Yellow light weight summer jacket: BurdaStyle 02/2009 #134

I’m still picking out older BurdaStyle designs to sew. This time from 2009.

I had an unusual fabric in the stash that I thought would be a good match for this pattern. And, the fabric was the perfect yellow to go with my yellow floral gathered shirtdress. The stars had aligned!

The fabric is a fluorescent yellow nylon mesh bonded to a very tightly woven white cotton. It’s lightweight, not quite opaque, creases a lot and puckers even before you’ve sewn a stitch. The last bit might be a slight exaggeration – but let me just say that inserting the sleeves was a bit of a nightmare.

It’s hard to get the colour accurate in these photos taken indoors, but it really is bright – safety sign yellow brightness .

The coloured mesh on top of the white woven gives it a pleasing edge – in the same way that cross weave linen and chambray have a lovely depth and sheen.

The fabric is from The Fabric Store and has been in my stash for several years. Why did I buy it? Mainly curiosity – what could one make from such an interesting fabric? Wouldn’t it be fun to have it in my stash and work that out?

It was!

Sizing: I traced a straight size 48 rather than my now normal 46 bust and 48 hips. I figured I could check on the sizing through the shoulders once I’d sewn the fronts to the back.

What I forgot was that I usually remove 2 cm above the bust to get the dart apex in the right place. Hard to do that once you’ve sewn the darts and cut out armscyes and the neck. So my bust darts were too low.

I raised them slightly by angling the shoulder sewing line down from its original position at the neck to 2 cm lower at the armscye and re cutting the armscye, but the dart apex is still not where it should be. Given the loose style of the jacket, it’s a small and slightly annoying detail rather than a dealbreaker.

I am A LOT happier about this jacket than my face would suggest!

I didn’t line the jacket – I was going for the soft light weight summer jacket feel. This meant I had to think about what the seams would look like and how to finish the lower panel so that the pockets were enclosed.

I solved the latter by self lining the lower panels.

Classic hand-in-pocket-to-show the insides pose

The fabric doesn’t fray, so I simply stitched the seam allowances down about a cm out from the seam line. I like how this looks from the outside. And I like the contrast this gives on the inside against the white cotton backing fabric as well as securing the seam allowances in place.  I did go through a lot of thread though!

Keeping to the soft light weight summer jacket feel, I didn’t interface anything. The collar turned out soft but fine.

But the front opening edge looked a bit limp and I was worried about how it would deal with buttons and buttonholes – particularly the top one. So I added a strip of fusible interfacing to the facing after everything had been sewn. Not a recommended technique. Perhaps I should be calling this a wearable toile!

The bottom line is, despite its flaws, I’m very happy with the end result.

My eyes are not closed because my jacket is too bright – my photographer is simply excellent at capturing my every blink

I expect I will wear it a lot. Who says fluorescent yellow can’t be a neutral?!

Shirtdress mashup: Burdastyle 05/2004 #129 and 07/2004 #135

Mashing up patterns? What could possibly go wrong?

Luckily for me, this turned out much better than expected!

The patterns:

Burdastyle 05/2004 #129 (below left) and 07/2004 #135 (below right). The links go to and the images are reproduced from the Russian Burdastyle site because they’re from so long ago that’s the only one that still lists them

I’ve always liked #129, the green one, but never got around to sewing it. Until now. Nineteen years later.

I’m not in this size range anymore. But that didn’t stop me. I’ve already made #135, the red one, in my size (46 bust 48 hips) so I mashed them up.

My starting pattern had a bust dart so I rotated that to the yoke seam and then converted it into gathering. That was the easy it of the mash up!

I marked up the panels on my front dress pattern piece and then drafted new pieces with extra width at the top for the gathering, using the 05/2004 #129 pieces as a guide.

You can see from the pattern pieces that the gathering isn’t additive – the top of the piece is gathered in but the bottom of the piece is back to what would be the regular width of the base pattern. I replicated this on my pattern pieces. The gathering is modest – about 1.2 times the width of the straight piece it’s sewn onto.

I lined the yoke with white batiste. When my fabric is doubled up, the black shows through the other colours a bit and dulls them down. The white makes them pop.

The gathered and then restrained-back-in panels give the dress a cocoon shape feel – which is a silhouette I love.

Grey hair don’t care

I added pockets – because pockets are always a good idea – and used white batiste for the pocket pieces facing the outer fabric. For the same reason.

Smug sewist because she added pockets

I used the pockets drafted for the Cloud dress. They’re fabulously large.

The lovely fabric I used is a Japanese woven cotton from The Fabric Store. Wonderful to sew and gorgeous to wear.

Such a happy dress!

Twixtmas sewing: Cloud dress by Sewing Patterns by Masin

The relaxed days between Christmas and New Years, a heatwave and an air conditioned sewing room. The perfect recipe for sewing a Cloud dress!

I love the way this dress has been drafted. Racer back with huge puffy sleeves! Genius. Big sleeve energy without the enormous shoulders.

Line drawing from https://www.sewingpatternsbymasin.com/sewing-patterns/cloud

This gorgeous linen from The Fabric Store was a delight to sew, even all that gathering went well (apart from the bit where I sewed one of the layers to the bodice wrong side to right side. Duh)

I paid a lot of attention cutting out to getting the squares lined up and even – a double layer of yellow at the bodice/tier one seam and a smooth transition at the next tier down, plus matching across the vertical seams. It was worth the effort. Uneven seams on gingham irritate me. And there’s been a lot of gathered gingham dresses for sale to be irritated by!

All this pattern matching meant that my fabric length was not quite enough for a full length second tier. Not by much though – 8 cm – and the length looks fine on. Perhaps a longer first tier and shorter second tier would’ve been more aesthetically pleasing for uneven length tiers but that’s being very critical!

You’ll notice that the hem dips up at the front – because the bodice does too. It’s not because my hands are in the pockets!

I’m not convinced the hem should dip up – none of the modelled versions do this. It might be because I sewed a size down from the one that my measurements suggested and that resulted in my bust hoicking it up? I chose this size (4) because the finished garment measurements gave me 5 cm of ease though the bust, which was just at the limit of the ease suggested, and my actual size (5) gave me twice as much as the maximum ease recommended. I like the closer fit through the bodice so I’ll add more length to the centre front on the next version.

The back bodice is buttoned. Which is very cute.

I used vintage mustard buttons from the stash They are larger than recommended so I used 5 buttons rather than 6. I didn’t adjust the facing width to work for my larger buttonholes. Which was a mistake. Macgyvered with iron-on interfacing.

I repurposed a damaged linen pillowcase for the facings. Because it meant that I didn’t have to think about more pattern matching than I needed too.. I know. It’s cream and the gingham is white and yellow. But it works. I didn’t swap my overlocker thread from cream to white either. Slapdash seamstress.

My tip for gathering? Mark the centre front and backs and half way between centres and sides of the non gathered piece with a fabric marker. Do the same on the gathered pics but add safety pins to the markings. Because your marking may disappear when you gather all that fabric up.

I couldn’t resist adding a label to the outside. I had a teeny tiny handmade tag from KATM in mustard. It’s on the lower tier skirt side seam. And probably only I will ever notice it. But. So cute!

I love this dress. Can you tell?

I wore it yesterday on a family trip to the zoo and it was perfect. Swishy. Cool. And SunSmart – crew neck and almost elbow length sleeves.

Why the zoo? Nostalgia. The kids and I used to always go in the holidays when they were younger. Seems like they still enjoy it as adults!

And how could you not when you get to see meerkats after a big night out?

Happy new year everyone!

Striped teal and mustard coat: Burdastyle 09/2008 #133

After the success of the ‘Valentino red’ jacket I was ready to try the other version that Burda offered – full length sleeves, longer length and a stand collar.

from https://burdastyle.ru/vikroyki/zhakety/mekhovoy-zhaket-burda-2008-9-133/

Burda made their version in a fake fur. I had a knit boucle from emmaonesock waiting in my stash to be used.

Same same but different. Maybe? I really loved the boucle but strode in undeterred by possible failure! Like much of my sewing…

Why was I worried? Worked out fine!

I interfaced the yoke, the back, the stand collar, the pocket flaps and around the armscyes as previously but, apart from folding out both the neck and bust darts, treated the knit as if it was a woven.

Upgraded to a standard sized iron for fusing interfacing!

The stand collar seems a bit high for short waisted and short necked me, so I took about 1 cm of the height of the stand collar. It’s still quire substantial.

Loving how my label matches the teal in the fabric

And continuing in the theme of treating the knot like a woven, I lined the coat with a black non stretch woven lining and faced the front edges and neck with a black linen nylon woven.

The facing being in a plain black fabric was mainly because of fabric restrictions. But it was probably a good idea, even if I had enough fabric, because it reduced bulk.

I backed the pocket flaps with this same plain black woven too. For the same reason. the pockets are also in this plain black woven fabric

All the seam edges were overlocked and then hand sewn flat (apart from the armscyes and the pocket openings). I was trying to ensure all the seams remained as flat as possible in this crazy fabric.

Lots of hand sewing love in this garment!

Buttonholes? Don’t be crazy I told myself! Use big snaps instead! But the only big snaps I could access in black were not very black.

My multistep process to cover snaps

So I covered them in my linen nylon facing fabric.

Now they look intentional rather than an afterthought.

Of course I only covered the ‘female’ part of the snaps. The male bits are naked …

Naked male snaps looking more pewter than black

I followed Burda’s advice for their boucle version and cut the yoke and pocket flaps out running the other way. I like it!

I’m calling this one a success.

Gorgeous and snuggly to wear too!

I had quite a bit of success with this pattern collection for 2008. Perhaps I should I make some of the other designs? I particularly like the knit dress.

translated to English form the Russian Burda webpage

Do other sewists make “old” Burda patterns? Or am I just stuck in the recent past?

Lemon Sherbet dress for Felicity: BurdaStyle 07/2021 #119

The other wedding guest dress.

This one was sewn in a delightful rayon nylon blend from The Fabric Store. This is what The Fabric Store say about it (and it still seems to be available – this is not a sponsored post – I just love the fabric!)

A deadstock rayon blend in a lemon yellow horizontal stripe. This lightweight fabric has been woven with a clear nylon warp and a striped weft in varying stripes made up of lemon yellow, candy pink, fine black and white. This unique structure creates a subtly textured fabric with great bounce. A semi-sheer fabric with a subtle sheen and no stretch.

The pattern is BurdaStyle 07/2021 #119

I cut out a straight size 40 but with the main skirt piece (its a rectangle) cut the full width of the fabric (150 cm) rather than as drafted (126 cm). I lined the dress with cotton batiste. I didn’t line the sleeves.

I cut the rectangle bit of the skirt lining the width of the batiste (about 130 cm) and then had the annoying task of having to gather the outer fabric onto the lining and then gather both of them to fit onto the bodice. Oh well, the bit of extra fullness in the skirt was probably worth it!

I lined to the edge of the neckline and slit and then treated the lining as an underlining for the rest of the seams – I sewed the front and back bodices together at the shoulders for each of the lining and the outer fabrics and then, with right sides facing, stitched the lining and outer fabric bodices together at the neck and slit before clipping, turning and under stitching. No interfacing – the other fabric is light but tightly woven and hasn’t stretched out or distorted. Yet!

The neck is a bit tight and high. I’m glad I left the slit open rather than adding a button – that button would never have been used! The bust darts are a bit too high too.

Melissa for Fehr Trade posted about this dress recently and also found the bust darts and the neck too high. So I’m calling out the drafting as being a bit off.

The fit is loose, as you’d expect from the line drawing. So I added thin ties, attached where the side seams of the bodice meet the skirt, to create a little more shaping at the waist

The sleeve ‘cuffs’ are cute

I’m very happy with my unintended but quite excellent strip matching across the bodice to the sleeves!

And its a thumbs up from Felicity!

And this is the dress that was worn on the day!

Here she is on her way to the ceremony. With bare legs and the most delightful pale pink shoes that coordinated so well with the dress… and if you are a shoe lover – you’ll want to take a closer look at these. Fortunately they’re featured in another wedding post

I’m so pleased the weather cooperated and she wore this dress to the wedding. It was my favourite out of the two.

A coatigan to remind me of my grandma’s carpet: Burda 12/2011 #114

I was lucky enough to get 2 yards of this totally glorious fabric from emmaonesock last year. It looks like a fabulous vintage carpet.

It’s a wool fleece with raised areas, a brushed texture, and decorative selvedges. The design seems to be knitted in as you can see below on the reverse.

The fabric arrived and I petted it. A lot. And then it sat in my stash. You know. That too precious to cut into fabric. I had a Pinterest board dedicated to it. Searching for the perfect pattern. Surely what I did with something similar to this fabric several years ago was too simple and wouldn’t be good enough?

Winter passed, before I was smart enough to realise that it was more than good enough. I still wear the coatigan I made in 2013 a lot. It’s the ideal pattern for this fabric.

So I bit the bullet and cut it out.

This is Burda 12/2011 #114 and I made a 44.

For my version there’s no zip, no petersham ribbon trim, no hip length seam or pockets, no lining, just a neck facing and I lengthened the sleeves to be full length.

The hem is simple turned up and stitched by hand. No finishing treatments – it doesn’t fray.

Sometimes simple is best!

I adore my carpet coatigan!

Style Arc’s Adeline African wax print dress

I really, really love this dress and I am wearing it, again, right now as I press publish on this post. I’m surprised to have arrived at the end of summer without having made at least one more version. Four Lodos and then distraction in the form of lovely yellow roses fabric might be the reason….

I’m very late to the Adeline party – this pattern has been out for some time and there are multiple lovely versions showcased on sewists’ social media sites.

Better late than never? Definitely!

The Adeline is a cocoon shaped dress with a high low hem.

https://www.stylearc.com/shop/sewing-patterns/adeline-dress/

The robust body of my fabric illustrates this shape very effectively!

This is a size 16, printed at 98% by mistake. I made it up in an African wax print cotton bought in a market in Bordeaux, France a couple of years ago as a sewing souvenir. It was a typical wax print length of fabric – almost 6 meters long but only 120 cm wide.

This meant I had to piece one of the cut-on sleeves with the integrated cuffs. The seam is pattern matched but hidden under the turned back cuff. Only noticeable when ironing!

I also pattern matched the pockets – one perfectly and the other one with room for improvement.

It’s a very subtle mismatch (it’s the pocket on my right) – the yellow flowers don’t align. This is because I cut this pocket piece across rather than with the grain. Not on purpose.

I didn’t try so hard with the neck and hem facings- just centered the large teal design – but this worked out surprisingly well.

This dress was sewn at a holiday house at the beach. Yes I am that person who takes their sewing machine on holiday. The overlocker didn’t get to come so the seam finishing is old school zigzag. Which you can see if you look at the image of the neck facing above very closely…

This is the smug look of a sewist who is very pleased with their work and delighted to have another garment that matches these shoes.

Today, like most times I wear it, this dress is being worn with trainers, but it’s nice to know I can dress it up with these shoes if I want too. Shoes only seen on sewing blog posts? Surely that’s not a thing!

Flouncing around: BurdaStyle 07/2017 #119

I’m following M of Nonsuch’s mathematical approach in one of her recent blog posts

“I want to sew this fabric” + ”I want to make something with flounces” =  new top

I’ve been wanting to sew this fabric for a long time. It came from Liz of Designer Fabrics Australia. I am simultaneously wishing Liz was still actively managing her stash by making it available for sale, and relieved that she isn’t!

[image from Lizs blog post ]

So many things to love about this fabric: border print, yellow, the tribal and ethnic style of the pattern, Hugo Boss provenance and that its been made into a frock worn by an Aussie girl who met a Prince in a pub in Sydney and then married him and lived happily ever after in a palace in Denmark.

I have also become enamoured with flounces*. This BurdaStyle pattern from last July (07/2017 #119) quickly became my new favourite .

The flounces are like a cross between a cape and a sleeve.

Burda says this pattern needs a fabric with two good sides. Mine has a right and wrong side, but the difference is subtle. I constructed the sleeves opposite to Burda’s instructions, which meant that the wrong side was on the less noticeable lower part of the flounce.

I did a baby hem on the edges, rather than Burda”s instructions to zig zag and trim close to the stitching. Really Burda?

I added slits to the lower edge, because I am most likely to wear this top like a tunic

It can be worn tucked in, but that’s not my preference, especially with this deep border print.

Much nicer untucked

 

* Don’t worry. Flounce obsession seems to have passed