Butterick 5602 - the shapely shift!

As my last two makes were useful wardrobe basics I gave myself permission to indulge myself with another dress – I just love to make dresses! Since finishing my Chanel inspired dress (blogged about here) I have been eager to make another version of the pattern. Here’s what I came up with


Butterick 5602 shift dress


This is the pattern

Butterick 5602 pattern envelope

Last time I made the one with sleeves, this time I made the version pictured on the right (but without the bow at the neck – it’s not that I don’t like bows, I do, but I just didn’t want a bow on this).

The fabric is a wool challis, called ‘Stingray Frieze’ purchased from Vogue Fabrics. I love the print and it has a beautiful (in the words of Vogue Fabrics) “featherweight weave” and “alluring drape” - it certainly is lovely and light to wear. I used a plain black wool challis for the neck and hem bands and I lined it with my favourite bemberg rayon lining.

There’s not a lot else to say about this pattern – it’s a simple shift dress, nicely shaped and fairly fast and easy to make. So, moving on, I’m going to reveal what I’m working on right now, which is this skirt from the October issue of Burda Style.


Burda Style October 2011 #119

Despite liking lots of patterns in Burda Style magazine I haven’t actually made one for a while. I think that what has been putting me off is that since they have been printing twice as many patterns on each of their pattern sheets it is a REAL PAIN to trace them. (Hello, people who run Burda Style – did you hear that?) But I bit the bullet and got on with it. However, I do have a tip to make it a little easier. Before you lay the tracing paper on the pattern sheets, take a brightly coloured highlighter pen and go over the lines for each of the pattern pieces in the size that you want to trace.
 

The pattern pieces I want are highlighted in yellow

If you do this, it is much easier to identify through the tracing paper the lines that you should be following. It’s still a pain, but not quite so bad! Now the worst bit is over, the skirt is coming along nicely. So, more about that soon …

Burda Style skirt + top = tropical madness!

For approximately 360 days of the year my latest sewn outfit looks crazily optimistic when worn in my home city of London. But last week we just happened on a few 'heatwave' days that made me glad I hadn't totally lost faith in the sun ever shining on us again.


I'll have a Tequila Sunrise please!

Both the skirt and top are made from Burda Style magazine patterns that are easy to make. The skirt is pattern no. 114 from July 2008.


Burda Style #114, July 2008

I have made the pattern before (blogged about here) but this time I left out the eyelets and tie on the front yoke because I wanted a slightly more streamlined, less sporty look (and, yes, I was being lazy!). The fabric I used is 100% cotton.

The top is taken from an even older issue of Burda, it's pattern no. 119 from the July 2007 issue.  


Burda Style #119, July 2007

 
This is also an old favourite revisited because I first made a version of the top over two years ago. I kept meaning to make another one and I'm happy that I finally have. I like the style a lot - the gathers that go into the button band add some interest and nice shaping. The fabric I used is a silk that I have had in my stash for ages. 


Top out, more casual!

I hope that my choice of fabrics hasn't put you off these two really nice patterns. A dazzling sunshine yellow skirt paired with a bright and splashy flower print top is not everyone's cup of tea. I know that it's not really 'city chic' but sometimes I just can't help myself. I find I am irresistibly drawn to colours and prints that make me look like I have just stepped off a cruise ship. Is your wardrobe firmly rooted in your home climate or do you, like me, sometimes sew as if you are on a semi-permanent tropical vacation? Or, perhaps you actually do live in a hot-spot, in which case, do you sew as if you are hoping for snow?

Two tops from Burda Style magazine

I do like how Burda Style magazine has, over the years, produced some interesting patterns for fairly easy to make tops. For my vacation in Miami I picked out two that I thought would make useful beach cover-up tops. This one is taken from the July 2009 issue, pattern no. 109B

I was inspired by the magazine photograph.

Burda describe it as “cool and seductive” and I liked that it looked kind of loose and carefree. I was definitely right about it being loose but it isn’t quite as carefree as I wanted it – one false move and it is very revealing! Burda magazine patterns are funny like that. I find that, mostly, the folks at Burda tend to favour a tight fit but every now and then they completely throw you and draft something like this. I normally make a Burda size 40 but for this I made a size 36 and still it was HUGE. The only thing that stops it falling off me completely is that the back neck is stabilized with Vilene bias tape and, therefore, can’t stretch. This top is fine for the beach because I am wearing a bikini underneath it but, to be honest, the front is so low that I can’t see me wearing it in respectable society without risking embarrassment!

I think I will get a lot more wear out of this one, which is pattern no. 110A from the February 2011 issue of Burda Style

It is meant to be a shirt but as it is quite boxy I think it also works nicely as a shirt-jacket. It has a convertible collar and nice little ties at the end of the sleeves. Here how it looks in the magazine: I used a Liberty print cotton lawn (expensive but very nice!). I should also mention the buttons

which I purchased in my favourite UK button store, called Duttons for Buttons. It is a lovely old-fashioned shop with very helpful staff but as it is in Harrogate, which is about 200 miles from London, I don’t get there very often. However, it is nearer than my absolute favourite button store, Tender Buttons, which is in New York, about 3,500 miles from where I live! I think getting the right buttons is very important but it is surprising how difficult it can be. Sometimes in London I find myself going to half a dozen places until I find exactly what I want. How picky are you when it comes to buttons and do you have trouble finding the right buttons where you live?

the first skirt of spring!

In my last post I promised (myself as well as you!) that my next garment would be something easy. This skirt, made from pattern 114 in the July 2008 issue of Burda Magazine, is certainly that but it does have some very nice details.

Here’s the line drawing so you can get a clearer idea of what’s going on with it
Burda’s description: “Your favourite skirt boasts loads of topstitching lines on the hem and a wide, shaped hip yoke with eyelets and tie bands for a sporty look.” Some of these details, especially the rows of topstitching, don’t show up very well in the photograph but in real life they do work nicely.

The fabric I used is an African print cotton. I would love to tell you that I purchased this in some exotic, far-flung location but, in fact I bought it from a market stall in Leeds (Yorkshire in the north of England). I absolutely LOVE African prints, the colours are always so alluring and the designs so wonderfully attractive. It appears I am not alone, African prints often make an appearance on the runway - L.A.M.B. featured some fabulous African prints in their Spring 2011 show

image courtesy of Style.com

But back to my skirt. The most nerve-racking part about making this skirt is adding the eyelets

There you are, with your skirt all beautifully constructed and you have to take a pair of scissors and cut two holes in the front yoke. Yikes! But, fear not, a couple of sturdy eyelets, a few confident bashes with a hammer and all is well again. If you have never done this before, I would, however, recommend at least one trial run with some scrap fabric just to be sure you know which way round to place the eyelets and how hard you need to wield the hammer.

I really enjoyed making this skirt – fun to make and easy to wear. I hope your Spring sewing has got off to a good start?

Burda Style magazine - the turtleneck top

Thanks to everyone for your very nice comments about my shiny black satin and lace ‘glamorous’ dress featured in my last post. However, I clearly cannot spend all my time drinking champagne at Claridges whilst wearing fancy outfits. No, I’m afraid that my everyday life requires something a little more basic. Cue the turtleneck top, pattern 121, from the September issue of Burda Style magazine.

This top turns out to be a nice cosy garment to wear with jeans, it keeps the winter wind from chilling my neck and, with a little bit of styling, it’s not totally boring. I particularly love the overlong sleeves. I used a rayon knit that is very soft and drapey but not too fine. And making this top gave me the opportunity to use my cover stitch machine for the hems (I am thrilled to bits with my new toy).

I think quite a lot of people have already made this pattern and I have no doubt that many more will be making it throughout the winter. It is shockingly easy to make. Here’s the technical drawing

It’s just a front, back and sleeves and there are so few instructions needed that even Burda have managed to make them not too inscrutable! I did depart a little from their instructions in that instead of adding 5/8” seam allowances I added only ¼” because I think that smaller seam allowances work much better when using a serger to construct a garment. Also, I attached the sleeves in the flat – i.e. before sewing the side seams. I decided this would be much easier than having to set them in afterwards.

Before I go, I must mention my trip to Yorkshire the week before last. If you ever get a chance to go to Yorkshire, jump at it. It is very lovely and I had a wonderful time. While I was there I bought some fabric in Leeds market

Firstly an African print cotton – it might seem a little bit odd to go to Yorkshire and buy African cotton but the lady who ran this stall had so many lovely prints that I just couldn’t resist. Next a remnant of purple knit fabric – there’s about a yard and it only cost £2.50. Lastly some very nice 100% English wool which is a sort of denim shade of blue with tiny black squares – I think this will make a very nice skirt.

I also visited Duttons for Buttons, in Harrogate. They claim to be the largest stockist of buttons in the UK and I believe them, it was a real treasure trove. I could have spent hours in there but I contented myself with about twenty minutes and just a couple of purchases. So, I bought some fabric I don’t need and some buttons that I don’t know what I’m going to do with. But I’m very happy with all my purchases and isn’t that what we sewists do when on vacation?

Have a great weekend everyone ….

June Burda Magazine, skirt #112 – finished!

The latest edition of Burda Magazine arrived on Sunday morning and I decided that this month, instead of deliberating, I would just plunge right in on my favourite. Pattern 112 called to me, I happened to have a metre of linen in my stash, so here it is


I liked this pattern because, although it isn’t difficult, there’s quite a lot of interesting things going on with it. It has inseam pockets, pleats on one side of the front, a pleated patch pocket with a flap and a hem band. I really enjoyed making this one. Here’s the line drawing

I have to confess that Burda’s instructions for the inseam pockets had me slightly puzzled at first. When sewing this kind of pocket in the past I have sewn the pocket pieces onto the back and front skirt pieces then sewn the side seams and round the pocket all in one. Burda have you sew the side seams first (but not across the pocket openings) then you attach the pocket pieces to the seam allowances, then you sew the pocket pieces together. I like to try new things, so I did it their way and, what do you know, it worked out fine!

I did, however, depart from Burda’s instructions when it came to the hem band. The pattern tells you to cut the band with a 4cm hem which you are supposed to sew in place by hand. I decided it would be neater and give the bottom of the skirt more body if I cut the hem band so that it was double the finished depth plus seam allowances. I attached it right sides together to the skirt, folded it over to the inside and stitched it to the joining seam. Inside the skirt looks like this.

I should also mention that I added an inch or so to the length – I can’t quite carry off a very short skirt anymore!

My other pick from the June Burda magazine is this tunic pattern

I like the neckline and the neat little pleats at the front. But I won’t be making this one just yet because next on my list is a dress from Vogue 8555…………….. more on that soon!

Burda Style May issue and some new fabrics!

I love it when the latest issue of Burda Style magazine arrives. Never mind that I have enough patterns in my stash or, indeed, enough back issues of Burda to keep me sewing for A Very Long Time! No, the excitement of having new patterns never seems to diminish.

This month just two styles jumped out as being realistic propositions that I might actually get around to sewing some time.

Firstly this cute looking blouse, pattern 128, (which, by the way, was my DH’s pick of the month)
I especially like it because I think it could also work, in the right fabric, being worn as a light weight little jacket over summer clothing.

Secondly, these shorts, pattern 136, also caught my eye.
These are part of the Take 1 Make 4 designs but this style attracted me because it has an invisible side zipper (rather than a fly front) which I thought would look quite neat. Burda suggests that I wear these “showing off beautifully sun-tanned legs while shopping or partying!” That’s a laugh – my legs are the colour of milk bottles and, at my age, if I wore something that short out shopping, or even partying, I’d probably get arrested. However if I add a little to the length I think I would get away with these on the beach or poolside.

Talking of things arriving, my latest order from Gorgeous Fabrics was delivered yesterday. I’m just going to say that this order was placed in the recent one day sale and I limited myself to two fabrics, no more excuses or justifications! Here’s a picture


The one on the left is a cotton fabric, in a beautiful print, which I had planned to use for a shirt but when my DH saw it he thought it would make a really nice skirt and, as it has quite a lot of body, I think that he’s right.

The one on the right is a “Luxe Stretch Silk/Cotton Floral Twill” and I’m completely in love with it. It has the most fabulous drape and texture. This has to be a dress. I have one or two options in mind but I need to be sure - this is such a lovely fabric that I don’t want to risk a disaster!

In the meantime my home is still a bit of a building site – our kitchen renovations are continuing (but progressing nicely) and we now have a carpenter working on new shelving in the bedroom. However, amongst all this, some sewing is still going on so I’ll be posting about that very soon ……

Burda Magazine, April #105, ruffle top - finished!

As I was making this one it was definitely coming under the heading of Never Again!

Burda give this top a two dot “Easy to Sew but More Time Consuming” rating and I have to say that, although it was reasonably easy in the sense that it wasn’t too difficult to figure out what you had to do, it was a bit of a pain to put together. There’s all that curved ruffle hemming, which is a little bit tricky to get perfect, and then getting the bodice with the slit neck, the two ruffles, the facing and the collar all layered and sewn together accurately wasn’t very easy for me. But, hey, don’t they say no pain, no gain?

And there was some gain because, once I had completed it, I have to say that all my frustration and irritation with it was (almost) forgotten and now I really like it. There’s something about the frivolity of ruffles that I love! Here’s a picture


And here’s a close up of the ruffles (sorry that it’s not very easy to see the detail because of the colourful print)


The neckline is quite low but I did actually raise the slit by an inch. To alter the bodice front I just redrew the marking for the start of the slit a bit higher and traced the facing piece to match. After that however it was necessary to alter the ruffle piece where the ruffles are attached to the neckline slit. To do this I pinched out an inch at the inner curved edge of the ruffle pattern where it joins the bodice front, then folded it so that on the other side (the part of the ruffle that is free) the curved edges met up – this creates a wedge shape that is taken out of the ruffle. Here’s a picture of the altered pattern piece so you can, hopefully, see what I mean


The other change I made (which I mentioned in my last post) is that when making a muslin for this top, I discovered that I didn’t need a zip. I guess, however, if you want to make it to be more closely fitting then you might need one but mine comes on and off very easily without. The fabric, in case you are interested, is a cotton and silk voile: it’s sheer but not see-through, very lightweight and very nice to wear.

So, that’s done, what’s next? The weather here in London is quite remarkably sunny (and no evidence of Icelandic volcanic dust to be seen!) so I am thinking that another summery garment will be in order.

Burda magazine quick and easy A-line skirt

Way back at the beginning of March I mentioned that I was making this skirt, pattern 104 from the February issue of Burda Style magazine

So, you might be wondering, where is it? Well, with all the distractions of my Miami vacation, an eagerness to complete my skirt with the bow and my kitchen remodelling project, I now realise that I have been holding out on you! I did indeed complete not one but two! of these skirts in a mad frenzy of sewing in the days prior to my vacation. Here is the first one

It’s made in a classic white cotton stretch sateen and I have lined it with a light weight nude coloured bemberg rayon (which is an excellent stash stand-by). The pattern doesn’t call for a lining but with a white fabric to be worn in the sunlight it’s usually a good idea. Here’s a picture of the lining

Because I liked the first one so much I was inspired to throw together another one made from some printed cotton I had left over from a dress. This one I didn’t line, so it was even quicker to make.


There’s nothing particularly exciting about this skirt pattern but it does make a great summer basic – it has handy cut-in pockets, a curved waistband and an A-line shape that’s very comfortable to wear. If you’re looking for a casual skirt and want it fast, I would definitely recommend giving this one a try.

Moving swiftly on to what’s happening right now. Most of my kitchen units have now been installed so I have been able to move enough boxes out of the living room to make some sewing space. In between talking to the electrician, plasterer, tiler, window blind installer, carpenter and floor layer I have been making a muslin for this blouse, pattern 105 from this month’s issue of Burda magazine.
The fit is looking good so I am hoping to complete it soon. In the meantime, if you are thinking of making this one, I do have a tip – check that you actually need to insert the side zip. With my muslin I discovered that I don’t – I can easily get it on (and off!) without one.

More soon

The first dress of spring - Burda Style 7557

I’m going on vacation next week and in an ideal world I would have started sewing a beautifully co-ordinated vacation wardrobe some months ago. But I didn’t. I really must work on my time management skills! I have, however, completed this

The pattern is this one

It's Burda Style 7557, which comes in petite sizes 18 to 25, designed for short, half size people like me! If, however, you are a regular size person, you might be interested to know that this pattern is exactly the same as Burda Style pattern no. 7774 which comes in sizes 36 to 50. Burda describe it as “a slender dress with empire waist, fitted and feminine, with a low neckline”. When they say fitted, they weren’t kidding! I made up a muslin, using my regular Burda size, and it was snug. To be fair to Burda I wouldn’t say it was technically too small I would just say that personally I prefer for a daytime dress to be a little less figure hugging. When cutting the actual fabric I just added a little to the side seams which gave me the breathing space I needed!

I made it in a stretch cotton that I purchased from Gorgeous Fabrics. The pattern doesn’t include a lining and, as the fabric has some body and I wanted this to be a casual dress, I decided not to add a lining. However if I were to make it in the kind of satin fabric that Burda have used in their photographs, then I would have lined it.

The pattern suggests quite a lot of topstitching – the neckline, armholes, the darts and the empire waist seam. I like topstitching and I decided that with this print a heavy black thread would give it a nice definite, finished edge. I didn’t, however, topstitch the darts because I came to the conclusion that when you’ve got a D cup bust it might not be a good idea to have two black lines climbing up your front pointing to the bust apex. And, to keep it streamlined, I didn’t topstitch the empire waist seam either, just the neckline and armholes – here’s a close-up

I expect you’re wondering why I used a black zipper instead of a white one and, looking at this picture, so am I. When putting the zipper in I was only thinking of the outside not the inside – I’ll think it through better next time!

Anyway, with that now done, I am making this super easy A-line skirt, pattern 104 in the February issue of Burda magazine

Oh, and something I forgot to mention before, I’m doing the Understanding Knits online course on Pattern Review. I’m really enjoying it. What a revelation - who knew that there was so much to know about knit fabrics! I’ve never been entirely happy with my construction skills when making knits so I’m hoping this course will improve that. More soon ……