Skirt Update and Other Bits & Bobs

Good news, I just read today that Burda Style have released the skirt pattern as a download so if you don't have the magazine or cannot face the tracing sheets of doom then you can buy it here.

LisaB asked if the twist adds bulk at the front - well it does a bit yes which is why fabric choice is really important if you are sensitive about that.  You need something thin, yet drapy enough to hang properly - my cotton is on the floaty side.  I'm also thinking about shifting the twist detail to the side front, something like this skirt by Karen Millen.  I even like the colour and I am not a yellow fan at all - finally the trend for bright colours may be sinking in.

I get my Burda magazine through a local bookstore who reserve it for me each month and I usually get it here in Hong Kong around the end of the preceding month.  However April's arrived a bit early and I picked it up yesterday.  Expect to see these 2 patterns from me soon, I love them both.

Top 115

Alberta Ferretti dress 147

For a blog that is supposed to be a gallery of stuff I've made I realise there is not much going on here!  However I have actually finished 2 dresses in the last few weeks, I just need to get around to photographing them so hopefully they will be up here soon.  Then I have 2 more cut out - you have been warned - dress season is here folks!

And last, but by no means least, a huge thank you to both SewBarbie and Stepalica for nominating me for awards.  I will study the rules and come back with a proper post on those soon.

Burda Style 03/2012 - 128 Skirt

Well the sun that I was so excited to see last week has gone and it is now raining and chilly!  I'm soldiering on with summer sewing regardless.

I thought this skirt in the March 2012 issue of Burda was really interesting, although I rarely wear skirts with a tucked in top (I don't know why when I am happy to wear a dress?) so a bit of wardrobe experimentation will be required.  Still even just a few years ago I had never worn a shift dress and now, as you no doubt already know,  I love them so a bit of a shake up might be a good thing.

Here's the pattern per Burda

This is my muslin version (hence no pockets) and I liked it enough to stick a zip in and finish the edges to make it wearable, but I think it would work much better in something more drapy and weightier (but not bulkier) than my crazy raspberry hawaii print lightweight cotton.  This version will be fine for very casual hot days, or for beach holidays (I have one booked for May, yay!), but I think I'll make a more sophisticated version for city wear.

Waistband close up

Back view

I often buy cotton like this when I see it at the market to use as muslin if nothing plain is available cheaply.  Speaking of the market Nancy K asked if I could speak Cantonese and the answer, embarrassingly after 11 years here, is no not really, just the absolute basics.  This is usually enough and like markets anywhere in the world you can go a long way with fingers and a calculator.  Some of the stallholders have more than one stall or sit out the back drinking tea and playing mahjong and just leave a notice with their mobile number on to call if you want to buy anything.  Not sure my Cantonese is up to that so I tend to only go to the manned stalls - the market is pretty big so in a way this makes it a bit less overwhelming.

Worn here with the Jalie empire T I made recently.  It looks black here but actually picks up the wine colour in the skirt. Try and imagine sun, palm trees and blue skies....

If you decide to make this, in addition to choosing the fabric carefully, here are some tips;

This pattern has an unusual shaped front and I found it really useful to write "top" and "side seam" on my traced pieces (they are marked on the pattern).  The instructions are actually OK in that they worked, but I think one step in the instructions is wrong.  About 2/3 into paragraph 2 Burda says;

"Pull integrated yoke of left front skirt panel out from inside, through opening in right side seam..."

The opening is actually in the centre front seam.  Once the front is in one piece it is just like any basic skirt pattern so I didn't use the instructions at all after that.

I think this could work in a jersey without the zip.  I know there is a similar jersey skirt in the same magazine (#118) but it is just made from a rectangle of fabric which just sounds too easy to look good.  Has anyone tried it?

Reasons to be Cheerful

1) It's Friday!

2) My new patterns arrived.  I tried to be restrained and not buy things that I already have versions of somewhere, but I wasn't completely sensible as - surprise - they are all dress patterns.

Vogue Easy Options 8787

Vogue 1287 DKNY dress

McCall's 6163 Knit mock wrap dress

3) Most excitingly, Spring is here!  At least for the weekend, so here I am on our roof wearing my new dress while I can.

I've started on a (possibly wearable) muslin of the twisty waistband skirt from March Burda (#128) so look out for that next.

Burda Style 08/2011 - 116 cowl dress

Actually this is only half of the dress in the title - I was a little nervous that the skirt part would be unflattering on me (Cidell ended up not liking hers either but turned it into a top she loves).  So I decided to use the top of this dress and the skirt and elastic waist treatment from the McCall's pattern that I just made to be on the safe side.

There really isn't very much to say about the construction, I just kind of cobbled the two easy patterns together.  I sliced the Burda dress pattern about 1 inch below the marked waistline.  It was wider than the McCall's skirt so I took in the side seams a bit and then stretched the skirt to fit - since I was adding some elastic into the waist seam anyway I figured it didn't have to match exactly.

Here is my finished dress - in retrospect I am sure I could have used the original Burda pattern and just added a belt.  But why make life easier right!?  I really like the cowl neck & sleeve design of this dress - I may well give the original Burda dress a go, perhaps adding some length to the skirt so I can belt it.

This dress has elastic sewn in the waist seam as per the McCall's pattern, but I also made a tie belt with leftover fabric.

Close up of the bodice.

I hurt my knee last week (it's better now) which meant I couldn't go to the gym and this tends to make me rather cranky!  So I decided to go to the fabric market instead and found some gems!  Pretty excited to get working with these pieces.

Silk charmeuse animal print 

Mystery grey floral

Sheer feather print

Extremely wide border print fabric, wonder if it was made for bed linen?  Here is a close up of the colours.

Most of the width of the piece

Mosaic print jersey - sadly just an odd shaped offcut, will see what I can do with it

Who needs another sequin t?  me apparently, just could not resist this lovely bronze on black mesh piece

I have ideas for some of these but I ordered a few new patterns in the last sale so am just waiting for those to arrive, along with Spring!

McCall's 6319 Jersey Dress

Here in Hong Kong we recently got a hint of Spring and I was inspired to whip up a warm weather dress. Although this was super quick and easy to make, alas our mini Spring was over before the dress was finished. Still, for once in my sewing life I am ahead of the game and ready for some sun!

This was a popular pattern last year - McCall's 6319 a knit dress pattern with pleats and neckline variations. I made view A but without the exposed shoulder zipper - I do really like that detail but I didn't have anything suitable in my stash and I just wanted to get on with it, you know?

Here is the finished dress, it's in a sort of aqua / turquoise ITY jersey from Fabric.com.  

(With purchased pewter snakeskin print belt from Armani Exchange)

The pattern calls for a lined bodice which I decided was unnecessary - of course then I had to figure out how to finish the edges.  I decided to apply a strip of binding to the right side of the neck and arm edges which is then understitched, turned in and topstitched with a twin needle.  I had cut the binding much wider than I needed to which made it easier to handle and then just trimmed the excess close to the stitching.  

I remembered as I was doing a sleeve to take some photos if my explanation makes no sense!

Armhole from right side after sewing facing strip (in the flat, before the side seams were sewn) and understitching to the seam allowances

Same as the above but from the wrong side

Fold facing strip to wrong side and hem with twin needle right side up

From the wrong side, the excess facing strip is trimmed off close to the stitching line

I don't know if I stretched the neckline a bit unevenly doing this (maybe all that stitching is just too much, sure looks neat though!) or if the one shoulder pleats and lack of lining support affect the drape, but my neckline does have some extra wrinkles on it and seems to hang a bit lopsided, and it looks even more obvious now I see these photos.  Oh well, since it is asymmetric anyway I am hoping I can get away with it as unpicking anything does not appeal and would probably make it worse!  

Also, the pleats at the skirt and neckline are quite subtle, if I make this again I would like to make them a bit more exaggerated - does anyone have any suggestions how I would do that - slash and spread and make the pleats deeper / add more of them?