however, reduce the sleeve ease. When I made my muslin I noticed that there seemed to be a lot more ease than I felt I could neatly get into the armhole, so I altered the pattern to take out about ¾” ease from each of the sleeves. I did this the way that Sandra Betzina recommends in her book Power Sewing. You draw three vertical lines from the top of the sleeve cap to the hem of the sleeve (one in the centre and two about 1½” either side). Then cut down these lines leaving a small hinge at the hem edge. Then overlap the pattern at the sleeve cap at each of the three cut lines (losing ¼” per cut) and tape it all down. It worked very well – I had no trouble getting the sleeves in smoothly.

I had a bit of a crisis over the fastenings. At first I decided to use no buttons, just five covered snap fasteners, like Burda used on their other version of this jacket (pattern no.119). Then I decided not to cover them because I decided that the gold snaps would add something. But once I’d sewn them on I didn’t like how you could see the outline of them on the outside and I felt that when done up the jacket looked too plain and kind of ‘so so’. Finally, I sewed on six decorative buttons and, at last, I was happy!

All in all, as jackets go, I don’t think that this was a very complicated one to make. The Burda instructions were, as always, pretty skimpy but, with the exception of their collar joining method (where I did my own thing!), I managed to follow most of what they were saying.

I’m hoping I’ll get a lot of wear out of this jacket. It’s nice and warm (I’ve underlined it as well as lined it) and I think that the shapely style means that it can be worn with dresses as well as more casually with a pair of jeans.

So, jacket done! Next up is yet another dress………

planning for spring sewing

Firstly I would like to thank everybody who left me comments of sympathy over my dose of flu - I really did appreciate your kind words. I am happy to report that I am feeling much better. In fact the last few days have been rather pleasant because I no longer feel terrible but my status as recovering invalid has allowed me to wallow on the sofa, eating hot buttered toast and Digestive biscuits brought to me by my lovely husband. Whilst doing this I have had beside me a large box of patterns and a huge pile of Burda magazines and have been planning all the wonderful garments I am going to make!

I’m think I’m having a bit of a Burda thing at the moment because I have just bought these new patterns from their catalogue. This one, Burda 7557 is a fitted dress -

Then Burda 7628, which is a looser fitting dress with a jacket -

Lastly, Burda, 7509, for a really easy top which I think will be nice in cotton, linen or silk -

Also some fabrics that I had ordered from Gorgeous Fabrics before I got the flu made a timely arrival to cheer me up. Yes, I know that I have lots of fabric in my stash but I really had to have some lovely new, colourful spring fabrics, didn’t I?


From left to right. Multi-coloured cotton with some stretch. White cotton sateen, also with stretch, which I think will make a nice lightweight jacket and/or a skirt. Linen with a waffle texture called “arrest me red” (how can you resist a fabric with that name!). Turquoise linen with a huge green and pink flower print - I know that as a short person I shouldn’t really choose large prints but, there it is, I have and I like it!

So, here is my plan. I’m going to finish my white wool jacket (I have made some progress on that). Then I’m going to make one more dress from my winter fabric stock. After that I’m going to start sewing up at least some of my new fabric purchases using my new Burda patterns and one or two designs picked out from old Burda magazines. I want to make some quick, casual clothes ready to take on vacation. I’m feeling quite excited by it all – it looks like I’m going to have to get up off the sofa and get busy.

Have you made a spring sewing plan or are you still working through your winter stash?

I love to sew but ........

Here’s some good advice for everyone – if your temperature goes above 100 degrees, step away from the sewing machine! I hope your week has been better than mine because I’ve spent it in a semi-delirious, coughing, sneezing wretched state caused by the flu. Not the “oh I’ve got a touch of flu” kind of flu but the real, authentic, “I’ve never felt so ill in my life!” wailing kind of flu. However, although I am still feeling extremely vulnerable and very pathetic, my temperature has now returned to normal and I can at least see the vague possibility of life returning to what it once was.

But enough of my self-pity, let’s talk sewing! I have, of course, achieved nothing in the last week but in the couple of days before my viral meltdown forced me off to bed I had begun work on the jacket that I have mentioned I was planning. After much indecision I chose this pattern


which is style no. 120 from Burda Magazine, August 2009. I’m using some wool coating fabric in ‘winter white’ and I’m lining it with the fabric that I showed you in my earlier post. I’ve traced the pattern, made a muslin, cut the fabric and hand basted an underlining to the main pieces.

This was my first time using a Burda Magazine half size pattern and, when it came to fitting, I was quite excited because, although I still had to do an fba, I didn’t have to do my usual petite adjustments (for short waist, short arms etc). Hey, at only 5’ 2” tall, – I’m a half size! Now I know this, I’m going to be taking a closer look at Burda half size patterns in future.

It’s very frustrating seeing my jacket in pieces and being too feeble to get to my sewing machine but I’m hoping there will be some progress with it very soon. In the meantime, I think it’s going to have to be back to the sofa with a big box of tissues, a hot drink and yet another undemanding, made for TV, movie!

My Liberty print fabric is now a shirt!

My rather expensive Liberty print fabric, that I bought last month, has now been turned into a shirt -

Perhaps, at this point, I should reveal a little bit of my personal shirt history. I haven’t owned a long sleeve shirt since, probably, the late 1980’s – in those days shirts were much looser and, indeed, I was much smaller and, whilst the fit was never perfect, I could buy one RTW that was at least passable. Throughout the 90’s fashion got more fitted and my figure got curvier and I discovered that narrow shoulders and a full bust meant that if a shirt fitted my shoulders I couldn’t do it up and if I could do it up my arm movement was restricted by overhanging shoulders. I shudder to recall the many depressing changing room scenes where desperate sales assistants have attempted to button me into some hideously unflattering garment. Since taking up sewing last year I have been determined to make myself a well fitting classic shirt – the sort of thing that all the style gurus say is a must for any wardrobe.

I chose this pattern

which is pattern number 105 from the September 2009 issue of Burda Magazine. As I mentioned in my previous post, I liked that it was “slightly-fitted” and had a double-layered shoulder yoke, a narrow collar and curved hem. It took me two muslins to get something that I was happy with. I started by tracing the size 38 and making a 1” FBA but eventually decided that this was too fitted from the armholes down (I wanted a ‘relaxed’ fit) and was too big around the shoulders. So I started again with a size 36 for the neck and shoulders, grading out to a size 40 for the body and made a small FBA. I also made a petite adjustment across the front, back and sleeves just above the armhole notches, shortened the sleeves and cut the cuffs at a size 36. See what I mean? That’s a lot of fitting adjustments isn’t it? Next time I might be able to fine tune the fit a bit more but, on the whole, I’m pretty ecstatic that I’ve got a shirt that doesn’t gape at the bust and allows me to actually move my arms.

When it came to making it up I have to confess that the stitch ripper was constantly at my side with this one. I can’t blame Burda because their instructions were fine as far as Burda magazine goes. No, it was me not paying attention to what I was doing – Burda give you a nice way of sewing the outer and inner yokes on to the back and front pieces so that everything is neatly enclosed but I managed to sew the outer yoke on inside out! Or, it was me changing my mind – at first I chose to do the topstitching using a dark, navy blue topstitching thread but after doing the first line of topstitching on the back yoke I decided that it would be too overpowering so I ripped that out and switched to a regular thread in a mid-blue that disappears and lets the pattern do the talking.

Here’s a close-up picture of the neat little collar and, if you look closely you can, hopefully, just make out the lines of the yoke and the topstitching.

The funny thing is that, once I was done, although I really liked it as a garment on the hanger, when I put it on me I wasn’t so sure that this style suited me – I felt that it just wasn’t me! However, Mr Fabulous told me I was wrong, so I wore it out shopping for the day and, you know what, by the end of the day I decided that I really did like it on me after all. So, here’s another, full length, picture of me in my new smart-casual wardrobe basic.

Looks like I’ve found my TNT shirt pattern – thanks Burda!

LIBERTY OF LONDON

Being a London girl I felt that I really couldn't go another week without mentioning that great bastion of British style - Liberty of London

Strolling past last week I felt an irresistible urge to enter and was pretty glad I did because they had a sale on and this was my opportunity to indulge myself with a piece of their Liberty print Tana Lawn fabric. It's lovely stuff, it really is, but it's not cheap! Their regular price is £19.95 per metre (approx. US$ 33.00) - that's a lot for some cotton isn't it? So I was pretty pleased to get a discount. There's a lot to choose from - if you'd like to take a look at their range, here is the link to Liberty's Fabric Department.

After some indecision I went for this one, called Valerie's Garden

Liberty prints have always been popular but, as I'm sure you're aware, in the last couple of years they've been achieving iconic fashion status . Both Gap and Nike have included Liberty prints in their ranges and several designers have used them in their recent collections, including Marc Jacobs -

Now, I'm a big admirer of Mr Jacobs but unfortunately, at my age, I don't think the above dress would be quite right for me! So what am I going to do with my prize piece of fabric? I thought I would go down the more traditional route and make a classic shirt. I did make a shirt last year but, to be honest it was fairly hideous and didn't fit me right so I'm still searching for my TNT classic shirt pattern and I need to be sure the muslin is pretty perfect before I cut into my Liberty print. I'm thinking that I might try this pattern, no. 105, from last month's Burda Magazine
I'm looking for something not too fitted but not baggy and I like the yoke, the shape of the collar and the curved hem of this style. I'm hoping this might be the one!

So, what do you think about Liberty print fabric - do you love it or hate it? Is it too much 'old-fashioned English country garden' or do you see the iconic style possibilities? Can you get it where you live and, if so, is it expensive? I'd love to know ........