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26 February 2012

Amanda with mint: Burda 08-2011-119

My name is Lucia. I am a fabricholic. I buy and buy and never make anything. Here is to changing that!

A couple of years ago at a Stoffenbeurs in the Amsterdam RAI, I saw the most gorgeous cut fake fur in a shade somewhere between lilac and steel that I've been calling greyple (gray + purple). I quickly snapped it up and then proceeded to find some coordinating fabric for a dress or pants or top to go with it. Naturally I bought fabric for all three: a matching wool twill for pants, a wool blend in a sort-of mini-herringbone pattern for a dress and for the top a lightweight jersey with the most amazing hand in a saturated pastel mint that matches the herringbone wool.


The first fabric I worked with was the jersey, but I had trouble with the fit and it is still an UFO, so that post will have to wait.

Burda 08-2011-119
This post is about the mini-herringbone-like wool, which I just turned into a gorgeous dress via Burda's 08-2011-119. I am soooo proud of it! For one I actually finished it! But it also turned out great, if I may say so myself. Thank you Burda, your patterns are second to none!

All the details for future reference: I cut size 40 all around since I knew that the A-line skirt would fit my size-42 hips just fine. The pattern called for 2.05m of 140cm-wide fabric and I had only 1.80m of this 154cm-wide fabric. I worried that I wouldn't have enough but I didn't want it as long as in the original, so I pressed on. As it turns out, I didn't use up all my fabric, even though I did cut up the full original length! True, my fabric had no nap, nor a directional pattern, but I only reversed one of the smaller pattern pieces (the back sleeve). So, it seems that the Burda folks are quite generous with their pattern layouts, because I could fit my pieces even tighter than the size 38 layout. I'll keep this in mind for the future... In the meantime, what can I do with the 30cm left? A cute purse? A contrast piece on a skirt?




Lessons learned:
Seam pressing on wool is a million times better done on a wooden dowel. The padding on my ironing board is just too soft and the seams were getting that dreaded "home-made" look.

Pressing curved seams, especially the tight curves at the shoulders and neck in this dress, was really not possible without my brand new tailor's ham.

Topstitching of the A-line skirt seams came out a bit wobbly. I think it is because I topstitched from waist to hem, which is precisely the opposite of what Claire Shaeffer and Susan Khalje both recommend: always sew from wide to narrow. In this case that would have been from hem to waist. If only I had seen that advice earlier. I fear my topsitched seams will now never sit properly...

Finally, when I make this dress again I might try lowering the front neckline a good 5cm or so. With the neckline so high as it is, the fullness sits much above the bust and that is where it is really needed.


Amanda with minth: Burda 08-2011-119


1 comment:

  1. This dress caught my eye when the issue came out. I'm so glad to see someone make it up so successfully. I'll have to go pull that magazine out and take another look at this one. Great job!

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