Burda 6-2013 Top 118, Modifying facings

I was surprised to find shaped facings in this pattern since the blouse I made not that long ago had the self facing used by RTW. Since my fabric is lightweight/sheer I did not want a big old facing on the front  so I referred to Claire Shaeffer's High Fashion Sewing Secrets from the World's Best Designers,

which explains how to add a self facing. In my case I already had a huge floppy facing =) so I cut it down according to her guidelines. Basically you need to figure out the width of your button band and add enough fabric twice to be able to fold it twice on itself. This is a wonderful book one that I refer to often.

Here is the pattern and how my blouse facing now looks after chopping off the facing.

Hope this is useful!

Burda 10/2008 Blouse 118

 We are back to having to take pictures indoors since I won't brave 40 deg weather to photograph a silk blouse. I need to do some research in how to take better indoor shots.

Anyways, this is my first silk blouse. I have been terrified of tackling slippery fabrics and while it will take me a while to recover, I'm so glad I made it!

 I think this blouse looks much better in person, between the indoor lighting and the fact that black is so hard to photograph, I struggled to get some good pictures.

I used covered buttons, it seems like the right thing to do with this kind of garment. As well as doing French seams, quoting Trena "it's the right thing to do with silk". I serged the first pass and then enclosed the serged edge. Thanks Trena!

 The fabric came from Metro Textiles, NYC a few years ago.

I don't know what I'm making next. There are so many things I would like to make that I can't decide what to work on first.

Road trip to Fabric Mart

Layla, Mary, Claudine, Cidell, me, Trena and Diane at Fabric Mart

I waited to the last minute to decide to join in at the fun at Fabric Mart. Cidell and Trena had invited their readers to join them there (near Reading, PA) Monday.

The trip there was not bad about 2 hours for me; Cidell, Trena and I kept asking ourselves why it had taken us so long to make this trip.

You can read all about what we did over at The Slapdash Sewist. I had no camera and Trena did a great job documenting our excursion. I did borrow the group picture ;-)

Everyone working at the shop was so nice and helpful; I was surprised to read Trena say we had spent 3 hours browsing, it really did not feel that long!

I fell in love with this fabric and could not leave without it. I originally thought of making a simple shift dress but I now I'm also considering using it for the ruffled pencil skirt of Marina's sew along. I will decide later... My other purchases included some basics to make skirts for work and ITY print that Cidell flaunted so I caved in ;-) At PA fabrics, in Lancaster, where some of us stopped at on our way home, I bought zippers and closures.

And look there is actually a collar fresh out of my sewing machine, and it is for me!

And as a refresher here is the line drawing of the pattern

Hopefully more to come soon!

How visible are you?

I recently discovered a new (to me) blog Not Dead Yet Style, catchy name no? I have enjoyed reading it so I decided to participate in Visible Monday.

The dress above I made last summer and I love it. I have always loved red (and orange as well) and while I feel very visible in this color, I also feel very me when wearing it. How many things stay constant through the years? not many.

My first thought when I started to write this post is that as sewers, knitters/crocheters of garments we want to be noticed, but always in a good way! We are proud of producing one of a kind and well fitted garments. I enjoyed the creative process and everything in between that leads to a garment I can be proud to wear and say "I made it!" if complemented on it.

How do you feel visible?

Burda 4/2011 123 Maxi skirt

So I finally got to make the linen maxi I wanted at the end of the summer, oh well. I used the linen from this other Burda dress. I still have fabric left.

The grain runs straight through the center of the side panels, front and back which gives this pattern a lovely drape. Because I needed a bit taken at the waist I did stay-stitch plus at the waistline and secured it with cotton stay tape, then I attached the waistband.

The invisible zipper goes in the seam of the right side back panel which made fitting this skirt a breeze, especially since I ended up taking in the side seams.

I did not line the skirt, I believe one of the versions is lined, also I eliminated the pockets. The linen was very drapey and shifted quite easily when cutting and sewing so I did not want to complicate things; I also like the close fit around the hips I was able to get without pockets.

This skirt was finished before the hurricane and I already wore it. I loved the feeling of the airy cool linen around my legs when moving and I love the ways it looks. This pattern would be great in wool crepe, and I think I see it in my future for fall and winter.

Burda Style 4/2011 114

I was inspired to make this top after seeing Lucky's trend "article" below.


I had liked this simple design when I saw it in Burda and I had planned to make the dress version. I found the striped almost sheer silk remmant and I decided to try out the pattern first as a top. I think it turned out cute to wear with capris and slim fitting skirts.

If you look at the magazine picture you can see the sleeve minicap fits closely on the model. I get a little bit of a wing which I think it's courtesy of my very narrow shoulders, even though I made my usual 38 for the shoulder area.

The armholes and neckline are finished with narrow facings which I finished using the technique that The Sewing Lawyer recently posted about. I have been doing my facings that way for a while, it gives a very clean finish. I believe these facings are so narrow that they caused problems insisting to flip out (even after understitching) so I topstitched to make them behave.







This is the first of my planned simple sewing, next up a dress!

Burda Style 10/2008 116

These pictures were a long time coming so Ta Dah!

For this jacket I used a double knit from Fabric Mart, I love the color and I originally was going to make a dress and then I came across this pattern and my plans change.

The jacket is unlined, I'm not showing you the inside because my serger thread is grey, so far the only color I have, not much of a match for this beautiful purple. No changes to the design or order of construction were made, just followed Burda's instructions. I did stitch the neckline facing down by stitching in the ditch, no flopping facings for me! I chose a black separating zipper, since I thought it would look nice with a black belt.

Do I like this jacket? Oh yes! It will fit very nicely with my existing wardrobe.

Worn here with Vogue 8663

Burda jacket is cut!

Yesterday I had some time and I was able to cut the jacket. I also stabilized neckline, armhole and front with fusible bias tape. Next I get to use my sewing machine!

Ready to be cut

is Burda 10/2008 # 116A. The fabric is a ponti di Roma knit which is the recommended fabric. This pattern has been reviewed favorably and I think it will make a great transtion jacket.

I love this issue of Burda I made a knit top years ago from it and now I have around 10 designs on my list to make.












Besides the flowers popping out in my yard, another sign of spring,
Clio patrolling her yard. While she loves her yard year round, as soon as it gets warmer she spends most of her days out rediscovering all the wonderful smells and sights.

A Burda skirt

Oops! I neglected to say that this is Burda Style 11-2009 #120

Like most of us I buy RTW to fill certain holes in my wardrobe but one item I refuse to buy is a skirt. Skirts are so easy to make plus I can make them fit my waist AND my hips. Right now I have an olive cotton pencil Patrones skirt that I reach for all the time so I thought I needed to add at least another "go with almost everything skirt".



I love the above skirt, I think it will look fantastic with boots. I have the wool tweed in the hot dryer with towels, trying Pam's method for pre-shrinking that everyone raves about.

Later I will let you see the wool, it is really gorgeous. I bought it at PA Fabric Outlet before it closed in Catonsville, MD.

Hope you have a sewing weekend!

Burda WOF 5-2008 Dress 121 Review

Today I got to wear my red dress so I wanted to share it with you.

This dress looks very easy to construct but the bodice is very labor intensive. The facings construction takes a while to figure out, it was a great help to read Tany's description on her blog. Like her I thread traced the facings and did a lot of hand basting.



I eliminated the wrap like so many reviewers did; I had 3 yards of my knit and that was enough for the simple skirt. The waistband as designed also is a wrap but I couldn't figure out what the instructions were telling me to do and I had decided to cut a simple panel and add the ties to the side seams.



Make sure you stabilize the shoulders your preferred way, I used Seams Great, because the skirt adds a lot of weight.



I love my red dress!

A mostly Burda outfit

Here is my completed outfit! I'm glad that it looks how I envisioned, isn't great when it works out that way?

Vogue 1020 Knit coordinates

I bought this pattern for the dress but I decided that I liked all the pieces so they will all get made at one point. I started with the cardigan which I made using a very nice rayon blend knit I've had for quite a few years. It was perfect for this pattern since it has a wonderful drape. The ties were supposed to be sewn wrong side in and turned but I couldn't manage it with my fabric so instead I cut 2 in wide strips and used my bias binding maker to make them. They look just fine.



Besides the ties the cardigan closes with a button and thread loop. I followed Susan Khalje's tutorial in the Threads magazine site and it worked great.





Burda Style magazine top 11-2006- 111

There isn't much to say about this top, couldn't have been easier to sew. The neckline and armholes are turned in and topstitched with a double needle. I loved the neckline!


Burda Style magazine 7-2010- 108 Twist bubble skirt

Following the advise of another reviewer I subtracted 1.5 in from the length of the lining to prevent it from showing. Even with that I can sometimes see the lining. Twisting the skirt as instructed by Burda does not give you a perfectly laying hem. Other reviewers have not twisted their skirt as much and their hems lie more uniformly. I liked the look of the skirt in the magazine so I didn't modify the instructions.

Burda 5-2008 Dress 121

I was all ready to pick which jacket I wanted to work on (or maybe a parka?) but remembered that I have had this dress traced and paired with a beautiful red knit for I guess 2 years. I still love this dress and I will wear it into fall with boots and a long sleeve tee.

The plan is to pre-treat the fabric and while that is going on I will recheck measurements on the pattern, since my body has been changing...sigh

I have my three piece outfit to review and show you, soon I hope.

It is a beautiful day today in my part of the world and I will probably go for a nice walk in the neighborhood. I need to get inspiration to repair my front steps, it helps to know what you want when talking to contractors.

My present project

My plan is to make an outfit that will work well together to take me into fall, there will be three new pieces to coordinate with existing pieces in my closet.



The fashion fabric is a light weight knit from Emma One Sock (it was called onionskin back when I bought a few years ago). To line it I used a poly blend knit from Fabric.com from their Lavender label Vera Wang collection that was almost given away. The lining fabric has a nice weight that makes for a nice drape at the hem.



As you can see the skirt is done but I'm waiting for the other pieces to show you the whole look.

In my desire for giving myself enough ease at the waist and hip I made the skirt a little too big for me. I corrected some by easing some of the extra at the waist. I think the technique is called stay-stitch plus? Basically you put your finger behind the presser foot while you sew to gather in extra fullness. I learned watching Sandra Betzina doing it in her old Home and Garden tv show. I added stay tape also for stability.



I will also make a tank top from Burda magazine, it is basic but has a pretty neckline. I will give you the issue later. I will be using leftover fabric from this dress

Lastly I want to make the cardigan from this Vogue pattern, I hope I have enough fabric, I bought it a long time ago when I was a little skimpy with yardage, will let you know!

Simplicity 2512

I finished this Cynthia Rowley skirt a couple of days ago. It is a shape I haven't worn since I was much younger (and my hips were smaller) so I wasn't too sure how I was going to like it. Of course I have nothing in my closet to wear with it so I can properly see the effect on me. I want a top that will add width to my very narrow shoulders to balance out the hips. More on the top in a little bit...

The fabric is from my modest stash from PR weekend in Philadelphia and it turned out to be a strange fabric. When I first saw it I thought it was a woven but it turned out to have stretch. Once I washed it the texture change, it became spongier and very stretchy. I found out though that even with all that lycra it wrinkles by just looking at it. I also had to be careful since ironing left shine on the surface. The fabric cost all of $2 so I'm not that upset.



I used Bemberg rayon in gray for the pockets (like the pockets!) to reduce bulk. This fabric is considerably bulky; when inserting the invisible zipper the area where the facing joins the skirt was quite hard to handle, and I couldn't really pressed and pound with the clapper because the fabric showed it.



I'm not happy with the instructions in the zipper area. After you apply the binding you just turn the seam allowance in and place your zipper on top, you are supposed to leave the zipper top just hanging there? I un-stitched part of the binding and place the zipper top to be enclosed by it. I'm still not happy with how it looks but because I realized that this fabric was kind of a bust I let it go. For binding I used a poly brocade from Joann's to give this fabric some much needed...something...it just looked bland to me.



Okay so what to wear with it...I like the shape of the top in the envelope, so I went through my patterns/magazines and came up with this pattern. I thought the peplum will be hidden under the skirt and the top would "blouse" nicely .



The reason that I picked it is that I found the royal blue fabric you see in the picture and thought it might work. Now my fear is that this outfit will scream 1980's and I have been there, done that. I don't mind channeling the look but I don't want to go straight there. I'm also not the matchy-matchy type. What do you think? what color would you wear with it?