BurdaStyle 03/2013 - 124 Shirt

I really cannot explain why I decided to make this shirt without looking like a bit of an idiot, but here goes.  I chose this pattern from BurdaStyle 03/2013 - 124.  I liked the idea of the simple collar with no collar band and the tabs, but I thought the shape was too boxy.  Now the smart, well not even that smart, but the obvious thing to do would have been to select a shirt pattern that had the shape I wanted and add sleeve tabs, but no, I had to do it the other way round.

I used this elephant print cotton batiste, it reminds me of a mens tie print and I really liked the cream gold and turquoise colours.

Naturally I needed to make a lot of fitting changes to the body of the shirt involving lots of pinning, trying on, getting stabbed with pins, taking off, repinning blah blah.  Once I was happy with it I finished the seam with flat felled seams, finished the shirt, tried it on and...it is too small at the bustline!  Only a tiny bit, about 1-2cm, but enough so that it gapes if I am not standing super straight and not moving and more than I have any seam allowance to adjust for.  The buttons and buttonholes are down the centre of the bands so I can't move those either.

I often wear shirts open in the summer, like a lightweight jacket so this isn't the end of the world, but I am really annoyed with myself for taking the dumb decision in the first place to make a square peg fit in a round hole!  Lesson learned hopefully.

My dressform does stand super straight and not move so the fit is fine on it.

To add insult to injury, it was only after taking these photos that I realised I had not thought about the fact that the collar gets turned down so my elephants are rolling around on their backs on the collar!

The sleeve tab details that sent me off on the wrong pattern for me, although ironically I left off the tabs on the hem, they just looked odd once I had narrowed the shirt.

Shall we just pretend that this is how I intended to wear it all along?

Sewing Gifts - Babies & Kids Clothes

My friend recently had a baby girl so I decided to make some baby clothes, so cute, quick and fun to make.  I then realised I had better make her older daughter something too.

BurdaStyle 07/2008 134 Babies Dress & Pants

This set is made in some very sweet cherry printed cotton, there are a few silver glittery bits on the fabric so I was careful to use the wrong side of the fabric for the self lined yokes and armhole bias strips to avoid any scratchiness and flat felled all the exposed seams.

I added a small piece of satin ribbon so you can tell which is the back of the pants.

BurdaStyle 07/2009 - 139 Wrap Dress for Girls

I'm sure a wrap dress for little girls is an even more impractical choice than for us women, but I wanted to avoid any fit issues and maybe it will come in handy for getting dressed after the beach or pool?  I should have reinforced the neckline in some way, you can see it has rippled a bit, but otherwise I think this is really pretty and it was unbelievably quick and easy to make.  I'd quite like a bigger version for myself!

BurdaStyle 05/2012 - 119 Skirt

Some more scrapbusting sewing to use up this piece of embroidered cotton.  I chose this pleated skirt from Burda 05/2012 - 119, it's a pretty basic skirt and very easy to make, but has some nice details.

One thing I really liked about it is that the back is just a darted a-line shape, sometimes I find full skirts, especially in a lightweight fabric, too tutu like on my body - this is a perfect compromise.

I modified it slightly by omitting the fly front, cutting the front on the fold and putting an invisible zip in the centre back (the skirt already has a centre back seam, but I needed to add one in the back waistband).  It just seemed a lot of effort to put in a fly front when it wouldn't show in this fabric at all.  If I make this again in a solid though I'll put it in.

I like the shaped waistband, although it's hard to see the seamlines in this fabric.

I didn't have enough fabric to match the back seam, it's not ideal, but I can live with it.

The cotton is quite thin so I added a red china silk lining - also from scraps which is why it is quite a bit shorter than the skirt, but long enough to do the job.

Close up of the pocket

I'm wearing it here with a tucked in RTW cotton shirt, I need to make a couple more lightweight tops for tucking in, the beauty of black and white is almost any colour will work.

Sewaholic 1202 Cambie Dress

I haven't been massively inspired by the Big 4 pattern releases lately, but still needed a pattern fix.  After hearing so many good things I ordered a few patterns from both Style Arc and Sewaholic and now I have a few new things in the works.

First up the Sewaholic Cambie dress.  I am going to a hen party where the dress code is black cocktail which should be simple enough to follow, but I just wasn't inspired by anything in my wardrobe and decided a few days before the event that I needed to make something new, as you do.

I popped to a local fabric store and found this lacy fabric and when I got home my Sewaholic order was waiting for me in the mailbox - it was a sign!  I could easily have spent 2 days I didn't have mulling over which pattern to make so this was a good thing.

This pattern has been extensively reviewed and there are some great tutorials on the Sewaholic blog, but here are brief details of the changes I made - or will make next time.

The size charts put me between an 8 & 10 and since this brand is new to me I went with the 10 and used the lining as a muslin to roughly check the fit.  I also copied Sunny Gal  and changed the order of construction so that I could sew the side seams last and tweak the fit.  I ended up taking the bodice in and also shortening the sleeves at both the shoulder and bodice seams - I think next time I will start with the size 8 and shorten the sleeves and bodice a bit (fortunately I traced off the bodice pieces).

One thing to watch is the width of the neckline, I recommend leaving a bit more of the front neck seam open and then positioning the straps to make sure your bra straps won't show (this is advice I realised after the fact so I have to pick the right bra to wear with this dress).

I left the pockets off the skirt for this version, moved the side seams to the side - they are towards the front in the original pattern - and just used the width of fabric I had to cut the skirt pieces and gathered them to fit the bodice.



Although I didn't really use them I will say that the instructions are excellent and give you a very RTW construction method with no hand sewing needed.  If you know your size this is the way to go to make a new dress in next to no time.

I also changed the sweetheart neckline to a straight one and ended up removing the gathers in the sleeves, just because I liked how it looked.  You can see that the excess fabric just wrapped round to the lining side.

It's good to know there are lots of variations you can make with this seemingly simple dress and I will definitely be making more versions.

And a couple of outtakes.......

Photo bombed by my cat, Barney!

 Now I understand why people get excited by twirling shots, not easy to do!

Simplicity 2497 - Cynthia Rowley dress

I've made this dress twice before, a cocktail version, view C and a casual version, modified view A, the latter long removed from my closet as I wore it so much over 2 summers.  Here's the pattern:

Simplicity 2497

This is a great pattern so out it came again to pair with the garden birds cotton print I bought recently.

I did attempt to add piping on the bottom of the neck band to minimise the effect of cutting off some of the birds heads at the seams, but the neckband is pretty curved and the piping had the effect of easing in the fabric so much that joining the band and bodice together was an exercise in major frustration.  Then I decided to lighten up about the print and just treat it as a floral and I'm happy with how it came out despite having a few decapitated birds round my neck and waist (that sounds weird...!).

I made View A, size 12 with no changes other than adding a full lining since my fabric was on the thin side.  In my previous versions I have left out the side seam pockets but I decided to add them this time.  I must admit putting a side seam pocket where you also have a side zipper threw me a bit, but after some pinning and checking I got there in the end.

Here is the inside of the dress, the cotton I originally planned to use for the piping became contrast facings.  I actually quite like how this looks so maybe a solid version with contrast neck and waistband is on the cards.  The pattern comes with separate sleeve lining pieces which act as a stay for the puffed sleeve in view A.

Look, functional pockets!

I did wonder if the bird print, puffed sleeves and gathered skirt would end up being too cute and girly a combination for me but I really like how it turned out and I'm sure this dress is going to be worn till it falls to bits like it's predecessor.