Vogue 8685 a Winter Dress and Winter Wonderland

After finishing the wool coat I was exhuasted.  I've been super busy at my new job and I get home every night and just want to lay on the couch after dinner.  But, that's pretty boring and lots of episodes of American Idol and Oprah are stacking up and those are really what I play in the background when I sew cause you don't really have to watch them, I can just listen.

This weekend was amazing.  We went up to Mt Hood for the weekend and participated in Romp to Stomp out Breast Cancer- benefitting the Susan G Komen foundation.  This is a snow shoing event where they have a 3K race, a 5k and 3K "walk" and a little tikes dash for the kids. 

My friend Meg in front

View from the trail

It was a beautiful day with sun and fresh powder and although it was super cold (about 11F) I was toasty in my gear from various Oregon companies (Columbia Sportswear, Mt Hardware, Sorel and Ice Breaker).  We went out in the first wave of 5Kers and stomped our way through the snow and never let up the pace.  My only complaint would be that my face swelled up in welts from the cold later in the day- no dates for me on Sat night.  If you've never participated in a snow shoe, it's super fun and easy!

After dashing home through the snow on Sunday morning I started a project for this Vogue dress.

View out the front window of my Beetle- no chains- scary!!!

 I decided to make a "muslin" to see how my adjustments would work out I used some old knit dresses so that's why it looks like a franken muslin.
I made a 2" full bust adjustment and it lengthened the bodice about 1".  It was way too much and with the stretchy fabric, I decided to reduce the modifications so it wouldn't hang off me later.  I ended up with about a 1 1/2" full bust adjustment and lengthened it about 1/4".  I had to also alter the midrif and yoke patterns for width on the front as well as the skirt.

when I cut it all out on Tuesday night I barely squeeked out the pattern pieces. And the reason for that is because I bought the fabric originallly for a short sleeve Burda style dress.  But because I discovered that even if the office is heated, I'm freezing ass cold all the time there because my desk is by the window (i know boo hoo) and it's just not that warm. 

So if I made that dress for winter I would have to wear a long sleeve shirt under it and that would just defeat the purpose. So, I changed to this cute dress that I was going to make out of matte jersey and might still in the short sleeve version.  I'm making option C, long sleeves and straight skirt.  I'm told that the fashion is going away from "Mad Men" and toward "Boardwalk Empire" but alas, I'm Joan and not Margaret.
More later....

Farewell 2010...... Hello 2011- the International year of ME!

New Year's Eve; wearing my grandmother's mink coat for the first time.

Well 2010 was a really great year.  I fell in love and then out.  Quit a job and started a new one.  Started sewing again and kept on going.  And, I turned 40.  That's when I decided that this year is the year of ME. Things seem to be going my way and I've hit on some things that make me happier than I've ever been.   One of which is sewing, sharing and wearing my creations.

I noticed that the bloggers out there do a yearly recap but the above is my recap for you.  That was last year.  Here's what's planned for this year.

1. Sell my house in California - renters want to buy it- yippeee.
2. Buy a new computer- mine is limping along and aged.
3. Run the Shamrock 5k again in March- improve time and bring along friends
4. Sew a few jackets- at least 4 are planned- not enough for the jacket a month but that's ok.
5. Enter one contest
6. Join a sew a long- vintage sew a long- check! Found a pattern that I bought in the 80's
7. Finish my sister's dress- this should be #1 or 2 but I just thought of it.
8. Make a few blouses- at least 1 planned w/pattern and fabric purchased
9. Make at least one pair of pants
10. Sew through the stash before buying more fabric
11. Make one coat- one planned w/fabric already purchased.
12. Teach some kids how to sew- already started, see later post.
13.  Go to Paris for vacation.

That's all I'm willing to share at this point.  I've got a few others but let's just say those are more personal.  I will say that my new job has given me a good sense of accomplishment and doing a good job means taking a lot of time to plan and learn etc.  It's taken a lot of my mental capacity these last two months but I know the key to keeping balance is also putting energy into my personal life and that includes doing the above things for myself.  Balance; not easy but necessary.

And now a word about new years.....
I love to dress up.  Love it.  And the dress I picked to wear out to dinner with friends was my favorite sewing project of the year- blogged about here.  I see on Erica's site that it's her favorite too- fitting as she is one of my sewing heros and when she made it, I dug the pattern out and made it asap. Let's just say that dressing up makes me happy.  I had forgotten how much.  And more so when I can wear something I made that is fabulous.

Dinner at Blue Hour with friends wearing the fabulous Guy Laroche dress and fake eyelashes.

Two fabulous girlfriends: Angie and Mollie.  And, I finally learned how to pose in a flattering way.

We had a wonderful time.   There was one altercation (hushed but heated), one marriage proposal (not to me) and a lot of champagne.  Let's just say my couch was my best friend on the first day of 2011 and I caught up on all of Boardwalk Empire.  I should add a goal regarding toning my flabby arms- eeek.

Happy New Year everyone.  

Searching for Naughty & Nice

Recently I discovered the Stats of my blog. I was astonished to find that one of the biggest keyword search sources is from people searching "naughty librarian" or variations there of. Holy cow people, who knew that there were so many people searching for naughty librarians? Crazy town.  You know they are not seamsters.  They must be so confused when they get pulled into my blog.

My chiropractor used to call me Librarian by Day, which I guess implied that I was something more fun and edgy by night.  I wore thick rimmed glasses but was not conservative at all, dress wise.  On a side note by chiropractor looked exactly like young skinny Alec Baldwin and I sometimes just wandered into his office for a hug.  His office was in the base of the building I worked in.  Ahh, the good old days.

But I digress.....Oddly, at the same time I discovered this fact, I made another of  this dress: Vogue 2019 in a deep green color to be worn with my camel cashmere cardigan, nude pumps and pearls. Kind of a work outfit, demure in a Mad Men kinda way. Call me Joan.  Just a little different from my own librarian days.

This is such a fast dress to make, I cut and sewed it in an evening and then finished the sleeves and hems the next night.  I could have done it all in one night but I think I didn't start till 8pm and I didn't want to push it.

Dress form just doesn't have the hips and chest I do to make this more Joanish.

Here it is with the whole outfit.

PS; My sister has absconded with my iron to do a Christmas project.  I need that back, clearly.

Alas I have a terrible head cold and with all the cheese that's found it's way to my face in the last two weeks, even Spanx can't help me be hot in this dress.  Back to the gym next week kids.  Enjoy your last minute shopping, baking, wrapping  and merriment.  I will be drug seeking in Washington this morning since Oregon doesn't sell anything good over the counter.   Advil Cold and Sinus anyone?  Yes, Please!

Work Dress Vogue 8489

This dress had some potential but I made it into a disaster.

First I cut a size 8 since I'd been sewing 14 or 16 and taking out huge amounts of fabric.  Clearly I went a little far the other way.  The waste band and neck bands are interfaced with a rigid interfacing and therefore have none of the stretch you would expect- which is why there is a center back zipper in the garment.

However being of superior brain and knowledge I had read the pattern reviews and some commented that they took out the center back zipper, so I did that too- tragic error.   Inexplicably, I added a strip down the center back hoping for some stretchiness to get the thing over my head.

        I was going to finish off the odd neck chunk with an added facing and hope it didn't look weird.  Although I can get it on, I have to wriggle and smash the girls to get into it.  Once it's on it's snug but not in a bad way.  The whole thing could be very nice but the neckline is low so you would need a cami underneath and then my fabric choice and the length kind of give it a funeral or sunday school attitude.  Or, lack there of.
       So I abandoned the project in favor of something else.  I might go back and unpick the pieces and make new bands w/out interfacing but at this point I'm piling up fabric from my trip to New York and patterns from the last pattern sale, so I'm on to the next thing.
      I went to the famous Mood Fabrics in New York and spent half a day sifting through all the fabrics.  I ended up with some beautiful pieces that I hope to work on soon.
      The best thing I got in New York was at Paron Fabrics.  First of fall they were hilarious.  I went there to buy the latest Burda Magazine and the guy behind the counter told me that it would be $50.00.  I said "That's quite a bit more than I pay in Oregon." and they were off talking about the UofO Ducks and I told them I was a Beaver and then the heckling began.  I found a beautiful herringbone 25% Cashmere 75% Wool for $45.00 a yard.  I decided to go for it- I think the bolt said Diane VonFurstenburg on it.  The woman that cut my fabric gave it to me for $35.00 a yard and gave me the rest of the fabric on the bolt.  So I got almost 3 yards for the price of much less.  It's really nice fabric however might be light for a coat.  I'm working on if i can line it and layer it with Thinsulate or something.

Hope everyone had a good Turkey Day.  I ate my weight in cheese..... didn't get a good dose of stuffing, think i'll make some for myself to have with the leftovers I brought home.

Little Black Dress- Guy Laroche V2899

I've been completely absorbed in my new job.  So much so that I cannot sleep at night and I'm exhausted when I get home.   But, I've just completed week three and am calming down and settling in.  I made it to the gym a few times and even the company gym (BONUS!!!).  Getting into a routine is so helpful.

After my last day of my old job I went nuts at the fabric store locally and bought fabric for dresses that I can wear to work.  I wanted to step it up for my new job. With 5 people reporting to me the ripped jeans and sloppy sweaters with UGGs just doesn't instill confidence in leadership.

But before I made work dresses I needed to bang out a dress for my brother-in-law's wedding.  I purchased this pattern at the last pattern sale and then wasn't sure it wouldn't be too over the top for a wedding.  Then Erica B's pattern review popped up and it was settled.  I can do this- no prob!

I purchased black matte jersey from the Mill End Store.  I looked through the matte jersey and the only non weird color is black.  I remembered a time in 90's when matte jersey was very prevalent but had forgotten the huge benefit- you can ball it up and throw it in the corner, then pick it up, put it on and it's like you just bought it- Perfect.

This pattern is beautifully drafted and not very challenging to sew.  Erica's pattern review is perfectly correct (and thorough)- it's easy but not fast.  There are many parts that need to be hand basted or finished and there's a bunch of gathering and it all takes a lot of time. But really for such a stunning dress it went together well.  My pattern review is here.

There is one thing about matte jersey and that is that the front and back look the same.  So, if you get the pieces turned around you might get in trouble.  I did this one time while sewing the little side gathered panels.  I attached the gathered part to the wrong side of one of the panels and so I ended up with two left sides.  So I had to take out the basting but it wasn't a tragic error or difficult to redo.  There are a lot of pieces and the whole thing is self lined and the cool thing about the matte jersey double layer stretchiness is that it acts like a total body girdle. yay- who doesn't love that?

I love the lines of the dress and the longer length.  There is something kind of demure but sexy about a slim skirt that goes over the knees.  Kinda keeping the imagination alive I guess.

Here's me in the dress at the reception with my two handsome escorts: Henry 4, Gray 6.

I did feel a bit like I needed to pull the whole thing down all night.  You can see it's riding up under my arms.  I think it's a tad snug and so slipped up.  My undergarments for a backless bra situation need to be revised as they contributed to the situation.  I have a too big merry-widow thing that is long and has a foamy layer that didn't do me favors in the stomach.  Made it look like I might be concealing a baby bulge.  I'd happily flaunt a baby bulge but, alas, do not have one.  Note to self- buy new undergarment situation.

Vogue 8645: Failure of Figure Not Pattern

I like to see the things that don't work out that other people sew, it makes me feel like I'm not lame when my stuff doesn't turn out.  I think the projects that are the most successful have thoughtful fabric choices, creative well edited trims and carefully planned out patterns and construction.

But the one thing that trumps all that is when the style is not flattering on you.  Sometimes I look at the pattern envelope and think- "oh that's darling!"  Never mind that it is drawn on an elongated stylized fashion figure that doesn't exist in nature (sort of like Barbie).  And certainly it's not what my figure looks like.   Thus, we come to my very first project back in the saddle.  The one I've been hiding in a drawer and thinking about cutting apart for muslin usage. I didn't even press it for the photos. 

I made the garment out of a beautiful yarn dyed cotton lawn from The Mill End Store. I chose the pattern size based on my measurements: 16 (ACK!  All that working out and weight loss to go from a rtw 12 to a 6, shattered.) Not knowing or remembering that there is 75 miles of ease in all their patterns, and not having discovered the helpful Pattern Review website that could have helped me make a better choice in size, I proceeded with the 16.


I added a white batiste lining to this garment as the fabric was pretty sheer. I also carefully chevroned all the seams of the skirt and bodice, meticulously matching the stripes.   I even turned down a few dates with the then BF to finish my project and I was so excited to put it on and then when I did, it made me look like a puffy mess.  Perhaps gobs of fabric gathered at my waist and over my bosoms could be the problem.  I know for a fact I look terrible in things that gather over the chest- duh!  

Can you say perfect matching?  Gosh I'm good.  Maybe not on the sash- don't look at that.

Was this why I put the sewing machine away?  Well, besides that my friends all wanted me to peg their jeans for them (for free at a moment's notice on Friday night) in college, or was it that total disappointment that I chose the wrong style?   I used to struggle with the whole "how will the style look on me if I can't try it on till it's done?" problem.   But, don't I know myself by now?  Sheesh.

The garment looks exactly like what was on the envelope, and would have probably looked "darling" on me had it been the right size.  It was easy to construct and the instructions were great to follow.  I would recommend this to anyone, but would say make sure you know what your true size is.  Pattern review can be found here when I get to writing it.

I'll admit I have not been sewing lately but I started a new project for some cute kids birthdays.  More on that later.  I'm also drafting a dress for my sister for her birthday- based on a child's dress, should be interesting.  I flocked (by myself) to the JoAnne's Vogue pattern sale this weekend to pick up a few items to sew for fall.  And really, I think the def. of a few is three and I bought more than three + all the poly fill in the place. 

I need to start getting some things sewn for fall as it has hit just lst Tuesday in the form of a rainy day and instantly leaves are changing colors.  Guess the flip flops are finished.  My assistant says it's not cool to wear them with my down shell (that's what I wore to the office on Tuesday).  She's wrong, I'm sure of it.

Tropical Print Dress, BWOF 6/2010 dress #123

Tropical disaster dress......

You'd think a dress that has two pieces would be easy for any sewer to execute with no problem.  That is where you are wrong (or I was wrong).  If you have any degree of smug confidence that is where you begin to disregard the instructions and trouble ensues......

Maybe it's the translation of instructions from German to English or maybe it's because I had two glasses of Chardonnay while attempting this dress, but each step I had to redo or fix.   Actually, I didn't have any wine while making this dress.  Only good 'ol Crystal Light, but it has so far been fraught with peril. Ah, the drama.....
So the dress comes in 38-46.  I cut a 40. The dress comes in two iterations- one with pockets and lace trim and one w/out pockets and lace trim.  So I traced the pieces and anyone who has traced off these pages knows it's a trick of the eye to find the right lines and follow them. But, the weird thing was that at the bottom hem of the front piece, instead of a solid line, there are just arrows coming down the side seam.  I had no idea what this meant so I just connected them across and made that the hem line.   Well it turns out that this length garners me a pattern piece that is about 4" too short to match up with the side seam. 

So I had to piece in a panel to extend the length to meet the other piece.  Because of the print, you can't even detect it in photos or in person.  Even that, didn't help my micro mini length that is exacerbated when belted.  And I didn't find it out till later. 

Anyway, you follow the first step and it says to "neaten seams" which I read as trim seams.  Then I connected connect the front to the back  at the back yoke area and reread the first step "neaten seams" which meant that I cut off the BLEEPing seams that were supposed to be the casing for the elastic. UGH!

So, I fixed that by making a makeshift casing out of bias tape.  That didn't work great and the casing kept slipping out of the stitching which makes it weird to gather the elastic.  I ended up having to pull out the elastic twice and put it in again for that reason.

After rushing to finish this so I could take it on my OSU weekend visit to Corvallis, it finished up ok, without further issues.  Looks pretty cute, but I'm not wild about it.  It's kinda boring and doesn't really do anything for me.  I really dig this fabric but, think it deserves a less sackish dress.

                                        KKG pledge sisters, class of '90 L-R: Traci, Sheila, me, Kim
Here we are on the steps of the OSU MU- that was closed, darnit.  As you can see I'm hunching, perhaps due to the french fries I ate for lunch (as an entire meal- as if I were still in college) or maybe to attempt to make my mini look less micro.

                                                         KKG pledge sisters, class of '90 L-R:Sheila, me, Kim, Melissa
 I don't have pics of me in it from the back but in hindsight it was 95 degrees, and this was quite comfortable.  I usually need something covering my shoulders and chest for sun shade reasons and the fabric was breathable and didn't stick to me. My thighs did stick to the booth in the restaurant but that's gonna happen.

Here's the back view on the form.  The moral of my story is not to be so smug that I know everything and read the directions more carefully, don't watch re-runs of Criminal Minds while sewing, and cut the attitude lady.

Wow, I think I just opened a can of whoop ass on myself. Where did that come from?
 
Post script- What a fine looking group of ladies.  AND, I never realized how much shorter I was than all my friends.  Note to self, meet shorter friends so I look taller or wear heals.

40th Birthday Dress- Vogue 7848

This weekend is the long planned 40th birthday of my best friend, the beautiful, Jacqui.  We've been friends since high school, that's over 20 years! I'm really excited for the party as her family is flying in so we'll get to catch up with them AND lots of friends will make a surprise cameos- hope she doesn't read this.  The setting is the beautiful "tasting barn" on the vineyard at Terra Vina in Wilsonville, OR. 

Of course, I want to look fantastic because I know there will be bunches of pictures taken and it's a party and I'm only 5 months behind her in the run up to 40.   So there you have it, I'm vain and I love to dress up and make stuff.  Isn't that why there's a blog?

Originally I was going to make this dress Vogue V1174, a Cynthia Steffe, out of this fabric.

I blogged about it here, but with everything going on, and after reading this pattern review from Erica and this review from Tasia, this dress sounds very time consuming, so I changed my plan to make the similar but simpler Vogue 7848.  AND I had an unfortunate prewashing blunder with this fabric.  You might be able to sort of see from this photo the cool texture this fabric has, which made it look rich and fine.   I just blazed forward and prewashed it not using my brain that it's COTTON,  and the texture washed out.  DOY! (you don't get enough doy these days so here's yours).  Part of the reason I put it off starting till we were a week away.  I really wanted that fancy fine look for the original dress and I even considered going and buying more of the same fabric, but that seemed wasteful and I wasted a week or so kicking my self (now my leg hurts and I was pretty much out of time).   Anyway, then it occurred to me I had purchased the other pattern that also is strapless, has boning but is easier to make, as advised on all the pattern reviews, and maybe that would be better. Sigh....whew!  Problem solved- charge forward.  
Pattern review link will be added in a later edit.
Pattern Description: Princess seam A line dress with close fitting boned bodice.
Pattern Sizing: 6,8,10 : I cut a 10
Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope? Yes, more so before I took out some flair and hemmed it above the knee.

Were the instructions easy to follow? Absolutely! This dress is pretty well drafted and the instructions with drawings are great to follow- very very easy and no confusing parts that you have to do to understand. The boning is really easy to put in and I followed a tip from someone at the fabric store who told me when the boning comes on a roll and rolls one way, alternate the direction of the curve when you sew it in so that you don't get a bodice that curls one way before you wear it.
What changes did you make?  I did a full bust adjustment and shortened the total length to the knee.
I didn't make another muslin after the first one that I blogged about before, so when I then cut the fashion fabric and fitted it again, it fit perfectly with using the full 5/8" seam allowances, instead of the 3/8" that I had used on some seams for the muslin.  I went back to the pattern and shaved off some of the flare since I shortened it to above the knees, it was too much flair for that short of a dress.  Then I finished the princess seams with black 1/2" single fold seam binding so that the inside is as beautiful as the outside.  I finished it up to just above the point that the boned facing hits.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? Again, very easy to follow, however there was a strange length issue with the facing that I might have created myself when I adjusted the pattern.  Also, there is a shape at the side back bodice near the underarm that again might have become an issue because I altered another piece, but I ended up taking it in at that point or it would have caused gaping at the under arm. Actually the final garment has a slight gap at that point.
 

For the facing, I had just enough of the face fabric to use for it.  The facing is where the boning is installed and also having read the pattern reviews, I finished the bottom edge with petersham, and added a little hook/eye at the center back to cinch it in a little and help hold the whole thing up.  I got that from the last pattern review- didn't make it up on my own.

Here it is installed in the garment.  That pin came out later.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? I LOVE the way this fits and looks. Half of design is choosing the right fabric and trims to make a great look.  I love this one.  Some of it could be the fabric against my skin but I really like the support and shape that the boning gives and it's super comfortable.  Of course I have yet to wear this for an extended period of time for full evaluation.  We'll find out if it's really comfortable after a long party.

Lots of pictures will be taken this weekend.  Will post those later for your scrutiny.  I totally recommend making this dress.!

Hoping to get out to see "Eat, Pray, Love" on Sunday. I loved the book.  I read it right when I quit everything (job, life, house, pets, garden) and moved back to Portland. I've been to all those countries and I needed a change.  I loved it.  Crossing fingers the movie does it justice.

 Here is a terrible quality picture of the dress on me.  After seeing the pictures from the party and the effects of setting up a party in 98degree weather, and having a beer and glass of wine, I am opting to not post those pictures.  I promise I'll get a better method of putting pictures of myself in these posts.  I guess i need to get over my hatred of photos of myself. If the camera adds 10 pounds I wonder "how many cameras are on you?"  Anyone know what that quote is from?

post script note- I would not do the alternating boning again. It's a little odd.  At least for the two front ones, i'd make them the same. I think overall, I should just cut a 10 and no FbA.  I think would have been fine w/a smaller one or none at all.  I still suffer from thinking I'm bigger than I am.

FBA is like magic........who knew?

I'm sure all of you out there already knew this, but when I appeared on the scene a few months ago, I had no idea what FBA was. So, I looked it up and found out- hey, I need that.   I read this post on Sew Mama Sew and that's when I found out that most patterns are drafted with B CUP!!!!!!!!   Yikes.  Doesn't work for me, a full figured gal, between c and d depending.  Maybe I never noticed since their patterns have so much wearing ease that they swim on me if I follow their prescribed measurements.  What a revelation all around- LITERALLY!

Anyway, I'm making a princess seam dress that's woven and close fitting so, I knew I needed this.  I'll post more photos on it later (if it really turns out), but here is what I did for the FBA.  

I traced my pattern in case I just shredded the original, I wanted to protect it from my JV pattern alterations. Then I drew a line straight down from the bust pointish area, one out to the side seam and one 1/3 into the armhole. 

Then I slashed through all of those and spread.  The directions say to do the amount difference between your high bust and reg bust, but I think that's if you buy a pattern based on your high bust measurement.  I had a size 10 which is way smaller than that but based on all the pattern reviews saying the bust came out huge I sized way down and just went for it.

Spread about 1 1/2" wide which spread the "bust dart".  I taped down the vertical slash and,

then slashed out to the bust point toward the cf edge, closed the side bust dart and pivoted open the bust edge on that tiny hing at the point.  When it was finished, it didn't seam like enough.  But I wanted to try it.  I sewed up a muslin and used 5/8" seams.  First try on it's snug, so I took out side seams to 3/8" each and it fit much much better.

Of course it fits dress form big, but on my bust it fit perfectly EXCEPT that it was sitting too low on my chest.  I knew I'd be tugging it up all night if I didn't add more length.  So I slashed the pattern near the top edge and added 3/8".  I figured I can sew the facing in at 3/8" and keep a little bit more of the length.  Now ask me if I made another muslin.  Nope, just went ahead and cut the fashion fabric.  I'm crossing my fingers that it's an ok adjustment.  eeeek.  Oh, and the other thing I did was to re-draw/smooth out the curve of the side front because it had an awkward 50 cone bust pointy thing happening.  This could cause tragedy too but from the look of the pattern piece it should be ok.  I re-walked the pattern seams and made sure it matched length of the center front piece.  I also shortened the dress quite a bit to above the knee and in doing so I shaved off some of the flare.  Should be ok- famous last words.

You might be wondering why there is a decorative set of faggoting stitches in the center front of this garment.  Well, the answer is that despite what I knew about FBA, I took my scissors and slashed the CF to uhhhh, I'm not sure what I was trying to do.  Maybe see if I could give it a little more width and that would fix the issue, but in the end I just took out the side seam, and had to figure out if it fit, so I used one of my fancy stiches to fanken-stitch the front together.  Worked like a charm, looks weird but who cares.  Alrighty, we'll see if it works out tomorrow or soon......  have a great night

Coming up on a very special... Circus.

I hit the fabric store on my half day Friday to pick up fabric for my next few projects.  The store was empty except for the staff who all hung out with me ooing and ahhing my fabulous fabric choices.  I felt very special.  I know they were just bored but hey, I had fun.

First up: 40th birthday party dress 

My best friend's husband and I are throwing a "surprise" birthday for her 40th in August. We are having it at a winery in Wilsonville.  I hope this turns out well and in time for the party.  Stay tuned. Now I just need to figure out what to wear to MY 40th birthday party. I have 5 months. tick tock.

Next: This McCalls 6083 jumpsuit.  I'm either going to do; Crop pants w/halter B, or shorts with short sleeves D

I have no idea why I think I need this garment but I thought it might be fun to try this trend with a knit. Could be cute with a black belt and black sandals.  OR could be total disaster.  I know you are on the edge of your sofa.

Next, and actually I think I'm making this first:

BWOF 7/10 Dress123 in this lovely Hawaiian print.  I've become compelled to make a dress out of a tropical print.

I found this awhile back and took a swatch of it home. I thought I wanted to do this dress, Vogue 7848

and I think I was drawn to the tropical print on the envelope. Or maybe I was thirsty for a margarita and Jimmy Buffet was on the radio.  Anyway, I decided that I needed a dress with sleeves, so i had more options to wear it.  The Burda dress could be too dumpy though. I'm a little nervous about it being a sack. Let's see.

Maiden Voyage- Burda pattern 7493 view B

My first Burda!  From the 2010 collection:

I have not made anything from the magazine yet, but that's next. Have tracing paper, will trace. Stay tuned.

Fabric is 100% cotton Ikat woven stripe. Ikat is super hot right now. Mine is very light shirting weight, so I lined it with a 100% cotton lawn in olive color. Both fabrics purchased from the wonderful Josephine's Dry Goods in Portland, OR.

Since this was my first time making a Burda pattern, and the first fitted woven in many moons, I made a muslin.  Also, there was no pattern review yet for this style so I didn't want to risk it. Now there is!

Made the muslin out of, what else?  Muslin. Then put it on the dress form and marked the pieces with their pattern piece numbers. I wanted the side panel pieces to be on the bias, and then the side seams to chevron.  See below the interesting intersection of side seam and armband under arm. Next, I drew the direction of the grain that I wanted on each piece to guide me and marked the tissue pieces, so when I cut the fashion fabric I wouldn't get confused.  I also drew a sketch before hand- several actually.


I constructed the front and back bodice and skirt and then connected them at the waist, as the instructions. Then I also constructed all the same pieces out of the lining material, sewing them right sides together with the body fabric at the armhole and then turning the lining to the inside creating a clean finished armhole. This way I eliminated the facing (hate facings). 

The rest of the garment I made as per the instructions.  After getting hooked on reading all the blogs I was reminded by the lovely Amanda, that seam binding makes the a garment look finished and polished. She has some fantastic tutorials, and finishes everything beautifully.   My mother used to say "a garment should look as beautiful on the inside as it does on the outside."   Advice that I summarily ignored till I was in school and I was graded on it. Also, I realized that this fabric will probably fray a bit with washing as my other ikat project did when I pre-washed and lost about 1" to fraying.  So I used bias tape on the seam where I applied the zipper.

I finished the hem using 2" wide poly lace.  I didn't mean to get such a wide lace and then when I sewed it in it looked super cute, but itched the back of my legs like crazy when I sat down. So I need to take it out and do somethings else.

The fit of this garment was great in the chest and neck and bust. The mid bodice waist needed a little more fitting/shaping so it wasn't a "shapeless"shift.   I didn't go back in and adjust those seams as I didn't want to change the shape of the side bodice and skirt pieces. After seeing pics of me in it, I wish I did, but I've other Burda to conquer.

I know that with some drafting I could have adjusted the center and created more shape but ultimately I was looking for kind of a shift.  Also, it pulled a little at the hips in the muslin, so I sewed the side and cb seams with 1/2" seam allowance i/o 5/8".  I also shortened the skirt 5" so it was just above the knee.  This is a great kicking around doing errands when it's 80 degrees, or meeting friends for lunch dress.

The other advice I have on this garment is that finishing the neck band so that it's even is not easy. Mine looks a little wonky on one side but I think I might be the only one that can tell.  I would probably use a template constructed out of heavy paper to press it so that it's even all the way around. 

Edit... added photo 

Here it is: a photo of me in the dress.  I won't wear those shoes now that I see them.