The Blue and Black Burda February sheath dress
3 February 2012, 13:22I’m feeling pretty good about the past few issues of Burda magazine. For a while there (2010, I’m looking at you!) they really seemed to be only printing boring, shapeless and awful patterns, but I’m glad I stuck around because the past few months have really been a return to form, as far as I’m concerned.
There were quite a few patterns I want to make from the February issue, but only one demanded I drop everything and Sew It Now, the colourblocked asymmetrical knit sheath dress #117:
I know a lot of people complain about tracing Burda patterns, but I seriously don’t have a problem with it. Most patterns take me about ten minutes to trace, I have the pattern sheets on top so it’s not difficult to see the lines, and I do a few at a time.
This dress may have the illustrated instructions for this issue but WOW was this a total bear to trace! It’s printed in red lines, but this sheet also contains the “easy”, pink shaded pattern, so there are multiple points where you need to trace red lines over pink shading. Add to that the irregular shapes of the pattern pieces and you’ve got yourself a headache.
If you can get through the tracing pain, though, you’re really in for a treat, because the tracing took longer than the cutting or construction combined. I sewed this up last Friday night after work and wore it out to a friend’s birthday the next day!
I’ve made it up here in a royal blue viscose jersey and black rib knit from my stash (both from Ditto). I really love the slimming effect of the black waist panels and I’ll definitely do that again, but I think a sturdier knit might’ve been a bit more suitable than the viscose jersey, as the viscose’s drapey qualities are lost on this pattern. Still, it’s super soft, unbelievably comfortable, and something I feel like a million bucks wearing!
I made a few changes to the pattern here, mostly that I totally ignored Burda’s enormous exposed zipper down the centre back seam. I don’t mind exposed zippers as a feature, but I’m not in love with them, and considering a standard, short invisible zipper costs about £3-4 in the UK, I couldn’t even conceive of how much a 40 inch, 2-way, metal-teeth zipper would put me back.
So I left it off, and it’s f-i-n-e to get in and out of. And you know what? You really don’t need to have the upper left front opening, either. Despite the standing collar, I can get this on and off no problem (and I have a big ol’ melon head).
Oh, and I didn’t bother putting the little pleats into the top of the sleeves. It would’ve just meant topstitching on knits, which never ends well, and I really liked the cap sleeve as it was and didn’t want to change a thing. It’ll mean my armscyes are 1cm lower as a result, but c’est la vie.
I love the slimming effect of that middle colourblocked panel, but getting the seams aligned was a real pain! I think I may take out an inch vertically at the waist on my next version as I’m getting some excess fabric there as I move… I often adjust for this on other dresses, but I just didn’t bother to here for whatever reason. I don’t think anyone but me would ever notice, so I’ll just fix it on the next one.
Gratuitous bootay shot:
Here you can see that upper front opening. Burda have you face this and then attach some snaps in here, but because the seam runs over the bust, I really think this would be gapey if you left it open as intended. I sewed mine closed after pinning to make sure I could get it on and off, but the lumpy facings remain.
On the next version I’m sewing this as a seam from the start to avoid the lumpiness of the facings under there. If you want to do the same, just omit the facing on the upper right front and attach it to the dotted line on the upper left front.
The skirt has a bunch of great seaming on it, too, so you could colourblock even further than I have here if you wanted to…
But really, I just love this dress! It’s so comfortable, and I’ve gotten so many compliments even in just the two occasions I’ve worn it in the past week. I also like it because it reminds me both of my beloved September dress pattern but also of traditional cheongsam dresses…
Irina mentioned in the comments that there’s an error in the tech drawing for this dress, but for the life of me I can’t find it. Can anyone clue me in?
Also, if you haven’t seen it yet, Audrey also made this dress even quicker than I did! Check out her site for a good analysis of where the hidden darts lie in this pattern. I think my next version will be in a ponti roma now that I’ve done the noble thing and tested it with the stash first… Am I brave enough to sew it in the oh so very trendy tangerine colour though?
tags: bwof, dress, knitComment [15]
Manequim draped collar sweater
30 January 2012, 15:34There came a point about midway through the construction of this where it suddenly dawned on me that I was creating my second draped collar sweater with pieced sleeves of the month. Clearly the sweater knits in my stash were calling out to me, and I’m naturally drawn to drapey styles. Though I really must remember when I’m in fabric stores that 2m really isn’t enough for long sleeves and a big collar!
This the Michael Kors-inspired, collared sweater from the June 2011 Manequim magazine. Last week I showed you details on the construction of the various pieces and altering the size “Small” pattern to my basic knit tee pattern.
The only problem was, when I was laying out the pattern pieces onto my awesome, ex-Versace sweater knit from Ditto in Brighton I realised that yet again, I didn’t have enough fabric to lay out the sleeves without piecing them, argh! I didn’t want to back down since I’d tried to use this fabric for something else last winter, but 2m of a really narrow fabric really limits your possibilities. So I carried on, introducing two seams in the lower arms. Frankly, sleeves tend to bunch up so much around the sleeves that I find the seams kinda get lost visually around that area anyway.
In the end, I was forced to cut the collar on the bias simply because the fabric was too narrow to place it on the cross grain!
You can finally see this sweater worn with my recent grey flannel trousers as intended, but also with my new l-o-v-e, Max Factor Lasting Lip Tint in “06 Royal Plum” (I’m so buying more in other shades!).
Here’s the side and back views:
I really love this big, floppy, warm draped collar. On first glance, it looks really similar to the collar on Paco’s draped collar tunic, but the pieces are entirely different shapes, and you can see that the collar layers overlap here, so that in the centre front, there’s actually four layers on the collar side!
I already mentioned the pieced sleeve, but when laying out the extra sleeve pieces, I was down to such tiny scraps that I couldn’t quite make the full sleeve length even with piecing. I ended up with a funny shaped sleeve hem, and I figured I’d either trim it back or even it out somehow when I first tried it on.
But as a happy accident, I actually really like the sleeves this long, and the cutaway at the inner wrist just means the sleeve flares nicely over my hands. In order to keep this, I had to leave the raw edge visible, so to make it look more intentional, I left the main hem of the sweater raw, too. This knit is in no danger of unravelling, so I think it really works here*.
And finally, a nice full-length shot for you!
Coming up this week: The February KnipMode and…. my Burda February dress!! Oh yes!
* Yes, I totally understand the sewer’s compulsion to never, ever leave anything looking unfinished! It was a hard decision to make!
tags: designer, knit, manequim, woolComment [12]
Great basic - grey flannel trousers
24 January 2012, 15:03As I mentioned last week, I got gifted some wonderful grey flannel from Claire (however did she know I like grey? ha!). It’s so soft and lovely that initially I thought it should become a dress, but then realised I’m likely to get much more wear out of a really chic, comfortable pair of dress trousers.
I had just received the January edition of Burda magazine and so these jumped out at me – #122 (also now available as a pdf download if you missed this issue).
There’s nothing particularly earth-shattering about this design, but I just thought it looked nicely versatile, and something I could wear to business meetings as well as just team with a teeshirt if I fancied it. These also have the illustrated instructions for this issue, but I could sew trousers blindfolded by this point, so the instructions didn’t make much difference to me.
I did notice, however, that they do the particularly dumb construction technique of tucking one leg inside the other and sewing the crotch seam last – this makes NO SENSE to me, as it means you can’t check the fit until you’re 95% done. Whereas if you do the outer seams last, you can pin and adjust the fit in the thighs and hip before you sew it up…
These photos were taken after sitting in a car, then sitting through a big Sunday roast so there are more wrinkles here than I usually have! The fit on these feels a bit closer than with most Burda trouser patterns I’ve sewn, but it also might just be because I haven’t sewn trousers in a non-stretch fabric in a while.
The silk blouse is a favourite I made for my birthday last year! I only tucked it in so severely so you could see the waistband – I had it pulled out in real life…
The only real change I made was to add 11+ cm onto the hem so they’re full length rather than the awkward “ankle length” of the original pattern… The finished length feels just about right to me.
The back is really plain, just with two darts. I thought about adding back welt pockets, then realised I was highly unlikely to ever put anything in them, and so I took the lazy option.
There’s a fly-front here, and the waistband fastens with a trouser hook so there’s no exposed button or buttonhole. I always think this makes the trousers a bit dressier than those with a button…
And, as I said before, the pockets, fly underlap, and waistband lining are all done in the pale green silk leftover from my Ruby Slip.
The pockets feel wonderful to slip my hands into!
I was hoping to pair these with the Manequim sweater in this photoshoot, but we did too much work on the boat this weekend (we built a wall, plumbed in a new water tank, fixed a sink, plus going to dinner at the inlaws, a rare trip to the supermarket, and I ran 12km in there, too) so I’ve only just finished the Manequim sweater now. You’ll have to wait for a weekend photoshoot to see them together…
tags: burda-style, bwof, trousersComment [9]
A seafoam green Ruby Slip (and matching panties)
11 January 2012, 14:03The Ruby Slip is a free pdf pattern and comprehensive set of tutorials over at Pattern Scissors Cloth, and as soon as I saw it, I knew it was just the most perfect pattern ever for me and I had to sew it ASAP!
I had 2m of seafoam green silk in my stash that I’d bought at Bhopal Fabric on Brick Lane over the summer (at £6/m), so I took a swatch of that along with me to MacCulloch and Wallis just before Christmas to buy lace specifically for this. Their lace selection isn’t great, but I totally fell in love with this stretch lace, made up of seafoam green, grey, and brick-red flowers, and it was the required 18cm for the pattern. It was pretty eye wateringly-expensive at £14/m, but I ended up with a silk matching lingerie set for £40 exactly, so I think the economics of my decision were sound.
Sherry has done an incredible job going through all the ins and outs of lace cutting, bias silk sewing, how to do an FBA, etc, but I did get a surprise when I found that 18cm lace is not wide enough for the side front:
Since I went out and bought the lace specifically for this, I was a little annoyed, but I was also feeling flu-ish so I sat down with my copy of Bridal Couture and hand-pieced some lace from my scraps to make up the missing corner. It involved a ton of tiny hand stitches in both seafoam and brick to get everything to match seamlessly, but I’m pleased with the end result (she’s since posted some ways of dealing with narrow lace).
I also wanted to demonstrate how much you need to pay attention which cutting lace. I was paying heed to all of the scallops in order to get them in join up nicely at the seams, but I totally didn’t see that my motif was off at first. Happily, I had enough to re-cut that piece to have a nicer join over the seam (seen on the right).
Right, all that aside, and let’s see some finished photos! But, er, not modeled on me since there’s see-through lace and I’m not an exhibitionist. So you’ll just have to take my word that I squealed with delight when I first tried this on, because the fit is just perfect! The bias skirt really just hugs my curves without being tight, and everything just fits like it was meant to be. I made the “short” version, and the hem lies about 3-4 inches above the knee, which is perfect for me.
I had a bit of bias silk tube left over after I cut my straps down to size, so I tied these into two little bows and attached them as motifs on the centre front of the slip and panties. Oh, and I chose to have a centre front seam in my bodice rather than a crossover because I really liked the symmetry of my lace in the front. I probably wouldn’t have thought of this as an option had she not mentioned it in this post on variations on the pattern.
Throughout all of the tutorials, Sherry suggests using a serger/overlocker to finish the seams, but mine is threaded black and I really am that lazy to not want to rethread it just for this. So I finished my lace seams by trimming the allowances down, pressing to the side and narrowly topstitching. On the skirt, since it’s cut on the bias, there’s really no need to finish these at all since they won’t fray, so I just pressed the allowances open after letting the skirt hang for the requisite three days. On the lace/silk joining seam, I trimmed the seam allowances and pressed them toward the skirt, then topstitched on the silk to keep them from showing through the lace.
As alluded to earlier, I had some leftover lace and silk, so I made a pair of matching panties. Because I can!
I used my general TNT/go-to/whatever KnipMode thong pattern, but deleted the height of the lace (9cm, because I used one half for the back and the mirror edge for the front) from the pattern and made the rest in the silk. It was just a total stroke of good luck that I happened to have silver lingerie elastic in my stash that matched the grey in the lace fairly well…
In any case, if it’s not obvious – I totally love this pattern! So yeah, go and download it and make some luscious lingerie for yourself, okay? You deserve it!
tags: featured, lace, lingerie, silkComment [20]
The silk chiffon maternity maxi gown
9 January 2012, 13:10I finished Holly’s silk gown on New Year’s Eve, so this is officially my last project from 2011. If you recall, it’s Burda 08/2008 #125 and is one of the designer maternity patterns from this issue (and in my opinion – a really nice maxi dress whether you’re pregnant or not!).
We muslined the bodice portion of this (minus the drape pieces) back before Christmas, and made a few changes: taking a few tucks out of the neckline here and there, and increasing the bust space on the standard size 44.
I totally missed the chance to finish this for her Boxing Day birthday, but I figured I’d be still in time for any January parties before the birth in late January, and we were even scheduled to go over for dinner last Friday, where I was going to bring the dress along and sew up the hem on my little red machine after we ate (the hem is just raw here, as I can’t do that without her wearing it).
Only she gave birth early, on the morning we were supposed to meet! It’s a good thing this dress is not obviously a maternity dress, and I think it’ll still look really good on her for the next few months at the very least.
She picked out the most exquisite dark purple silk chiffon from Ditto Fabrics for this dress, and it’s entirely lined in black silk satin (charmeuse), which means it just flows and drapes like an ethereal dream. It was my first experience sewing silk chiffon, and I was expecting it to be a PITA, but it was surprisingly well behaved. The narrow hem edges on all five drape pieces took a while, but it took a crease nicely and didn’t shift which sewing. Even the invisible zipper in back was easy to install since I cut the Centre Back pieces on the selvedge to avoid fraying. I treated the lining and chiffon as one at the zipper (since the chiffon didn’t seem stable enough to support the zip on its own) and then completed the centre back seams separately further down.
To be honest, the hardest part of this entire pattern was dealing with the ginormous skirt pieces. I mused on twitter during the process that sewing the skirt felt like sewing curtains! The skirt pieces were far too big for me to cut at home, too, so I brought them into the office while everything was quiet over the holidays and cut them out on the big lunch table there!
I hope to eventually get photos of Holly wearing this to show you, but until then, I thought I’d just get these on my dressform before I forgot all the details. And since we can’t go see the new baby until we’re both over this *#&%^% flu, it might be a while…
PS: Why is it that there was no wind at all until I went to photograph a wispy maxi dress outside??
tags: bwof, dress, maternity, silkComment [7]
My Colette Clover jeans
8 January 2012, 17:34A few months ago, I went and sewed up the Clover trouser pattern for the first time, in dark green sateen. Having fixed the zipper (my own mistake), I realised that I love the great fit of these trousers, but they’d be even better with traditional pockets and a front fly more like jeans… in fact, I’d actually just like some Clover jeans.
So that’s exactly what I did!
I first altered the pattern to create the front pockets (and I extended the pocket lining piece to the centre front to make a “gut slimming” panel), add a fly-front, and extend front waistband to match the fly underlap. I also added back pockets and belt loops off another jeans pattern. I didn’t bother to draft a back yoke as I actually prefer the look of jeans without them, and the back darts just disappear into the pockets anyway.
This stretch denim is ex-designer from Ditto Fabrics and it’s the exact same stuff I used in these designer jeans (I loved it so much I bought more). The pocket linings and waistband facings are fun Spoonflower cotton prints – Rainy Day Doodles for the pocket linings and fly underlap, and foxes for the inner waistband (the latter by my mate Galia!).
As per usual, I topstitched with bronze Gutermann upholstery thread (not “topstitching” thread!!) using my vintage handcrank Singer, because it is the best machine EVER for topstitching. And I used my awesome vintage buttonholer attachment to make the keyhole buttonhole, too. (Seriously, I linked to a LOAD of jeans-sewing information back in this post if you’re hungry for more)
I used the same metal zipper with pull from Walthamstow market I used on my Jalie jeans, plus an all-metal button (no plastic shank here!) and rivets from Junior. You can read my earlier tutorial on installing jeans rivets here.
K-Line was musing recently on how to topstitch jeans leg seams without everything bunching up in the machine, and my answer to her was to throw away the pattern instructions that say to insert one leg into the other and sew the crotch as the last step. I always sew my trousers in Fashion-Incubator’s “Order for sewing pants” (Sew the CF, then CB seams, then the inseam, then the outer leg seams, and finally attach the waistband) – it means you topstitch the inseam while everything’s nice and flat. In any case, I thought it was a good question and one that I’m sure others are wondering, too.
I’m not sure entirely why (maybe the denim is stretchier?) but the fit on these is a bit looser than my previous dark green staeen pair. You can definitely see this in the back of my thighs, but they’re also a bit loose around my waist, and around my hips when I sit. I don’t think I’ve lost that much weight, anyway, so it’s probably just an increased Lycra content in this fabric.
Oh, and about the black shirt in these photos – that could be an entire post unto itself, but the short version is that it’s a self-drafted, lined silk jersey top made as part of an assembly line back in 2009. It was a journey of self-discovery wherein I discovered that sewing the same item multiple times bores me to tears and that’s why I only just did the hems on this one a few weeks ago. The other 4 still just need hemming, but I don’t know if I can be bothered to sell them after all this. Family, you may get presents…
One last photo for you, since it amused me so much to get attention from the London fire bridgade boat!
Comment [23]
Draped collar winter warmer
4 January 2012, 14:53Paco Peralta is a Spanish couturier who has recently started making some of his designs available to buy as patterns. Late last year I purchased his “Draped Collar Tunic” pattern when he was having a special offer, and I’m so glad I found time to sew it already!
It’s an oversized, hip-length tunic with dropped shoulder and large, draping collar. All his patterns are hand-traced by him, with Spanish and English markings on the pattern tissue, but no included instructions – he’s got good photo instructions for this pattern on his blog though. I made size Medium here according to my measurements, though I could’ve easily gone done to a Small, as there’s a lot of ease in this style.
Bonus – All Paco’s patterns are 10% off right now with the coupon code here!
(Sorry, there’s no tech drawing provided and I’m too lazy to draw one!)
I had a 80% wool / 20% polyester purple sweater knit I bought at Ditto in Brighton last winter that was SO lush and soft and I just had to use it for this! Funny that Tany also chose to make this in a sweater knit, though she lengthened hers into a dress!
Could this be the most perfect, comfy winter loungewear? As it turns out, I caught the flu last week (well, it was still a “cold” when I took these photos), so I’m in need of warm slouchies right now! Apologies for not answering as many comments as I’d like while I recover…
But alas, the 2m of sweater knit I had bought was nowhere near enough fabric for this pattern! I was too pig-headed not to use it, so I introduced a back seam, and also had to seam the sleeves in order to “make it work”. In hindsight I could’ve lopped some length off the body instead, and probably would’ve only had to piece the sleeves once. But my main objective was to not mess with the collar piece at all, and for that, I feel I made the right decision.
The main attraction of this pattern is the big, floppy collar. The pattern piece is deceptively simple-looking but is actually beautifully drafted with lots of nice curves that make it fall beautifully:
Here you can see the dropped sleeve seam, plus my two additional seams further down towards the wrist:
This pattern is for wovens or knits – the only difference is that the collar is cut on the bias in non-stretch fabrics. Since my knit is very stretchy and quite thick, I must say that I didn’t do a very good job stabilising or getting the differential feed 100% correct here – I can see lots of waviness in these photos that wasn’t apparent in real life.
So I thought I’d distract you with photos of our big, lumbering famous neighbour!
Next up: Photos of my Clover jeans (which you can partly see in these photos), which were also sewn before New Year’s…
tags: knit, paco-peralta, woolComment [8]
Christmas Present - Dr Who waistcoat
28 December 2011, 13:26I didn’t get much of a chance to sew many Christmas presents this year, but James and I have been plotting and planning to sew a Dr Who waistcoat (“vest” in America) for his nephew for about three months now. It was all triggered by seeing this Tardamask fabric on Spoonflower, which is the exact same print as a Threadless tee James owns that little Rory went mental for when he saw James wearing it!
So we ordered the fabric months ago, then got his mum to take some measurements for us, and with that, I sifted through my patterns archive and found I’ve only got one waistcoat pattern for boys, from an old Knippie (KnipMode’s kids pattern magazine):
As you can tell by the line drawing, though, I did quite a bit of manipulation before I started sewing. I wanted to minimise the seamlines and thus, disruption to the print, so I taped the pieces together and eliminated the front pockets so the only seams are at the shoulders and sides. I wanted to make the entire thing from the Tardamask print, but I ran out of length inside, necessitating a horizontal seam in the lower front.
But ah-ha! I turned that seam into a feature by putting in some inseam pockets, just perfect for storing action figures or treasures or whatever it is little boys put in their pockets these day.
In any case, Rory loved his waistcoat! He’s 7, and the biggest Dr Who fan ever, so we were excited to see his reaction on Christmas. Little did we know that he’d turn up in a full suit and hat (it was under the tree for him earlier that day), which complimented the waistcoat perfectly!
Isn’t he adorable? He’s having fun here with his sonic screwdriver toy!
Here’s the obligatory back view:
Rory is such a style hound, I love it! For the past year or two now, he’s taken to dressing like alternating Doctors whenever we see him – sometimes with a skinny tie for the David Tenant Dr, and other days with a little bow tie for the Matt Smith Dr!
And finally, just for fun, James said I had to photoshop the door blue to make it look like he’s in the Tardis!
Comment [12]
The grey vintage midi skirt
26 December 2011, 12:33Remember my my pinup sheath dress? Well, I made good use of the remaining 2 meters of so of the ex-designer charcoal grey flannel and made a midi skirt with it!
I used this vintage New Look/Maudella midi skirt pattern I bought in Sheffield not long ago:
I made View 2 (seen in my attempted tech drawing above), and the pattern pieces for it and View 1 were already cut to size 18 (my size, judging by the pattern, eep!), which made it easy to just lay on the fabric and cut. There are only three pattern pieces (skirt panel, yoke, and waistband), so it was a really quick skirt to construct, though the hem sat ready to be handsewn for a week or two before I had time to do it!
At first I was concerned that the front and back pieces were exactly the same, but I haven’t noticed any problems in the fit while wearing it. I think this might be down to my pancake butt, but someone with a more pronounced derriere might have issues.
The only part that gave me problems was the side zipper, and that was entirely down to me. At first I tried to do a vintage-style lapped zipper, but I didn’t have nearly enough seam allowance (Kenneth King recommended 2” in Cool Couture!), so I tried to add on some with a separate facing, and ugh… The bulk of it all made for a really lumpy hip profile, so I ripped it all out and went for a centred zipper instead, and it’s fine.
This midi skirt length is totally new for me, but I really like how it looks, especially teamed with my Christine Jonson shirred turtleneck and United Nude heels! Because I’m used to my skirts being above the knee, though, this feel really long when it’s on, even though it’s only a few inches longer than usual!
Coming up… Stay tuned for some truly adorable photos of my little nephew in his Dr Who waistcoat. omg! Plus I’ve already finished Paco’s sweater, and I’m midway through my Clover jeans. Not to mention telling you about the sewing bits I got for Christmas!
tags: skirt, vintageComment [7]
The charcoal pinup sheath dress
12 December 2011, 15:13I feel like this post should have a warning, like those awful, dated jokes – Dangerous curves ahead! But to be honest, I’ve been running like a mad woman for the past few months, finally running much faster and further than I ever did before I got ill, so I’m relishing the chance to show off my running body right now*.
This dress was in the Sept 2011 Burda magazine, but it’s also available to buy as a download pattern on Burdastyle.com if you missed that issue (or believed the blog hype that it was a bad issue, gasp!). I really loved this pattern from the second I saw it, and all I really needed was a little nudge from BurdaStyle and I was totally sold on making this as my double-duty James’s birthday dinner and Christmas party dress.
Though on reflection, it might be a bit too sexy for my office party.
As this was a close fitting sheath with a non-stretch fabric, I opted to go right ahead and make the only fitting alteration I ever make with Burda patterns, and even then it’s only occasionally – I removed 2cm above the waist line across all the vertical panels so the waist of the dress is more in line with my own.
The only style alteration I made was to alter the sleeve length to be full length rather than bracelet length. To do this was a serious no-brainer – I just laid a regular Burda full-length sleeve underneath this one, matching up the underarms, and marked the new length. Then I just extended the sleeve seams down to the line. Done!
Seeing the ease markings on the sleeve cap made me nervous that there was going to be a bunch of unnecessary ease there, so I got out the super handy “pizza wheel” measuring tool I got from yoshimi and walked the seams of the sleeve cap and the armscye, only to discover there’s actually only 1cm of ease there, which is totally acceptable to me. So I didn’t make any changes there, and just did a bunch of perpendicular pinning as my own favourite easing method (none of that extra stitching business for me!!).
If you usually require an FBA, it’d be super easy to do one on this pattern – the little “wings” attach onto a glorified princess seam, so you just need to cut those off your pattern on the marked lining line, do your FBA, and then reattach them when you’re done. That being said, this is a low cut, very close fitting dress, so if either of those descriptions make you nervous, you can a) make a taller inset triangle piece to raise the neckline and/or b) go up one size in the skirt pieces or use a stretch woven fabric.
The instructions in Burda magazine are often very sparse and sometimes cryptic, but these were actually very useful and downright sensible. I followed them the whole way through the bodice construction, and only really deviated because I thought it’d be a better idea to attach the lining to the neckline before I attached the skirt to the bodice. But in hindsight, it really didn’t offer much of an advantage, so I’d just say to stick to their instructions.
And since I mentioned lining – this pattern only calls for a bodice lining – the skirt and sleeves are unlined. I followed along with that here, since my flannel is soft and stable enough, but there’s nothing stopping you from lining the whole thing, and there’d definitely be less hand sewing if you did that, too! Instead, I chose to overlock the seam allowances of all the skirt pieces to prevent fraying, and then do all the construction as per normal on my sewing machine. On the hem, I used a bit of black lace before handstitching it on the inside.
The charcoal grey flannel was a gift from Neighbour Helen back from when she worked in the industry, and, as such, I can’t actually tell you which designer this (and its slightly-paler grey twin) is from, lest she get into trouble. But it’s a label most of you have heard of and it’s very, very nice quality. It still had the original label on it from the mill, listing its fibre content as 68% poly/29% viscose/3% elastane (though I swear it’s non-stretch!), with the designer name printed on it, too! I lined the bodice with the leftover turquoise bemberg I bought in Paris and used to line my motif dress, and I just adore the colour combination!
The nice thing is that I’ve got enough of this flannel leftover to make the vintage midi skirt pattern I picked up in Sheffield recently, too. And then there’s the slightly-paler grey flannel, too! It’s going to be a great winter, I can feel it!
UPDATE: I had no idea this was based on a designer pattern until people started pointing it out to me! See the similarities with Roland Mouret’s “Macha” dress here!
*Also, I’ve gone and signed up to run my first ever half-marathon in early March. In Paris! I’m excited but also deeply nervous!!
tags: burda-style, bwof, designer, dress, featuredComment [26]