A-line yoked skirt with insert. Burda World of Fashion 06-2009-122 revisited

There seem to be a lot of a line skirts about recently. As I am on a pattern diet, I did not buy myself yet another A line skirt pattern, but adapted, after internet inspiration, the knee length A line skirt with a bow, #122 that I made from my very first Burda magazine, 06-2008. This not only made me feel thrifty. It also, after much muttering at my former self, allowed me to see how much better I have become at pattern alterations for my figure in the last 3 years. The internet is great for improving your sewing. My changes to the pattern, other than fitting, were to fold out the pleats, and add an insert below the yoke at the same width as the pleat. I left off the yoke bow and moved the zip to the centre back.
I rather like the above photo, which gives the illusion of leg length and sveltness (well, considering the reality!), but in real life the denim (Greenfields, Sydney, @ about $3.50 per metre - are you listening Mary Nanna?) is rather stiff, and I am not sure that I have quite got the length of the skirt at a most flattering point.



In the interests of honesty in blogging I have to admit that the insert denim, which has an overprinted pattern, was from Gorgeous Fabrics, USA, and was about $15 USA per metre + shipping, and that the Greenfield's bargain denim which is fortuitously exactly the same shade also cost a return plane ticket to Sydney and at least $85 in airport parking, an expensive lunch out and even more expensive cycling shop detour for my husband. I think internet shopping is cheaper.


I took trouble with this skirt. The yoke is interfaced with a hemp/cotton blend, and lined with Japanese cotton woven. The horizontal seams are stabilized with woven selvage and topstitched to prevent stretch. The vertical seams are topstitched also, but for mere leg lengthening illusion (wishful thinking, I know). The lapped back zip is hand picked. This is because I have trouble matching topstitched seams in denim otherwise.

I added machine embroidery to the insert after deciding that the fabric pattern alone was too dull to do justice to my fabulous new green handknitted cardigan. (Maybe I was spending a bit of time knitting in front of the telly whilst the Tour de France was on.)




The cardigan is another one of the Jo Sharp garments than can be worn up side down.Knit 10, Silkroad DK Tweed.



The cleverest thing about this one is that it has shape at the back worn either way, because of the stretchy corrugated stitch pattern - very clever design, as most of these garments can be quite blocky.

Unfortunately, I don't know that these garments, which I like individually, really make a great outfit. Any tips? Is it the shape of the skirt, or the length? Are the colours too contrasting? How do you decide what will look good together before you make it?

BWOF June 2008 #136 baby romper

The swimming costumes in small sizes were for 2 of my Sydney nieces, but I did not show you the present for my youngest niece. I actually made this last year when I was making the same outfit for my next older niece (other side of the family), as I knew another baby present would come in handy.
Here she is modelling it. She has just started to walk, and is 12 months old, so you can see that the size 18 months does run small, it fits her perfectly.

I had a very busy time in Sydney, and on Friday, this busyness was almost all self inflicted. Wonderfully enabling Sharon sent me to some fabulous shops (twisting my arm of course :), even though she was out of town :( and I now have an awful lot of new fabric. I posted it back and have recieved lovely parcels all this week.

BWOF 06-2008-118 Mark #2

I am much more happy with second attempt at dress 118 from the June BWOF than the original due to my following the suggestions of the ladies at stitchers guild. I have scaled the pattern down to size 34 for my daughter.

 

I think I could have made her a 32, but the dress fits reasonably well. The waistband is higher than in the pattern, and I could have made a petite adjustment between the shoulders and the bust. This is the second time I have felt this with a BWOF pattern on my daughter, so I will definitely do this for her next BWOF garment.
I am particularly happy with the smocked and pleated middle section of the dress.

 

The green voile sash needed more balancing against the pink than we originally expected. I have both piped the bodice seams, neckline and armholes, and finished the hem with bias binding in the green.

 

The flower at the centre back is a lazy daisy with stem stitch and detached chain in the same green as the sash - DMC 732.

Construction notes BWOF 06-2008-118

I am spending far too much time at work this week, cramping my sewing, but I guess it is good to keep the fabric funds trickling in.
I am working very slowly on the Mark #2 6-2008-118 dress from BWOF, as I want to enter this in the cotton competition at pattern review, so no major errors are allowed to creep in, and it is all happening late in the evening or very early in the morning - prime mistake times!
I have made minipiping, using a double thickness of the green voile to prevent the perle cotton filling thread from showing through. I did not pre wash the filling thread, so am trimming each section so that the filling will float freely within the piping, not be sewn through, which might give it the potential to shrink and make the seams pucker.

 

The fabric is very fine. I reinforced the shoulder seams with selvage trimmings.

 

I have altered the position of the waistband openings. They are wider by around 3cm, and quite a bit higher. The smocking extends to the original length of the pleating, but finishes well above the hips, so I did not need to unpick any. I am quite happy with the proportions.

 

I thought a bit about the buttonhole style openings for the sash. On my last attempt, I backed the buttonhole with high count percale sheeting fabric, which was firm without being heavy, but when I pinned this to the new pink voile dress, it showed through. Instead I have used selvage trimmings from the voile to reinforce the buttonhole opening. It does not shadow through to the right side of the fabric, but was not terribly easy to sew. The other one is much more messy, so I am not taking a photograph of it! Fortunately, these buttonholes are not visible in the finished dress.

 

My next decisions are whether or not to add a contrast border to the hem, and to work out if a petticoat or lining are needed for the skirt.

Smocking and BWOF

I am eating my words, and making another attempt at BWOF 6-2008-118. I described my earlier attempt at this as a Nana's nightie, and I still think this is true, on me, and in a Nana-ish floral print, but after some very helpful comments here and at Stitcher's guild (thanks ladies) I have decided to go ahead with an altered version for my daughter.
Kathryn and Liana both commented that part of the Nana's nightie aura of the dress was that the pleating details were lost in the print , and that the dress would be smarter in a solid colour ( I am paraphrasing here, they were both very nice to me!). Kathryn suggested a much wider belt to reduce the puffiness just below and above the waist, and Liana suggested emphaising the design lines with piping. I really appreciate these suggestions, and after finding some very pleasing voile at Oh sew Noosa during the week, have started on Mark #2.
I decided to smock the centre gathered section. I have pleated and blocked to 5cm, the center gathered section of the front skirt. This took considerably more fabric than BWOF allowed, and the fabric was only 114cm wide, so I will be making some hem alterations later to allow for this change.
I have used a very simple cable and trellis combination in the same colour as the contrasting voile I will use for piping and the sash (DMC 732).

 

My daughter felt that this smocking was a little plain, so I added some glass beads to the upper section of the smocking. She is happier with a touch of bling on her "going out" summer dress.

 

This has taken me most of the weekend (I did a little gardening too), and I hope to start on the construction this evening.

BWOF June 2008, skirt 121

I have made another skirt from the June BWOF. This is number 121, from an Indonesian cotton batik sarong length. I have reviewed the pattern here

BWOF June 2008 dress #118

Photo from Burda World of Fashion Magazine website

Continuing to work through BWOF June 2008, my next attempt is dress #118. This dress was reviewed by NancyWin back in July, and her dress looks lovely, cool and fresh. Unfortunately, when I made this dress, I was thinking "Nana's nightie" when I cut it out (admittedly, the fabric I chose for my trial version was originally purchased with summer nightwear in mind), and although I really enjoyed making this dress, with its interesting waist pleat and belt detail, and new-to-me machine finished shoulder lining method , when I put it on, the Nana's nightie feeling just would not go away.

 

I have been aware for about 25 years that gathers at the waist are not my most flattering look. I was hoping that the controlled gathers at the centre front in this very light voile would let me get away with it. I have chosen the above photo as the most flattering to my figure, because I am vain, but a more truthful photograph below shows you why I should not wear this style of dress. Frumpy comes to mind.

 

I had planned to convert the back tie into a belt with secret fastening under the waist pleat detail, as I know that bows at the back do nothing kind for me, but instead I have pinned this to a smaller size for my daughter.

 

Although she is slim, 13 and IMO gorgeous, I don't really think the dress shape looks fabulous on her either.

 

I will not be cutting out my luscious purple batiste from Gorgeous Fabrics just yet.

A girly weekend

photo credit BWOF June 2008 Archive

The girls and I are home by ourselves for a few days, so we have been doing some girly things. Aside from a few days at work, which did cramp our style a bit, we have managed to do rather a lot of sewing, quite a bit of baking and eating cake, and this evening we are getting take away and watching a girly video. We think there is a lot less work around here without the blokes!
Here are two of my efforts so far. The first one is the skirt 122 from BWOF June 2008. I really like the skirt, especially the pleats, but I am not sure that it really suits my shape, I look kind of thick around the middle. I am thinking of making this up again for my daughter.

 

This effort is a wearable toile for the Vogue Donna Karan dress 1027. I have made up the upper bodice in an 8 (usually I take a 10-12 in Vogue) after reading the reviews suggesting that it runs rather large, and have done a little tweaking and technique practice before I start on the dress. The bodice is a bit low, and seems a little big still, but I am reasonably happy with it. I think the weight of the skirt will pull the waist and neckline lower on the dress, so I am planning to raise the neckline, and maybe take a little more from the shoulders when I make the dress this evening. For this version I added a band to the lower bodice to make it into a knit top.

 

Trousers BWOF 6-2008 #125

My older daughter wanted some more dressy shorts. These are modified from BWOF June 2008, trousers #125, the photo above is from the Burda website.
The fabric is a smallish piece of linen/viscose mix, left over from a jacket I think, and the length of the fabric determined the length of the shorts, and the rather skimpy cuffs.

 

The trousers are a size 34, which my daughter's hip and waist measurement meet exactly, however, the trousers are a little too perfect in fit. I think her next sister will be wearing them next week! I will try a slightly bigger size next time I make her trousers from BWOF. It was lovely to make a pair of pants with no adjustments, I had forgotten how quick they could be.

 

BWOF June 2008, top #124

I made the first item from my Burda subscription today. I have written a review at patternreview. My husband does not like this top, but I think I will still put it in the June Capsule unless my sewing speeds up dramatically. I think Burda sewing will be another new fitting journey. Just what I need!
ETA link to my review of this top