Go to content Go to navigation Go to highlighted projects Go to contact




Articles by Tags:
bag, bamboo, boning, book, burda, burda-style, butterick, bwof, coat, corduroy, costume, cotton, dress, fleece, folkwear, fw07, go-patterns, hat, home-dec, hot-patterns, ikea, jacket, jeans, kids, knipmode, knit, knockoff, kwik-sew, la-mia-boutique, leather, linen, lingerie, machine, magazine, marfy, menswear, patrones, plus, press, prima, recycled, s08, satin, shopping, silk, simplicity, skirt, style, top, trousers, tutorial, velvet, vest, vintage, vogue, wedding, wool, xmas

Cheap frills

10 March 2008, 12:18

Late last week I finished sewing up my version of BurdaStyle’s free JJ pattern as the penultimate piece in my FW/08 Collection (I’ve still got to put the finishing touches on my Jean Paul Gaultier Patrones skirt and these last two substitutes round out the Collection!).

I made a few changes to the pattern – mainly, I made the ruffles half the intended width by making them as long tubes with the edges inside (the pattern called to just fold one edge under and zigzag stitch, which seemed weird), making them a lot less “in your face” and a lot more like a ruffled 1970s tuxedo shirt!

I also changed the way the sleeve slit was finished – the instructions called for a fiddly bit of overlapped binding, which seemed downright insane considering the size of the slit, so I instead used a technique I learned from a 1940s pattern:

  1. Place a small bit of scrap fabric on the right side of your garment where the slit will be.
  2. Sew a small V, and cut the slit up to the very point of the V (seen in the lower bit of the photo).
  3. Turn the scrap fabric to the inside, press, and topstitch. The finished slit is on the top in the photo, ready for the sleeve band to be attached.

I used some shell buttons from my stash, and used two smaller ones on my sleeve cuffs. My sleeves close with a concealed hook and eye as my weight-lifting arms are apparently an inch or so larger than the standard size 42, so the sleeve buttons are purely decorative.

I really like the overall styling of this blouse, but I got frustrated early on with the quality of the instructions with this pattern. The instructions are so bad I’m willing to bet money that they were never proofread before being uploaded. Simple stuff, like saying to sew Ruffle II like so and then do Ruffle II in the same way. Or saying “left side” when they meant to say “wrong side” because someone has confused right/left with right/wrong. Or not using standard pattern-speak and taking three times as many words to get across the same meaning as “press towards center back”. It’s so bad I actually got out a red pencil and started correcting it, teacher-style, until I got fed up and just threw them aside. It’s weird, I’ve sewn a bunch of Burda Style’s patterns before and found the directions to be quite good, so I really don’t know what happened on this one. In parts they’re nearly indecipherable, and I think it was actually more taxing to interpret these than even Burda World of Fashion’s (or the ones in languages I can’t read!).

I ended up having such a productive weekend that I made another top, start-to-finish on Sunday afternoon, but I’ll save it for another day!

Tags: burda-style, top, tutorial

Comments:

  1. Thanks for the warning about the directions. I still haven’t sewn a Burdastyle pattern but I really want to make this one!


    — christina    Mar 10, 05:04 PM    #

  2. Your blouse looks ever so cute. Thanks for the tip on the vents. I believe that the JJ blouse is a user-submitted pattern, not an ‘official’ BurdaStyle one, so that might be why the instructions are less consistent (and the BurdaStyle blog just featured an interview with JJ, and she’s originally from Thailand, not a native English speaker).


    — Laura    Mar 10, 08:47 PM    #

  3. I really love the blouse and the fit is spectacular!It is very slenderizing.


    — Mom    Mar 11, 12:47 AM    #

  4. Laura – The JJ blouse was the contest winner, but the instructions weren’t part of the contest, and BurdaStyle have made the graded pattern, line drawing, and all the step-by-step diagrams in the instructions from their own professional set, so if the worded instructions really are from a user, it seems even weirder if they didn’t proofread them! I have no problem at all with user-submitted instructions (and believe me, I’ve got worlds of patience for ESLers!), but BurdaStyle have dressed up every other aspect of this pattern to be one of their official, professional patterns, but with terrible instructions…

    It’s still a fab pattern, don’t get me wrong! Just don’t go expecting their usual standard when you start it. :)


    — melissa    Mar 11, 12:06 PM    #

  5. The shirt looks fantastic! Nice work.


    — Sara    Mar 11, 01:01 PM    #

  6. Wow, you surely can wear ruffles! This blouse looks so chic and feminine on you, great job!


    — laura    Mar 11, 03:02 PM    #

  7. Thanks for the tip on sewing the slits. You make it so easy!


    — Joyce    Mar 12, 07:10 AM    #

  8. I felt the same way about the JJ instructions. I finally just went with instinct from making other blouses. The instructions, as written would be very confusing and frustrating to a beginner.


    — Lisa    Mar 24, 08:50 PM    #

Add a comment:

  Textile Help