Burdastyle 08/2014 #131

The August 2014 issue of Burdastyle has some lovely patterns. This one caught my eye straight away. I like that it looks like quite a smart outfit, but is really a breezy, comfortable dress.

Burdastyle 08/2014#131

I made the whole dress from linen. The top is white linen bought in Bali and the skirt is thicker, blue linen from Spotlight, left over from my Wyome jeans. The linen is looking rather crumpled in these pictures but, not being much of an ironer, I'm used to the crumpled look. I did actually iron this dress before wearing it, but kids and hospital visits* and lunch and beach happened and this is the result.

*My lovely Dad has had major surgery, but is doing very well.

The lines of the dress are very appealing. The diagonal seams of the wrap front continue into the skirt and incorporate pockets. The cross-over part of the bodice is stitched down most the the way as it was gaping.

The skirt back has vertical seams which continue down from the darts in the bodice. The bodice has side seams, but the skirt does not. 

The sizing for this pattern is 'petite', designed for a height of 160cm. Having never used this sizing for Burdastyle patterns before, I chose a size 20 based on my measurements.

I am around 175cm tall, so added some length to the bodice and skirt pieces. The first time I wore this dress, I decided the proportions were wrong, so whipped it off, removed the skirt and raised it to the level originally intended by the pattern. I also took the dress in at the sides. Conclusion: make one size smaller than my measurements in regular and petite Burdastyle patterns.

 You may have spotted my hat in these photos. It is a recent attempt at a second fabulous hat (aka Vogue 7600). I will have to talk more about this in a separate post as it too is about to be ripped apart and remade.

As I made it, I had a fit of misled inspiration and halved the height of the crown. The hat now perches unsteadily on the very top of my head and flies off at the merest hint of a breeze. 

However, I am rather chuffed with the frayed edge detail on the hat, so will make a new crown and try to stick to the pattern next time.

 As for the dress, it's very me. I love it and will wear it a lot this summer.

Long-sleeved tee with pleat - Burdastyle 03/2014#114

I stumbled upon a fabric sale a few weeks ago at a manufacturer of high-end dresses. There were lots of lovely silks and fancy fabrics on rolls as well as big boxes of scraps. Of course, I couldn't help but rummage in the boxes. I love a good rummage! One of my finds was this lovely, soft, printed jersey in black and beige. It's beautiful quality and cost around $7. I went through my patterns and decided on this long-sleeved tee from the March 2014 issue of Burdastyle.

Burdastyle 03/2014#114

The interesting thing about this pattern is the little pleat, centre front and centre back, at the hemline.

Giving the illusion of a penis and a tail when standing side-on. And when you've finished admiring that aspect, check out my new boots! Bought last week on sale at Seed, 60% off. Love these.

The pleat is actually quite flattering I think, as long as it's not viewed side-on of course. It adds a bit of interest to the top.

I was short on fabric - again - so made the sleeves mostly black, from a scrap of viscose knit, with cuffs made from the main print. The neckline is also black.

I finished the hem and sleeves with a stretch stitch on my sewing machine. I usually use a twin needle for hems as I like the finish, but I find that the stitches often pop undone after a while. This was an experiment to see how the different hem stitch looks and holds up under pressure.

This was a pretty simple top to make. The hardest part is working out how to fold the pleat, which did take me some thinking. After that it's smooth sailing. This top is so comfortable and, thanks to the lovely fabric, quite stylish I think. I can see it being very well used until the weather warms up.

Worn with ponte pants (pointy pants if you turn me sideways!).

Burdastyle Blouse (08/2013 #108) and Jamie Jeans

I know, I know...more Jamie jeans. What can I say? I love this pattern, even though these turned out a bit loose fitting - more on that later.

First, the blouse. It's pattern number 108 from the August 2013 issue of Burdastyle. I was hoping to garner some of the edginess and sex appeal of the model (below), but I think I missed the mark on several levels. Regardless, I'm still quite pleased with this blouse.

Burdastyle 08/2013 #108

I used a busy border print chiffon from Textile Traders. I like the colours and the fabric, but the print makes it difficult to see any of the blouse's details, particularly the neck tie feature. Speaking of which, mine turned out far shorter than the picture in the magazine. I'm not sure what happened there.

I rarely sew with chiffon but I was determined to push myself and do French seams on this blouse, rather than just overlocking the raw edges. I measured the seam allowances carefully and got sewing and turning and sewing again. The blouse ended up way too tight and I nearly flung it at the wall.

After stewing on it for a while, and deciding that I would not be beaten by a few seams, I set to work with the unpicker and re-sewed the bugger.

That worked and I managed to finish the blouse without further incident.

The sleeves are gargantuan in their puffiness, which is not my usual style, but I guess it looks ok in this light fabric.

The cuffs are finished with two little turquoise buttons.

Oh look, you can see the neck ties if I stand like this!

Now, the jeans - Jamie's by Named, as I mentioned. This time I made them from dark, stretch denim and used some topstitching thread in a mustardy colour, just like in real proper jeans from a shop!

 The denim I used was a good weight and had lots of stretch. Mistake. In retrospect, I should have used a less stretchy denim or made the jeans much narrower as, in my experience, very stretchy denim does not produce a good fit with this pattern. Compare the fit of my grey Jamie jeans (below) to the denim ones. Both are made exactly the same size, but the grey fabric has far less stretch than the denim.

It's a shame the denim jeans are a bit baggy as I love everything else about them.

In an attempt to disguise the fact that all the jeans I wear are made from the same pattern, I changed the back pocket detail on these by adding strips of gold leather to make a cross. I also added a second row of topstitching. Now no one will ever know!

 Some detail of the front topstitching:

 So there we have it. A new outfit to strut about the park in.

 Happy sewing!

My happy jacket (Burdastyle 12/2012 #139)

When I spied this jacket in the December 2012 issue of Burdastyle magazine I instantly fell in love with it. I even bought some fabric to make it - a grey knit - but the fabric choice didn't feel right and I put it on the back burner (read: pile of stashed fabric so high it's threatening to topple and crush me, the dog and two sewing machines). Then, last week while perusing Textile Traders' sale, I found a stand of this soft, fluffy deliciousness in several different colours. I dragged a few rolls over to the mirror (I wish there were more mirrors in fabric shops) and began my decision-making process. I settled on this lovely golden, mustardy, breastfed baby poo colour. It's a good autumn colour and just all round bright and happy. I love this fabric and can't stop touching it! It is called 'double brushed flannel poly rayon', which means it's washable (no probs in the machine, I've checked) and, I thought, non-fraying, so perfect for this jacket featuring raw edges.

Burdastyle 12/2012 #139 - almost the same as mine!

OK, so it turns out it does fray, which was a bit of a bummer since I didn't realise this until after I'd cut out the jacket. Luckily I managed to overcome the issue by changing the exposed seam allowances to non-exposed ones and using lots and lots of ribbon to encase all the other raw edges.

There's ribbon everywhere! I used the ribbon folded over to bind the lower edge of the jacket, the sleeve edges, the pocket openings and the hood. The ribbon was used flat to hide the seam allowances of the hood and sleeve cuffs as well as to finish off the zip edges at the front and the hood. The remaining inside seams were finished with the overlocker.

This was not a difficult jacket to make. I used my usual size 38 in Burda with no alterations. The sleeves are made extra long and turned back as a feature, so no problem with sleeve length.

I am pleased with the non-exposed seams now, so it was a happy accident that the fabric frayed! I think it gives a cleaner finish. I also like the ribbon detailing, just enough shine to add some interest here and there.

The hood is enormous and I doubt that I'll use it. The stiffness of the zip does make it stick out a bit, but I don't mind as it goes with the cute and casual style of the jacket.

The lovely zips were from Homecraft Textiles. My favourite place for zips in Perth. The two zips and ribbon cost $23, so a bit expensive, but worth it to get the right colour and nice metal finish. The fabric was $20/m with 40% off, so this cost just over $40 to make.

Speaking of the zips. I used a little trick that I worked out from making my Jalie 2795 jackets. In order to get the front matching up a much as possible, I sewed all the pockets except the row of stitching across the top of the pockets (across my tummy, see above) before inserting the zip. That way I only had to match the edges at the top and bottom of the zip and not worry about matching anything in between. Then, before adding the ribbon trim and topstitching the zip, I sewed the top of the pockets making sure the line of stitching was nice and straight all the way across the front. Voila, nice and neat!

Here is the jacket unzipped:

Hood up:

Zipped right up:

And open, Batman-style!

I won't be wearing it Batman-style.

I am over the moon with my soft and cosy Happy Jacket and pleased I waited for the right fabric to call to me. I'm going to wear it all winter long!

The jeans are my polka dot Jamie jeans. I love these jeans and wear them often. The fabric has minimal stretch and they hold their shape really well throughout the day.

Faux wrap skirt - Burdastyle 07/2013 #111

I do love getting my Burdastyle magazines in the post every month (thank you to my lovely family for this birthday present last year), but I have to do a bit of seasonal adjustment. That's not the statistical kind, but the practical kind where I sit in shorts and a t-shirt flipping through the latest issue and store away winter coat patterns in my memory to make in a few months' time. Same goes for the summer patterns and I've just got round to making this skirt that I've had in mind since the Australian winter last year.

Burdastyle 07/2013 #111

 It's a simple skirt with a faux wrap and a little tie at the side waist. It is available for download from Burdastyle. I like the casual style and practicality of this skirt.

The faux wrap is also handy if there's a gust of wind - it's always a bonus not to flash one's knickers.

I used this drapey, herringbone print fabric that was an op shop find. It's one of those prints that you don't want to focus on too closely as it makes your eyes go funny. A bit like this:

Hopefully no one feels drunk looking at my latest creation!

This skirt was simple to sew. It's basically a wide tube that is folded in near one side and tied to create the wrap effect. I found that my fabric caused the fold to slip down as I wore the skirt so I added a line of stitching on the waistband to hold the fold in place while making sure I could still get the skirt over my hips. I cut my usual size 38, which was fine, but I ended up taking in the side seam near the wrap as it seemed to hang at a strange angle. It's fine now. That meant I lost one pocket, but side seam pockets are awkward and not very useful in my opinion anyway.

 So that's it. I love getting something made that's been in my mind for so long and I'm very happy with this light and flippy little skirt. The top is self drafted.

By the way, if anyone in Australia is thinking of subscribing to Burdastyle, I ordered mine through Newsstand in the UK. It ended up costing around AU$160 for the year (approx $13/issue). I get each monthly issue at the beginning of that month, which certainly beats finding a local newsagent who actually stocks the magazine, waiting months for each issue to come in, fighting other sewers for copies and paying $17 for the privilege. I looked at lots of suppliers worldwide and Newsstand seemed to be by far the cheapest for Aussie subscribers. If you find it cheaper, I'd love to know.

UPDATE: thank you to Kristy (see comment below) for the tip that she orders the magazine through Burdastyle for $118 (to Australia). I can't believe I didn't find that bargain myself!