October Burda Dress 111

I’ve had my eye on this dress since reviews of this issue started appearing in Northern Hemisphere blogs.  Unfortunately Burda arrives in New Zealand a few months late, and I wasn’t about to buy the pattern on line, when I knew I’d be buying the magazine when it finally arrived here.  So I waited patiently and sure enough, just before Christmas, Burda arrived.  

Of course I didn’t have time to sew it up until after Christmas, but once everyone had gone back to work I re-engaged with my ongoing project to create an awesome working wardrobe.  I figured that this would be a practical, comfortable dress with a little something extra to it.

Nothing went smoothly with this dress.  The fabric I had intended to use wasn’t as wide as I thought (It was from my $1 stash) so I messed around with the pattern pieces and came up with an alternative layout using more of the secondary colour.  In doing so I created a princess seam in the front and back bodice pieces, whereas Burda had drafted them as single pieces with darts.  I also decided against putting a back zip as the fabric has a lot of stretch and I figured that I would be able to pull it on and off without one, (I also have never managed to put a zip into a Lycra based fabric without lumps).

Once I’d put together the top half of the dress I actually read Burda’s instructions for folding the skirt portion of the dress.  Now, when I first started buying Burda Magazines I could only get them in German, so I learnt to sew using the numbers, rather than the instructions.  When the magazine started coming out in English I quickly realised that the instructions were not going to help much, and so carried on sewing by numbers (I explained how the numbers work in this post) For this skirt I couldn’t work out how it all folded together.  I read and re-read the instructions, and folded and re-folded the fabric until eventually it looked like the photo.  I suspect that I folded it so many different ways, I was eventually going to stumble upon the right way.  I certainly didn’t get there with the help of the instruction!

Initially I was rather disappointed in this dress…

I’m not sure what I was expecting, but the skirt is very tulip in shape.  The way the model is standing in the magazine sort of hides the tulip, and I wouldn’t have been so attracted to this dress if I had realised what shape the skirt was.

I also checked and realised that the model was wearing a belt, which definitely improved things.

I’m still not sure about the dress, but I’ll leave it in the wardrobe for the time being.  If I decide it doesn’t work I’ll chop off the skirt, because I do like the top.

In case anyone out there feels the urge to have a go at this dress, this is how the folding goes:

Unfolded

First fold

which is then folded back

repeat the first fold on the other side

Pick up the corner to...

Fold it back on itself and hey presto!

I’d love to know if anyone else has tackled this dress and how it came out.

52 projects - How did I do?

This time last year I sat on the Brisbane air train and created a listof crafting projects for 2013.  I reviewed my list back in June.  At that point I had only completed thirteen of them.

Five of them were in progress in June. 

I now have three in progress

6. Patchwork quilt – I’m embarrassed to admit that this one is still in exactly the same position as it was in June; waiting for me to do the quilting bit.

  45. Pale Green laptop bag - started, but sort of ground to a halt and hasn’t moved since.

 23. Olive Green Short sleeved Jacket – I rebranded this as a long sleeved jacket using vogue YYYY, but it still in progress as I’ve sort of fallen out of love with the pattern now I see it in real life!

 

...and some I had second thoughts about in June and have now been officially abandoned;

47. ‘Purple seahorse appliquéd cushion for my bedroom – officially abandoned

49. Pink and silver blouse - officially abandoned

While others have been “Re-branded”-

26. Candy Striped dress – this has been rebranded as a cardigan top and completed

44. Chambray short/culottes –re-branded as print short/cullottesand completed using the Tania  Pattern

Out of the 27 projects that were still waiting to be done, I have managed to cross a few of them off:

38. Black and white Corset dress – completed as Vogue 8648

17. Pink and black hounds tooth bias cut skirt – Completed

33. Blue and Green Striped skirt – Completed

 11. Barrel shaped saddle bag for my bike - Finished

but have not yet blogged about some of them:

36. Blue and white striped shirt (for undetermined male) – Completed for me

24. Olive green tailored skirt – Completed, but too boring to blog about

29. Black Merino T shirt – used a burda pattern, then discovered that the fabric is a little too see through on it’s own, so made a simple singlet in the same fabric to wear underneath. Not yet worn, so not photographed, so not blogged

32. Brown Tencel Shirt – Completed, but not photographed, so not yet blogged

19. Red Silk Shirt – done it and hate it, no idea why.  Will photograph it and blog soon

40. White flowered sleeveless blouse – completed but not blogged

41. Bottle Green Tailored Pants - completed but not blogged, and even made a jacket to match!

42. White slashed shoulder blouse – decided that slashed shoulders are a little passé so it was completed as a plain white shirt as part of a shirt sewing spree before Christmas.  Details to come soon.

Others I have had second thoughts about;

5. Pink and brown tweed skirt – not sure about this – I suspect that it may end up looking a bit like project 17 – currently under review

39. Graduated dyed dress (originally white) - lost enthusiasm for this one

46. Quilted dust cover for my overlocker – started but then got a cupboard for my overlocker and so it doesn’t need a dust cover.

28. Black Merino Cardigan – ran out of fabric after project 29

After all this there are still fourteen of the original fifty-two still in the queue:

37. Black and Blue striped dress – Vogue XXXX.

50. White Flowered jeans – and I’m getting quite excited about them , and have got McCalls XXXX sorted as far as fit goes, so they may get cut out in the next few days.

35. Red white and blue striped shirt – nearly made it to the sewing table when I had a shirt making spree just before Christmas.

12. Bucket bag to fit into my bike basket

7. Tote bag for pattern making classes

23. Olive Green Short sleeved Jacket – I rebranded this as a long sleeved jacket using vogue YYYY, but it still in progress as I’ve sort of fallen out of love with the pattern now I see it in real life!

27. Blue Lacy cardi/wrap

31. Green and cream silk skirt

14. White Leather Hat – not even thought about, but I’ve still got the leather with no other plans, so I guess it’s still in the queue

18. Short sleeved black and white checked jacket – still in the queue, and should probably be near the top right now, as I’m sure I’m bound to get a job in the new year, and will need lighter weight suits.  I don’t have a specific pattern in mind, so maybe it will be my first self-drafted jacket

30. Green Peplum Dress –Abandoned as a peplum dress, but still on the cards as a sleeved work version of vogue 8648

43. Teal Crinkle dress.

34. Blue, black and white dress 

52. Grape coloured Jeans – still not done, although I’m happy with the pattern now

Despite having fourteen incomplete projects I have sewn some projects that were not on the original list:

I went a little wild in Frocktober and made a total of four adult dresses, three for me…

And one for my daughter

I sewed two pairs of jeans as wearable muslins, the second more wearable than the first

I have made a green jacket to go with the trousers that were project 41 – post to follow as soon as I have photos

I made a pink tweed skirt based on my skirt block and matching jacket from Burda – again, I’ll blog that when I have photos, but it’s a really warm fabric and it may be a while before I can bring myself to wear it.

I made a blue wool skirt with a matching pale grey blouse – post to come.

I made oven gloves for my gift stash,

Sewed a Christmas tree!

And made two little girls very happy new dresses from my stash.

Against all better judgement I made myself a jumpsuit – and I love wearing it.

I made a black and pink jacket for the Burda Sew-a-long

Made a cape for the Monthly Stitch first challenge

and re-made a skirt to go with it.

And a gecko T shirt to go with Project 16.

I sewed cushions for my balcony chairs

I sewed myself a chess board and sewed a flag for a boat I had care of for the first half of the year.

So although I didn’t complete the original 52 projects, I still managed to complete 29 of them, plus three in progress and 22 unplanned projects, averaging only slightly under one project a week!

Did you sew everything you planned to last year?