Soft, fuzzy, autumn casuals (Burdastyle 12/2012 #120)

The casual range of winter clothes was my motivation to buy this issue of Burdastyle. The colour-blocking and fun designs are just my cup of tea.

I think I'll be making more from this range, but to begin with I went for this light zip-up shirt.

Source

The magazine suggests using a wool fabric called 'fulled loden'. Well, maybe the well-informed fabric shopper can find this in New York, but not in sleepy old Perth I'm afraid, at least not in the shops I tried. I settled on a slightly fuzzy, soft knit fabric in pale grey from Homecraft Textiles (only $5/m in the sale). I don't know what it is as there were no labels on the rolls, but it is lovely to wear and easy to sew.

Seen here with my Burdastyle 11/2012 #124 skirt and bling shoes from Vangoh.

The pattern goes together very easily. The front and back pieces are cut on the fold. The zip is sewn on to the wrong side of the centre front and excess fabric snipped away from the right side to reveal the zip. Obviously a non-fraying fabric is optimal for this method, but with fiddling would not be essential. The cut edges around the zip are then covered with binding (I used bias binding). The hem and cuffs are left with raw edges, although the cuffs have binding sewn alongside (not folded over) the raw edge. I trimmed away the excess fabric from the cuff edges for a neater finish.

I cut a size 40 according to my measurements and added a couple of centimetres to the length and sleeves, which ended up being a good idea (I'm 5'9"). The top was far too roomy though and I ended up taking in the sides and sleeves quite a bit.

I really like this top. It will be perfect for cooler, autumn days and the colour will go with lots of things. The pretty, satin binding is a subtle, but attractive feature. More could be made of this with contrasting, sparkly or patterned binding for a different look.