Beastly Bias

I am having seemingly insurmountable problems with my second version of the Burda 10/12 118 dress, all due to the bias cut of the front skirt portion.  I've left it hanging waiting to be hemmed for a week in the hope that the problems would magically go away but they haven't so I think I am left with the following options;

• Bin it
• Cut it off and make it into a top, although I will probably have to reinstall the zipper upside down - stepping into a top seems kind of weird
• Unpick it and recut the front so that the skirt part is on the straight grain if I have enough fabric (Kristy just tried this and it works)
• Add a waist seam and recut the skirt on the straight grain 

Any other thoughts on this?  I didn't have any of these problems with version 1 so I think this is due to the looser weave of this fabric.  Here is the dress as it stands now, you can see the side seams which I have already redone 3 times are swinging to the front, plus I have lots of puckering going on and I won't even talk about how bad it looks when I attempt to hem it.

This has been driving me so crazy I even started making a jacket of all things in between working on the dress, you can just see it hanging in the background, I'm pleased to say I'm making good progress with it and no doubt that will be finished before this dress.

Burda Style 10/2012 - 118 Dress

The first thing to note if you are making this dress is that (in my copy at least) there is a huge typo in the sewing instructions which is especially unfortunate given that it is the Sewing Course pattern.

The pattern pieces are the black lines on sheet B not A!  The instructions for the top versions are correct luckily - can you imagine trying to find the right pieces otherwise.  I think if you use sheet A you would end up with some kind of pants and a huge headache.

Once you have got that out of the way putting this dress together is very easy.  My sleeves are a bit long because I totally forgot to flare out the hem allowance (it even tells you to do this in the instructions) - since the sleeve itself is quite tapered if you don't flare it out then the hem allowance is too small - I just ended up taking a narrow hem.

I made this in a brown wool pinstripe which produces a slightly odd effect in that the front is on the bias and the back is on the straight grain, but I quite like it.  This will be a great dress for cooler weather, it reminds me of a woven version of the famous Vogue 1250 DKNY jersey cowl dress - just throw it on and you're good to go.  I've lightened all these photos so you can see the detail.



I have started a second version in the same cranberry wool that I made the previous skirt from and that gave me a lot more problems, I think because it has a slightly looser weave so the bias is more difficult to handle, in fact it is still hanging waiting to be hemmed.  More on that in my next post, for now here are photos of version 1.

Burda Style 08/2012 - 112 Skirt with Godet

I love pencil skirts and have a few already traced that I could easily use, but as I mentioned clearly I just get a thrill out of testing my eyes and patience on those Burda sheets.  This pattern is a bit of a twist on a standard pencil skirt though as it has a godet inserted in a side seam for a bit of swishy-ness.  I liked the asymmetrical look too.

I made this in a wool crepe which I am going to call cranberry colour, although it looks very orange-red here.

The pattern calls for a petersham ribbon waistband, but instead I just used an interfaced strip of fabric which is lazily just plonked on top the lining I added, stitched in the ditch from the right side for a fairly bulk free finish and held closed with a hook & eye.

The pattern is unlined, apart from the godet which has a smaller lining piece - a godet stay I suppose to help the skirt keep it's shape.  I decided to add lining and just used the same pieces (remembering - hallelujah! - to flip the front pattern pieces upside down) leaving the side seam open below the godet and just handstitching those edges to the godet stay.  It would look better if the godet stay was the same length as the lining, but the lining was a bit of an afterthought.  As was this photo - excuse the wrinkles!

I feel like I am getting ahead with fall sewing possibly for the first time ever!  Despite the (for me) bright colour I think this will work with a lot of pieces and end up being a versatile fall skirt.

Burda Style 10/2012 - 119 Knit top

Oh my I didn't mean to go awol for quite such a long time, after my UK trip I got my usual season changeover loss of mojo plus we decided to move apartments and it is only when you have estate agents and clients trooping through all the time that you realise what a messy business sewing can be.

In addition my old camera died and while the new one is undoubtedly superior I am still learning how to get it to focus less on my face and more on my clothes.  Also the self timer function is annoying - my old camera would do 3 shots at 10 second intervals, this camera either does one at a time or 10 within about a second which I am sure is great for photos of hummingbirds etc, but I just get 10 lousy shots of me instead of 1!

Anyway excuses excuses blah blah blah, let's just get on with it shall we and see if the photos improve over time, bear with me....

First up Burda 10/2012 - 119 jersey crossover top.  I probably already have at least 1 pattern like this somewhere but it seems I like to torture myself tracing new ones.

I made this with an odd shaped offcut of brown zig zap printed jersey.  It's a little loud and, well, zig-zaggy, but I think with a brown jacket on the top this will make a great fall outfit.

There really is nothing to say about the construction other than I raised the neckline about 1 inch and made the sleeve hem smaller due to fabric shortage, it's very straightforward to put together and dare I say that the instructions are even quite good!

 Ah it feels good to be blogging again, I feel more inspired to sew already!