Burda

Yellow Seersucker Dress

August 20, 2017



I put this dress together for a July wedding. It had been a while since I had a new dress, since I don't wear them often. I'm a big fan of separates. And pants. There were three things that came together to finally check this off the to-sew list. 

#1- The yellow seersucker. I picked it up at Hancock Fabric's long before they closed. I would guess probably around 2013. Back then I did not have as much time to sew, and I wasn't as confident as I am now. Not that I'm an expert, but I can insert an invisible zipper without too much yelling. I'm crazy for seersucker, so the yardage was too precious to waste on a project that I might not be able to wear.

#2- This pleated short-sleeve dress from Riva la Diva. I was digging through her archive a few months ago and it caught my eye. I quickly picked up the Burda pattern and started making a toile, but I was discouraged as I struggle to get a good fit out-of-the-envelope on most close-fitting patterns. I have a length of denim earmarked for a look-a-like, but the pattern still needed some work. 

#3- Allie Jackson live-blogged through Instagram stories her process of developing a custom fitted bodice block. Check out her summary here.  As she was going through the various modifications she was making to her block, I recognized her fitting issues in my own bodice. This gave me a good list of the areas I could look at to improve my fit. 

Ultimately, I ditched the bodice from Burda 7034 in favor of Simplicity 1419. It has waist and bust darts at the front rather than just the waist darts. The back fit well enough after grading between sizes, but I worked very hard to get the front to fit better. I did a slight forward shoulder adjustment and a couple SBA techniques. I found my favorite use for Pilot Frixion pens; marking up my traced pattern for each toile, and then erasing the parts that didn't work with my iron. I only had to trace it off the tissue once, and there weren't too many markings cluttering my pattern. There were no fewer than four toiles before I cut into the seersucker. I think in the end I may have over-fit the front of the armscye, but it's still better than anything I've sewn before. 

I had intended to still use the Burda pattern for the skirt. Not until I laid it out on my fabric did I realize that it called for 55" width fabric and my seersucker was only 45". This was a hidden blessing though, as the Burda skirt's pleats wouldn't have aligned with my Simplicity darts anyhow. Late at night, I carefully measured my bodice and calculated the width of the skirt panels for the appropriate pleat intervals. The layout of the pleats is the same as the Burda but with narrower 3" pleats. I slept on it and double-checked my math in the morning (with coffee) before cutting the fabric for the skirt. The Burda pattern did end up in the final product; I cut the pockets using the Burda pattern piece. 

I lined the bodice and skirt with a lightweight pale yellow material. A burn test concluded that it's most likely polyester. Yuck. I was concerned that the poly would take away all of the breathability of cotton seersucker, but I needn't have worried since the day of the wedding was a chilly one. The lining is pleated with the seersucker on the skirt, but the side seams and hem are loose. I machine stitched the lining at the neckline, but everywhere else was hand-sewn. I cut it close on timing, but the dress was hemmed and washed before we had to leave town for the wedding. 


Butterick

Flamingo Jammies

August 08, 2017






Anyone have a novelty print they just can't get enough of? For me, it is flamingos. Even better if they're blue flamingos. And despite having a collection of quilting cottons in flamingo prints, I've never stitched any of them up. Of course, it's pretty hard to wear loud flamingo prints out of the house on a daily basis. Solution? Pajamas!

 Despite bookmarking the Closet Case Carolyn pattern the day it was released, Butterick was on sale. And I didn't have to print and tape pattern pieces. 
Butterick 6296


But of course, nothing can be that easy. The length of fabric I pulled from the stash was not quite big enough to fit all the pattern pieces for the shortie pajamas. I managed this in two ways. First, I traced the back yoke of the shorts onto the main short piece to eliminate fabric wasted in that seam allowance. It looked like there really wasn't any shaping in that seam anyways, and in a loose short like this there's no fitting lost. Second, I cut some of my pieces from a coordinating solid. I think this also helped to really make the print pop. 

I used the Cloud 9 Organic cotton in Turquoise for the under collar, front facings, back, left front, waistband, pocket, pocket facing, and arm and leg bands. And yes, I did draft up a complicated color-coded checklist to be sure I was cutting each piece in the right direction from each fabric. 

Assembly went fairly smoothly. I decided to add black piping at the last minute. Luckily there was just enough of it in the stash. That added a bit of extra work with hand-basting the piping, but I think the effect is fantastic. I also used black topstitching.


Sizing: I made a 10 in the top and a 12 in the bottom. This is pretty standard for me in Big4 patterns. With a loose fitting top and elastic shorts, no additional fitting was required. I did measure the elastic against my own waist as opposed to using the elastic cutting guide in the pattern, but that's standard protocol for me. 

Pattern Notes: There are two places in the pattern as-drafted that I might adjust when I make these again. First, the front facing is too short at the top. I clipped and folded the inner collar as marked but it fell probably an inch short of the unhemmed facing. Second, the pockets hang very low. Since the shorts tend to get wrinkly, the pockets will often stick out the bottom. I can see the extra large pocket being useful for those with giant phones, but I just don't need that much pocket! (And yes, I'm very surprised to be saying that)

Would I Sew this Again?: Absolutely. This is a classic PJ pattern, which was notably absent from the stash. This is a great alternative to the Carolyn, and with some minor adjustments (curved hem and mock fly) you could get pretty close to that look. 

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