August Burda Challenge–08/2012 #113

When I started doing the Burda Challenge, I thought to myself, “This is will be totally easy! I have five-ish years of Burda magazines to choose from. It’ll be super easy to find one pattern per month in five magazines!” Well, this month was hard for me. In my head, the August Burdas have always been chock full of great fall-ish type patterns. In reality, I had a really hard time finding something I wanted to make. First, I was all like, “I should sew a cool fall jacket!” Then, I was like, “Hmmmm, I don’t really love any of these jackets.” Then I did that with dresses, skirts, and vests. Nada. Then, I found this purple wool/cashmere and I knew it needed to be something flowy but with structure. I’m rather happy with how it turned out. And I guess I am also happy doing this Burda Challenge because it has forced me to make a pattern I may have skipped over before.

 

Here is the line drawing and the model photo. I thought about making a matching skirt and I still might do that. Although, I don’t want to be the Grape Lady either.

 

Here is probably how I will wear it. I love these boots and this pair of skinny jeans. I have the same jeans in black and wear them all the time. It would also be really cute over a skirt like in the model photo.

 

Here’s the peplum from the back. I should have shaken my bootie a bit so it would fall better. Burda recommends a 24” zipper. All I could find at my local JoAnn’s was a 20” zipper. I would really like to have those inches of zipper. As it is, it is hard to get over my shoulders.

 

Here’s the side view. You can tell the back is several inches longer than the front. Whoops, there is a dangly string back there!

 

I changed the single large dart to two small darts (Melissa recommended this and it seemed to work really well). The seam is about an inch above my belly button.

 

Here it is flat. It does not have much flat-appeal. I hand sewed that stupid round hem. I love to hand sew. Yea.

 

Here you can see the two darts. I do not have much experience manipulating darts so I just sort of winged it.

 

The bodice is fully lined a la Melissa. She wrote a whole post on how to line this top. I did mine slightly different than she did but it came out the same in the end. I have a fully lined bodice that stops where the peplum starts.

 

 

The dreaded sch___________ starts soon!

Jalie 2796–Running Skirt

I’ve made this skirt for my daughters twice but thought I might need my own version. I have my eyes on winter and I wanted something that would cut the wind to my chakras and still let me move. I made the front and back panel out of the Polartec Powerstretch Hardface and the sides and waistband are made out of the Nike Dri-Fit Brush-Back Knit. I love them and I think they will be super nice for running this fall.


This is me after a 3 mile run. I always were my hair like this so it doesn’t get so tangled.


This the high-waisted version of this pattern. The low-waisted waistband is about half this height.


The shorts are really comfortable. I didn’t get any cooch-crawl which I do sometimes get with other tight shorts. I love that they have no side seam.


The back has a bit of a flair which I like. In a drapier fabric, this would hang down instead of flare out.


On this pattern, you make the shorts, make the skirt, and then attach them together with the waistband. For the waistband, you want something really stretch because there are several inches of negative here. When you cut out your waistband, you may want to try in on your body first, before attaching everything.


This is the side view and my favorite part of this skirt. There are large pockets on both sides.


The pockets are large enough for me to stuff my hand in them. Jalie has you sew elastic on the top so things won’t bounce out. The way the skirt is constructed keeps the fabric there very taut so you won’t have your phone or Goo jiggling up and down. I hate that.


I used the sparkle FOE again because 1) it was sitting next to the sewing machine from this dress, 2) it’s perfect for this application, and 3) who doesn’t need some sparkle on their running stuff? What I really need to find is reflective FOE. 


My iPhone easily fits in the pocket. On one of my other (store bought) running skirts, they have a small pocket on the front of the thigh on the running shorts. I may have to add two more pockets to my running shorts. You can never have too many pockets!



These pockets are nice because you can listen to your iPhone and have your hands free.

Up next? I’m not sure. Sch_______ is looming so I’m running out of time!!!! Aaaauughghghghhhhhhh!

Jalie Scarf-Collar Knit Top in SPARKLE!

Jalie 2921 is a great pattern. I mean, really, how much fun is this top? This is my typical look for a typical sch________ day. I’m still not saying it. If I do not say it. It does not exist. I wear a lot of black. People. It’s easy, it matches everything in my closet and it’s slimming. Always good. I used up the rest of the fabric from this dress. I have gone ga-ga for metallic jersey so hopefully that’s still okay in the fashion realm. And really, even if it’s not, I’m okay with that too.

 

This is like my favorite pair of shoes ever.

 

This just seemed like the perfect pattern for a little bling.

 

I love this bow.

 

The fit is fab like all Jalie patterns. There’s a tiny bit of bust-wrinkle-pull but I think that is because I did not pull the shirt down.

 

If I had to have one complaint, it’s that I should have made it an inch longer. These trousers sit lower on my hips and this top wants to come untucked.

 

I love the super nice finish inside too. This is the inside at the CB seam of the collar.

 

I may have to make another one in another sparkle fabric.

Burda Wrap Dress Again!

I had to make the wrap dress again. I just had to. Sch______ (I won’t say the word, I WON’T!) is starting again and I love comfortable, easy dresses when I work. I made this dress a few days ago and wanted to perfect the fit before I put the pattern away. I’ll get to my changes at the bottom. I also wanted something with a little less ga-BLING to it. I see many blogs out there where the sewist does 46 poses in front of the camera. Looking at the ground - pulling hair – pensive –looking far off into space-grabbing hands in front of camera-fingeringskirt-twirlinghair-ohmygodstopalready! I decided I really needed to ramp up my poses. But, I’m too silly to be pensive. This is as demure and pensive as I could get. Yea, not so much, thank you.

 

Anyway, back to boring pose. This is another jersey from the Swap Meet in San Diego. I love this one. It’s still bright but it’s a bit more subdued. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll wear the other dress too, but I love this print.

 

I didn’t make too many changes so you won’t see too many thing different in the fit.

 

Here’s basically what I changed. I used the pattern piece from the Burda Wrap dress 09-2006-115 and put in under my newest wrap dress. That pattern uses a separate piece for the skirt. You can see how the older pattern piece is wider than the one I did the other day. I sort of eyeballed it and made my newest wrap dress a little wider. The other change is that I added FOE to all the edges. And, I still had the seam allowances so I added quite a bit of overlap for the bodice and waist. The only other change was to add an inch or so for the hem.

 

How come I have never used FOE before? This may be my new best friend! I have lots of it from the Swap Meet. I will have to buy more next time. This is what is looks like when the collar is folded up. This FOE is sparkly on one side and black on the other.

 

I applied it by zigzagging the black elastic on and then folding over the elastic and topstitching from the right side. Here is what is looks like from the wrong side. You can see both the zig zag and the topstitching. I used my 1/4” guide foot for a perfect topstitch. I’m not sure you could use this technique on something that needed to be very stretchy. This has plenty of stretch, but for a bathing suit or lingerie, it may not be enough.

 

Let’s see. Next up is cleaning and organizing my sewing space. With all of our company and house guests, the sewing room has become the storage and clutter room. There needs to be some serious loud music and dance-cleaning.

Burda 06-2011 #139 Bluemarine Wrap Dress

I really like wrap dresses and I knew I would eventually try this dress from the June 2011 edition of Burda. This dress is design pattern for that month’s magazine.

 

 

I made this out of ITY jersey with metallic overlay (can you say, Swap Meet?). This fabric might be a little over the top, and that’s saying something since I like my clothes bright. Overall, I love the pattern. It’s a wrap dress without too much material and it fits well (I made my usual 34). I knew that the low v-neck would be something to think about. 

 

It is indeed very low. The #1 shows were I safety-pinned it to avoid exposure to the world. The dress actually opens up at point #2. It’s a showy little thing. Before I wore this un-pinned, I would have to make sure my undergarments were pretty because those babies would certainly show. Babies = undergarments, not other “babies,” you sickos.  The ties are really long. They go around my body twice.

 

You can see from the shoulders that the fit is good in the top. I like the slight blouson effect above the belt. I shortened the sleeves because dramatic bell sleeves with this fabric was just too much. Like Mickey Mouse in the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, too much.

 

This could have been me.

 

I really like the collar on this. I did not interface it but some people did at PatternReview.com.

 

I know, it’s hard to see because you are blinded by my lack of taste, and my addiction to all things shiny and animal print.

 

But look how nice the edges of the collar are. No one, except you Dear Readers, will ever understand how hard it is to make jersey collar points like this. And really, even if someone knew, they would never be able to see it against the shiny-ness that is this dress (I mean, really, look at the dress in the background!!).

I may make another wrap dress before putting this pattern away. I will probably add a little to the front to make it less showy. I may also add an inch to the bottom so I can wear it to school.

Easiest Sewing Ever

I am doing a little painting today and I was watching paint dry while sitting on the kitchen counter. Like literally, watching it dry. I looked over and decided my old pillows were crap, and that I needed new ones. I think I was partly dying of boredom and partly, I was sick of the old brown ones. They have an embroidered green leaf on them and they are looking shabBY. Part of the embroidery is wrecked, the brown looks old and wrinkled, and I was watching paint dry between coats.  What better to do than sew myself some new ones while the damn paints dries by itself?

I had this fun IKEA fabric and I though it was just the think to brighten up the room. My pillows were 20” square and I cut the fabric into long rectangles of 50” by 21”. I folded over an inch for the seam allowance on the overlaps, sewed the overlap seams, folded it RST (making sure the overlap made the overall width 20”, and then just sewed the top and bottom closed. Voila. New pillows! 

 

Jeez, these pillows look enormous on the loveseat. They fit much better on the big couch.

 

Is this not fun fabric? The dark streak is dark purple, not black.

 

The front and back. I made five total. It took me all of about 40 minutes. After that, I went back to watching paint dry. But soon it will be ready for a second coat. Soon.

Fish On!

Warning! If you are all environmental and don’t believe in commercial fishing, then you don’t want to read this post. Also, if the sight of blood and gore gross you out, you should look away! Here is last year’s post about fishing.

 

 

 

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I’ll even ease into the blood and gore by showing you the fun beach pictures with the kids. Awwwwwwwww. I swear the kids didn’t wear shoes for a whole week. Well, except The Boy, he had a sore heel.

 

Ulp, getting closer to the death pictures. Both girls were all smiles until I said, “make a gross-out face!” Only one of them did it though. They were elbow deep in this pile of death only a few minutes before this picture, looking for the eggs.

 

We only caught one king and it was a tiny one.

 

 

To go fishing, you first must walk a billion miles to get into the boat. You have to walk through this thick mudflat nasty crap. We anchor the boats offshore because you are only allowed to fish from 7am to 7pm. If it is low tide at 7am, you walk out to where the boats are anchored which should be just about wet at 7am. These guys are amazing at judging distances and they always park the boats so they are actually in water by 7am.

 

Of course, the mudflats are fun for other things.

 

I used to work for Fish and Game and drove skiffs all the time up rivers. This is not much different. It’s a bigger, heavier boat but not much different.

 

Here are some of the fishies caught in the net. We set five nets this day total and you continually pick the nets until low tide.

 

We caught several hundred this day and we only fished half the day. Reds are about $2.00/lb. The silvers, chums, and pinks go for much, much less. Maybe $0.80/lb? I’m not sure about that number.

 

Most of them are reds like the one I am holding. There were a few pinks, a few chum, lots of silvers, and one king.

 

When your boat is full, like here, you take your fish to the tender (a bigger ship used to carry lots of fish). The tender weighs the bags of fish and then gives you a ticket and sends you a check later in the season. We don’t sell them all to the tender. We get our fill of personal use fish too.

 

This is the pile of fish from the personal use operation. We only only cut up the fish we are going to eat. This year, we cut up and filleted about 200 fish which feeds our entire family (like the WHOLE family, not just mine) for the year. We vacuum pack the fish and it lasts a year easily in the freezer.

 

These are fish in brailer bags in the creek. They creek is a constant 43 degrees which keeps the fish cold for a day or two until we are done filleting, packing, and getting them to town.

 

These huge blue dragonflies were everywhere.

 

 

I’ve never seen this before. This dragonfly caught a bumble bee, yes really, and ate it while laying on its back. I’ve never seen a dragonfly do that before. You should expand the picture because it’s pretty cool. It was a big meal for the dragonfly and he was so busy with it, he let us get very close to him. The kids and I crouched over him for a good 20 minutes while he ate his meal.

 

 

We’ll finish with some kid-play-fun pictures and not gore. The twins made sand-cakes, sand-soup, sand-brownies, sand-popcorn, and pretty much anything sand you wanted. They had a blast.

 

The cousins! This is how you do bath time when there is no running water!

 

More fishies!!

 

There are really fun sand hills too.

 

 

And logs to walk on . . . creeks to walk in.

 

 

Fishing site = happy kids.

 

 

On a side note: look at my subtle vignette! I’m getting better at doing things in Photoshop.