Burda 7866

Easy pattern. Totally stylish. Made in one hour or less. Does it get better than that? Nope.

There isn’t even a shoulder seam. You sew the sides, finish the neckline, and do some hemming. Done. 

Modifications: Other reviewers said the neckline was too high and was choking them. So I cut it a bit lower—maybe 1 inch lower. As you can see, it’s still pretty high so I’m glad I did. Also, I will say that the neckline is a little too “boatneck” for me. I already had it cut out and knew that by simply turning under the neckline and stitching with clear elastic to stabilize (see this post) that it would be even more off the shoulder. In the black-stripe version I decided to finish it with self-ribbing at the neckline. Love it. I also made the sleeves 3” shorter as it is still a blazing hot 90 degrees here in Utah. I LOOOOVE this stripey fabric, also used here on this skirt.

I made another one the same day in this solid gray cotton lycra knit. It didn’t have the drape as the above rayon knit. It didn’t ‘drape’ very well around the neckline as you can see. It was looking a bit “drabby communist” so I opted to finish the hems in a hot pink stitching and also the neckline in pink ribbing. It’s fine, but the moral of the story is: only make this pattern with extra soft drapey knits. Unless you like the communist look.

Oh and obviously I opted to omit the fabric belt called for in the pattern. Not necessary on the striped one as the stripes would just “camoflauge” another striped belt. And on the gray version, I opted to use my pink metallic belt and forgo even more gray.

I love the ‘cinched’ waistline this pattern gives around the waist and hips. Very in style right now! I am going to make soooo many more of this shirt. Love it. Has to be in one of my top ten fave patterns. Both fabrics used here are from girlcharlee.com. I’m still on the hunt for the perfect drapey solid knit though. This gray was just too heavy for this project. Any suggestions? I’d love to find Modal or Siltex knit somewhere.

New Look #6470

Argh, I have such mixed feelings about this pattern. On the one hand it, it is very cute and flattering—especially the flutter sleeves. On the other hand, it is has such narrow shoulders that you gotta wear an undershirt—unless you’re gonna wear a strapless bra and don’t mind showing everybody your chest when you even slightly bend over. I wasn’t interested in either so in the heat of August I had to wear another layer of clothing. Oh the blazing inferno.

This was my first attempt at a cowl neckline. I think that’s the correct term. Maybe I’ll try to alter it for a wider shoulder and higher neckline. Seriously—I measured the finished shoulder and it’s maybe 2”. Grrrrr. I'm not great at altering, especially with a style I’m new at, but we’ll see. Open to any pattern suggestions from my bloggy friends.

I love this batik-print knit from Girl Charlee. After I made this blouse I quickly logged on and bought more before it would sell out. And it will sell out sadly.

New Look #6195

I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of this pattern. I first used it back in 2008 for these two smocks.

And here are a few more favorites I’ve made in the last couple of weeks. Can you tell it’s back to school time? Been making loads o’ clothes for the girls. Only 20 days till school starts. Oh yea, I’m counting.

I did version “B” this time with elastic at the neckline for the front and back. I prefer this version over all the others.

I love this black and white seersucker with the applique of my ‘Scribbled Mum’ flower.  I see these smocks all over the children’s clothing websites for loads of money. Mine cost $5 worth of fabric. Plus 45 minutes of sewing and embroidery, which really, my time is priceless. Worth millions. At least that’s what I tell my hubby and kids.

This turquoise polka dot version is darling as well, but my daughter wishes I had used the elastic at the neckline here as well. It’s kinda ‘loose’ on her.

I think this pattern is out of print now but there are a thousand other smock patterns just like this one. So stylin, so easy. I even wrote a review of it YEARS ago on pattern review. Click here.

Look how much my girl has grown up? It makes me a wee bit sad how fast the time is going. She was just 7 years old in the below picture. Where does the time go?

Burda 9545

What do you do when your daughter prefers to dress like a Vegas show girl and you prefer to dress her like J.Crew? For several years I’ve been making my daughter beautifully simple dresses in linen and cotton with little embellishments other than some embroidery. And for years she has been avoiding these dresses on Sunday morning (most of the time) in favor of anything that has sequins, glitter, ruffles, etc. I’d buy her a dress here and there at Costco that fit her criteria and sadly those are her favorites.

I decided to finally compromise. And this pattern was the one to do it.

I used an Amy Butler cotton print and dressed it up to Hallie’s liking with a taffeta slip and sash. The taffeta/toole even has glitter sequins on it. She picked out the turquoise taffeta at the fabric store. The dress pattern calls for the toole/taffeta to be sewn onto the hem of the dress. I wish I had done it that way as the slip I made her just won’t stay in place. You can see the uneven-ness of the slip at her hem. Grrrr. I’ll either sew it to the dress at the waistband or accidentally throw it away. Kidding!

I love Burda patterns—they have that simple European cut, with true sizing,  and have easy directions. I love to sew with European patterns like Onion and Burda. Simple classics.

I sewed the belt to the dress as I think having a removable belt will mean she’ll take it off and on all day in church. I see it every week in Sunday school—little girls in church chew on their dress ties and little boys use their clip on ties as whips. Lovely pious children.

I made two other changes—not pleating the hem of the sleeves—too lazy and using an invisible zipper instead of a centered one.

The dress only took about 2 hours of actual sewing, minus all the glitzy additions. I made a size 10 which is the actual size for Hallie. Most american patterns are way off on sizing but not Burda. I think I hit a home run as Hallie has been wearing that tacky  slip and saying she feels like a mermaid. Have mercy.

Simplicity 3510

Have you seen the Project Runway patterns from Simplicity? They are adorable—simple designs with a little extra style to them. And since I adore the show (when does the new season start, I miss it!) I figured, why not try one of the patterns? So I tried Simplicity 3510. Isn’t is darling? Super cute variations.

I decided to eliminate the front tie as I am lazy. I let Hallie pick the style she wanted and she said that she wanted the ruffled sleeve. With lace. I found this crochet lace trim in my stash that I literally have no memory of ever purchasing. Such is the stash.

I think the lace adds quite a feminine flare. And those little tucks on the bodice are sure cute as well. They even have the tucks in the back:

All in all, a super cute design that I hope to get 2 years out of for Hallie. That’s what I love about these tunics—extra long to last an extra long time.

After making the above I decided I love the bodice portion so much that I would use it for this dress:

I’ve been diein’ to make a sherbet dress for Hallie after seeing a little girl at church wearing one. And then last week I saw this blog post with a tutorial to make it even more tempting. Love it in the blues as well!

But I did mine in oranges/pinks with two yellow prints and hot pink ribbon. Reminds me of sorbet or Rainbow Sherbet—minus the green. Thank heaven I own the Bernina Ruffler Foot that does all the gathering for me. I would never gather that much by hand. Never. Gathering is evil. I made the bodice a size 8 and then cut 7-8” tall layers for the rest of the skirt portions—hot pink, orange, dark yellow, and then the light yellow print. The solids are just ‘country classic’ 100% solids from Joann. I spent $12 and have enough to make another for my 10 year old. But I think she thinks she’s too old for such a dress. “Woe Mom, that is bright!” Her exact words.

Summer sewing is so much fun.

Simplicity 4077

I started using this pattern 4 years ago. It is Simplicity 4077 but I couldn’t find a link to it on the Simplicity website, but I don’t think it is out of print…. yet. Could be wrong. See this previous blog post from 2008 about this same pattern.

I’ve made it twice with the mandarin collar but I just don’t love how it fits on my body. The collar sits way to high, nearly up to my chin don’t you think, unlike the pattern photos?  And I’m too lazy (so far) to alter the collar. Ok, really, I don’t know how to alter the collar. It would entail cutting the front and back pieces lower and then lengthening the collar I guess to fit the now-wider neckline? Dunno.

So then I made the regular collar but look how wide it is? The collar looks like wings reaching nearly to my arms! But I love this blouse and wear it because, well, I love dots.

So today I decided to make it again. This time I cut the collar a bit narrower. In fact, I cut off a good one inch from the -pattern. My newly-traced collar sits on top of the original.

Two and a half hours later I had another new blouse.  And I completely love the smaller collar. It’s been 3 years since I’ve used this pattern but I’m determined to make more this summer. (I’m determined to sew a lot more clothing this summer actually. I’m burnt out on just sewing for my etsy shop.)

Can you believe I found this fabric at Walmart? Could it be more Cynthia? Lime green with dots? Loooove it. I need to go back and get more to make tops for the girls. (No, not so we can match you cheesy person you.) I figured since it was $5 a yard that meant it would be a better quality than their usually crappy cottons that are $2.

 

This is one of the few woven shirt patterns that I own that is fitted but still allows lots of movement throughout my arms and upper back. The only other change I make is I don’t cut open the front darts. Lame. You’ll know what I mean if you buy the pattern.

I don’t look happy, but I am! Here’s to more cotton woven shirts and less sloppy t-shirts that cling to my body and show my love of chocolate cake too much. You know what I’m talkin’ about ladies.

Cotton Voile Blouses

Another one of my basic patterns that I love to alter in so many different ways—New Look 6754.

Using the techniques (loosely) in Design Your Clothes by Cal Patch (see previous post for details), I added a front yoke with some gathers, eliminated the back zipper (what a waste of time to begin with) and the bust darts, bound the neckline with 2” binding cut on the bias, and turned it into a button-down shirt.

I used this gorgeous white sheer cotton voile that I bought in 2010 from fabric.com. Everyone needs at least one white cotton blouse for summer—preferably thin for the intense heat which I swear we are not getting any of this summer. (I thought Utah was the desert?)

I used some fun lightweight cross-stitch patterns on my 830 which can hardly be seen in these photos, but they add a bit of fun.

HUGE MISTAKE—look how far off my front gathers are? When I made the gathers I forgot to account for the placket and how many times I would be folding it over. So even though I sewed them symmetrical, once the placket (not sure that’s the right word in this case) was made the gathers are way off. I’m kind of embarrassed to have made such an amateurish mistake. Had I not serged the seams already I would unpick and redo it. Dang serger. Oh well, I’m a housewife and spend 90% of life time at home.

Happy summer! Can’t wait to make this 10 times more. Got any good sources for cotton voile that isn’t $12 a yard? It’s getting harder and harder to find.

 

P.S.

Last fall I used this brick-red cotton voile to make this shirt for Hallie. Pattern used was from Oliver and S. Maybe I should follow that patterns directions next time to get my gathers perfectly spaced like they turned out on Hallie’s blouse?

The A-Line Skirt

For 8 years now I have had a love affair with the a-line skirt. A-line skirts flatter every body and can be made in as little as 1 hour and only require around 1 yard of 60” wide fabric. I don’t think I own a single store-bought skirt anymore. (Well, that’s not true. I can think of two store-bought skirts I own.) For years I have been using McCall’s 3341. And as you can see, it’s time to trace it onto some muslin as the pattern is literally falling apart at the darts.

The only adjustment I make is lengthening the pattern to fit my 5 foot 10 inch frame. You can see above where I slashed the pattern and added 2” inches of length. I am a size 10 but in patterns that means a 14 which is never great for a woman’s self-esteem to have to make a skirt 2 sizes larger than she really is. What would it be like to be petite and cute and not a large amazon woman? I’ve never known. I do like being tall but in terms of sewing, it’s not so fun. I always have to buy more fabric than the pattern specifies so that I can lengthen the skirt.

Actually, one other adjustment I make is that I eliminate the back centere seam as I prefer to have a side zipper instead of a centered back one. Unless I am adding a slit, which I never do with this pattern as I only ever make the knee length version.

And I hate the facings used 99% of the time with patterns. So I usually use 2-inch binding cut on the cross grain (not bias) of the fabric to finish the waist. I will bind any edge on skirts, blouses, t-shirts, and quilts. Binding is sooo fun and lovely looking. (Cutting your binding 2" inches yields a 1/2” binding.) Tutorial for bias binding on Children’s Corner website, click here.

And here you can see how lazy I was and used a cream-colored zipper instead of a gray one since I had no gray invisible zips on hand. But since it is invisible no one will see it, right?

I used these luscious linens from fabrics-store.com. I used the 8oz softened gray and a purple linen for the trim. The circles are from my new embroidery designs simply called “Scribbled Circles”.

And to finish it off I used stitch number 418 on the Bernina 830 to sew the hem. I think I found a new favorite decorative stitch.  It’s not too frilly, ya know? It just adds a shot of the lovely burnt orange color.

Don’t I look goofy happy in my new $10 skirt all ready for church?

The Rosie Skirt

I bought the book Design Your Own Clothes by Cal Patch last year. After pouring over it I knew I loved it and wanted to try lots of patterns in this book for myself and my girls. My oldest daughter is now 10 years old and it getting difficult to find age-appropriate sewing patterns for her. There are plenty of patterns for toddlers and teens with curves, but what about this in-between-phase of adolescence?

I don’t have a huge desire to make patterns from scratch but I figure I can alter basic a-line skirts and ‘shell’ blouses to accommodate the styles I saw and loved in this book. And when I saw The Rosie Skirt I new I had to make it for my daughter first, and then maybe for myself. Love the pockets and the side-button closure. Yum.

I used a lightweight 100% cotton denim from Jo-Ann. I love to keep yards and yards of this stuff on hand, washed, and ready to go for sewing projects—skirts, shorts and capris, handbags, you name it.

A few things I learned—I wished I hadn’t skipped the darts. I figured only women with curves needed darts. Well, the darts add shape and it was a mistake to eliminate them. Luckily, my 10-yr old didn’t seem to mind too much.

I bound the pockets with a limey-green polka dot fabric and love how they turned out.

Now what I didn’t love was the bad directions for making the button closure:

The directions for making that overlap are dubious at best. A few steps have gotta be missing. There is no mention of how to finish the front part—the section with those buttonholes. No lining is mentioned, no overlap, no interfacing, nothing. I had to call my brilliant friend Elaine over to help me figure that part out. She agreed that the editor definitely missed something in proof-reading the book. So we basically made another facing for the front button-holed section. Here’s how it looks on the inside:

And I finished it off with this gorgeous feather (or are they ferns?) decorative stitch #110 on the Bernina 830:

I will be making this again and again for my girls. And hopefully one for myself as well.

On a side note………..These are the shorts are made for the girls last year with this same denim. (Actually, I think this denim is a bit darker. Love!) I used designs from the Paisley Pack by OESD. Best purchase ever.