BWOF 06/2009-119, a near miss with a UFO

Well sorry for the long gap, must be that time of year when the brain wants a vacation- I have been sewing, but really not in the mood for taking photos and blogging, but now I am back!

First some comments to respond to;

Ann of Ann's Fashion Studio awarded me with a lovely blog award and I just want to say a huge thank you.  I feel bad that I dropped off the face of the blog planet as soon as she had given it to me.  Go check out Ann's blog if you haven't already seen it, she has been busy with a move recently too, but there are some gorgeous sewing projects in there, you have to see the Chanel style jacket.

Divitin asked where to get the pattern from my last post - Divitin, this pattern (and most of the things I make) are from a monthly magazine called Burda World of Fashion, or BWOF for short.  Actually I think it is just called Burda now - there is more information than you will ever need about how to use it and where to get it over at Pattern Review - click here.

Onto sewing, I promised co-ordinates, of course I ended up with separates that do not co-ordinate (yet)....

Here I am wearing the linen 122 shirt as promised;

Then I decided to make another top from the same issue - the ruffled blouse 119 in a brown and teal silk print (this is where I envisioned my co-ordinating pieces - brown, cream, teal, maybe a splash of coral - ah the best laid plans...). This is an unusual print that I won't describe as I don't want to be responsible for disappointed google searchers ending up on a sewing blog, but it's subtle, arty and tasteful I think!

I'll be honest I absolutely hated making this and it so nearly became a UFO, but now that it is finished (hooray!) I am happy with it and can hopefully wear it without bringing back painful memories. The main problems I had, in a nutshell were;

- using fabric which moved and slipped around so much it was practically alive.  However for this style to be successful it really does need something very drapy. You have been warned!

- not reading the instructions and cutting layout first. If you make this note that the back piece needs to be cut in two pieces - upper and lower. I've seen Burda have pieces that need to be joined but never separated, I guess the same blouse back must be used in another pattern without a seam.  I just put the casing over where there should have been a seam at the back so my top is slightly shorter than it should be.

- the instructions for the concealed button opening were absolutely terrible and made zero sense to me. I knew what it needed to look like when it was finished so I played with pins until I figured something out. It's a bit messy on the inside and I had to leave it several days while getting annoyed but it looks OK now.

OK enough whinging here it is;



Next, the skirt that was supposed to go with these two.