Sunday 21 November 2010

Burda Style 5-2010-125 blouse

When I wrote that I was starting my endless combination challenge with a purple skirt, I could tell that RuthieK was sniggering (in a kind and sympathetic way of course). She suggested that I could wear it with a cream blouse (ie, it would not go with much else). Naturally, I am about to rise to this challenge, but her suggestion had a great deal of merit, as is pretty usual when you are talking about Ruthie's wardrobe advice. (What can you wear with a purple skirt? ).

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What do you think of my over the top cream blouse? Not only does it have my unwise passion, ruffles, but it is completely the wrong shape for me. Despite this, I love it, and am in a state of seamstress euphoria after finishing it earlier today.
The pattern is Burda Style 5-2010-125. It has only one rather unhappy review at pattern review, but I have been coveting it since May. The model photo did nothing for me, but the line drawing.....

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It took rather a long time to sew - not exactly difficult, just fiddly, in a good sort of way. Burda rates it as a 2 dot pattern, and it is possibly the most time consuming 2 dot pattern I have yet come across, despite having no darts, no tricky pockets and little to do for fitting. This may be is due to my fabric choice.

The interest is at the neck.
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I shirred this using (what else?) shirring elastic, a doubled strand hooked over the thing-a-ma-jig at the back of the C foot and stitch #10, bridging stitch, on my Husquvana Lily, with a #60 needle.
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I think this gives a very pretty effect, much better than boring old zig-zag over one strand (I hope I am sounding smug here, it is technique acquisitionitis going to my head).
I really liked the effect of the back neck ruffle attaching perpendicular to the front ruffles to give a standing up effect at the back whilst the front lays flat. The pattern drafting is spot on, with lovely effortless matching such as the seamline hitting exactly on the outer shirring line of the front ruffle. I had to bind the back neck seamline, and stitch it down to the back bodice to encourage uprightness.
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The fabric is a cotton-silk voile that I bought at Greenfield's last October. It was tricky to sew, slippery and ravelling, and does probably not have quite the body of the recommended fabric for this blouse - batiste. However, it feels lovely to wear.
In order to overcome this limpness, and avoid exposed seam lines, I doubled all the ruffles, and used enclosed seam allowances.
1. Each ruffle (back neck, front neck, sleeves) was folded in half lengthways, and the short ends finished before shirring.
2. I used self fabric bias binding to bind the back neck, arm holes, and the front neck casing section. The pattern calls for the front neck casing to be formed from just the folded over front bodice, but I felt that the ties would be visible inside the casing, and the fabric would wear too quickly without some extra reinforcement.
3. I bound the shoulder seams with silk organza selvage, then topstitched.
4.I used french seams for the side seams.

I am very pleased with the neat inside.

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My main design changes were to lengthen the top by about 7 inches, and to leave off the waistband shirring. Instead of using a single elastic casing at the sleeves, I shirred 3 rows to match the neckline. I like this effect.
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I had vague ideas of wearing this blouse as a tunic, and I look very fat unless my tunics hit below mid thigh. I don't think I will wear this as a tunic, as there is a bit of grandma's nightie effect, but the extra length is useful to keep the blouse tucked in.
For fitting, I made a square shoulder adjustment, but no full bust adjustment. There is plenty of ease at the bust and hips. I added a 1 inch concave curve at the waist.


It was great fun to make something frivolous.

20 comments:

gwensews said...

That's such a pretty, feminine blouse. Not only does it go with your purple skirt, but many other things as well. I would love to see it paired with jeans.

KID, MD said...

I LOVE it!!! This is a design I have wanted to sew since I got this issue. You did beautiful work on it. At first glance, I didn't realize that it was inside out in the "insides" picture. It looks lovely on you and goes nicely with a purple skirt - which I don't see you having any trouble finding things to go with, by the way. It is a solid, so any number of purples or pinks in cute prints would be fun, or a solid eggplant a few shades darker than the skirt would really pop. Just because it isn't black, doesn't mean it can't be neutral...
Ruthie is the queen of the wardrobe though.

Anonymous said...

This is an absolutely beautiful top - so au courant!

angie.a said...

I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!! Fabulous choice.

RuthieK has challenged the purple lover in me too.

Purple skirt + pale lavender cardi.

Purple skirt + mustard top or cardi (cardi's are my fave)

Purple skirt + black & white polka dot top (with ruffles of course)

Purple skirt + minty green top (or cardi!)

Need I go on?? :P

Mary Nanna said...

Very clever, well done you! Hope you get lots of wear out of it - day or night!

You know I wear A LOT of purple and I have to say it is a very versatile colour. It goes great with grey, green and navy. However, you have warm colouring and I have cool colouring so you might need to find other pairings - I'm thinking it would like nice on you with teal, peach or chocolate.

Uta said...

I like the blouse on you, not unflattering imo. The neck ruffles are great! I also like that you're such a great Burda Style pattern tester :-) Regarding the color question/what goes with purple, I find that colors are combined much more creatively these days than they used to be. In this vein, the purple could go with a lighter or darker purple, with another color of the same "strength" (lightness), with the complementary color (yellow) as well as a neutral, or a mixture of all. It goes very well with cream, of course!

Victoria said...

Very pretty blouse! I love the shirring detail:)

katherine h said...

Very pretty top! Very clever shirring!

I wear purple with green-khaki and chocolate brown and a pale apple green.

I looked up one of Trinny and Susannah's books, and they pair lavender with "dirty pink" (which looks like a dark salmon colour to me) and olive (more yellow than green) with an accent colour of "racing green" (which looks like a greeny dark teal to me). They pair lilac with pale mushroom, bubblegum with an accent colour of white.

Dark lavender is shown as complimenting mushroom. Hyacinth blue (looks close to lavender) is an accent for steel grey. Lavender has been matched to periwinkle and blue burgundy. Dark lilac has been matched to bitter chocolate.

So lots of colours. Have fun with that!

Anonymous said...

Lovely blouse! Just my style. I love to wear purple and blue together. I think you could team it with cornflower blue, except that's not one of your colours. It would look great with mustard, and probably outrageously fabulous with your orange shirt. Try it and see.

SewRuthie said...

Oh that is a VERY pretty blouse. I absolutely adore it! It is only a teeny bit over the top and entirely worth it, and adds just the right amount of froth to the much more sensible skirt. I think they are FAB together.

SewRuthie said...

Oh yes and colourswise, given you personality and body shape, I think the cream blouse is perfect. I'd wear a very loud purple/red/orange print top with a purple skirt, but as we know our styles are very different and I can't see that being something you would be comfortable in. If you found something with a delicate print (tint florals or paisley) which contained purple that would be nice. As would something in a lightish version of one of your greens (light apple green?) but I do think the cream is pretty perfect on you.

Gail said...

I'm not sure why you think this blouse is the wrong shape for you. I think it flatters your curves. It is beautifully made too. I'd wear it as a tunic too, with black pants and a chain belt. I'm into chain belts at the moment having found one at the op shop - they pull the garment in without adding bulk on delicate fabrics.

Alison said...

I'm putting aqua/turquoise with my purple pants! That's if I can ever manage to decide exactly what I'm making. :)

Jane M said...

What a gorgeous blouse!! I think you look wonderful in it. The shirring is terrific and you finished it all so beautifully.

Carolyn said...

This is such a pretty blouse, adn your finishing is erfection. Wow, I'd never heard of that shirring technique. Is it easier than the old zigzag, as well as not as boring?
Re the colour suggestions of all the above commenters, well of course I agree with all of them and would wear any colour with that kind of purple ... seriously you CAN make any colour work well with that sombre-ish shade of your skirt. It's practically a neutral!!

June said...

I love it! I hadn't really given this pattern a second look but looking at yours makes me want to go trace it right now!

Audrey said...

I also was attracted to this blouse because of the line drawing, so I was happy to see someone had made it. I think it is very lovely, and looks great with your muted purple skirt, though it is a little more feminine and frilly that other blouses you have made. I like this this color purple paired with a stone/concrete biege and muted greens.

Sharon said...

You look so happy with this top and it really looks good on you.

Ann Brodsky said...

Wow- I am really impressed with this blouse! I couldn't even see the details in the Burda version in that issue, but yours really shows how intricate it is. Great job!

SEWN said...

Tres impressive! Gorgeous blouse.