Burda 6919 - Knit Dress (1-hour!)

I don’t often buy envelope pattern, but Burda was on sale at JoAnn’s and I thought the little black number on the right was cute. Hopefully this wasn’t in a recent magazine. I don’t remember seeing it, if it was!

 

Look pretty easy, right?

 

It’s totally easy. I didn’t have to trace this out or add seam allowances. That made it super fast. It’s only four pieces too. I rather like the way it looks too. Not too shabby for an hour’s worth of work.

 

I think the arm cutouts are super cute too.

 

I made my own belt out of self-fabric. Where is this fabric from? None other than my favorite Swap Meet in National City.

 

This is without any belt. Meh. It definitely needs something. I had a hard time making the pleats in this slippery fabric. Here, the pleats just kind of look like a hot mess.

 

This is with a purchased belt, but it gives you an idea of what it might look like with something else. It needs a much short belt because it is truly at waist level. Most of my belts fit me at hip level. I love the purple color of this dress.

 

The arm slits are super easy to do. I used a strip of fusible web to told the “hem” in place while I coverstitched it.

 

When I make this again (and yes I will), I’ll do a better top with the pleats and the waistband treatment. This is one of those that you sew the tops and bottom together at the waist and then sew them together with elastic. The elastic makes the waist cinch in. I’ve never had luck with this kind of waist treatment. I think it’s fine here because you can’t see it anyway with the belt I made. Next time, maybe a casing for the elastic?

 

See? Not pretty.

Burda 05/2014 #106 Ruched Dress (Again!)

 

I had to do it again. In another crazy print. This one is crazier than the last one.

 

This is a great dress and it goes together super fast. I put this together in less than an hour. Although, remember it was already traced off because I made it last week too.

 

Is this fabric not crazy? It’s again from my favorite place in National City! This one seems to make me look super curvy. I think it’s the bright white stripes.

 

Oh look, here I am posing like a Burda model and hiding all the details!

 

 

I thought I’d share my ITY coverstitch hemming trick with you guys. You know when your coverstitch machine is eating your knit fabric, or when it makes those annoying folds because it is pulling on the fabric? This seems to solve the problem. I cut my Sulky Water Soluble Stabilizer into strips about an inch wide. Then I just feed it under the foot when I’m hemming. It seems to give it enough body that it won’t pull and tug on your poor knit. I use this trick on most of my fine knits.
 

 

Here’s what is looks like before I trim it off. Then I stick it in a bowl of hot water and it disappears. The coverstitching never skips, pulls, or breaks.

 

If you follow Burda’s directions, they have you fold the cowl-neck first and then put on the arms which means you have this weird finish on the edges when they meet the cowl. I tried it another way. First, I finished the raglan-arm pieces and CB with a fold-over strip of self-fabric. Next, I sandwiched the cowl around the side fabric. I made one stitch on each side and voila, the seam is encased in the cowl and no weird seam between the cowl and the raglan-sleeves.

 

I drew a diagram, but maybe it just makes it more confusing.

 

Next up: a one-hour dress beginning to end.

New Jalies

Oh, how I love thee Jalie. I adore this swimsuit pattern. I can see the girls in both versions. I love the twist-front one the most, I think. I need a one-piece suit too!

 

I also bought this shorts pattern. I will make these over and over again as running shorts, bathing suit shorts, and casual summer shorts. LOVE THEM.

 

I love the simplicity of this top. Jalie always has the best fit for me, so I’m guessing this will be fantastic too. I also love their mini-dress version (on Facebook). And I want that middle version with the black sleeves and print front.

 

Ahem, I may have a leotard addiction. Blink. Blink.

 

Yes, I have other sweatshirt patterns. But nothing fits like Jalie. Plus, I will have one pattern for a hoodie, sweatshirt, and sweatpants. Forever. One pattern, people. I will make this 1300 times before my kids even graduate high school. I betcha!

 

There is another cardigan pattern that looks cute, and two more dance/gymnastics patterns. I didn’t want to buy them all, that might mean I have a problem. Blink. Blink.

Jalie 3241- More leotards and some fun circle skirts!

These two little people just got into a dance class and they NEEDED a leotard. Like NEEDED one now. So, of course, mom obliged. I used size L, which is the size I made for their cousin. I knew from when they modeled that leotard that it was a bit snug in the torso length. I added a 1/2” to the front and back, and it’s still tight! After they were all made, I measured the girls. The bust, waist, and hip measurements are in the H range (size 4!!!), but their girth is in the N range (size 10!). I think next time, I will keep the size L and add another inch to the torso. The width is fine and may be a tiny bit too loose when the length issue is solved. Smile girl!

 

My absolute favorite of the leotard is the cross-back. Here you can see they are pretty stretched and there is a gap at CB where the straps meet the leotard. That’s all from the stretch that is caused by the too short leotard.

 

Because they are Girlie-Girls (notice the capitals), they also NEEDED twirly skirts. Yes, ma'am (imagine me saluting them and then running off to my sewing room, because that’s about how it happened). Here is the result.

 

This girl was cold, but here is what they look like when they aren’t spinning.

 

And here’s the spin.

 

SPIN! We also got our faces painted today.

 

This was everyone’s favorite skirt.

 

Hearts, mesh, poofy, what’s not to love?

 

These are extremely easy to make. Circle of fabric, elastic, sew.

 

I just zig-zagged them on with matching thread. This is 1-inch elastic.

 

I didn’t even bother to finish the inside fabric or hem it, gasp.

 

This is the other favorite. Pink, leopard-print mesh. Yikes.

 

I made another Burda 05/20014 #106 and I love this one more than the last one! I just need to find some time to photograph it!

Burda 05/2014 #106 (May Burda Challenge?)

Can I do my May Burda Challenge in April? I think I can.

 

This is the May raglan-sleeved knit dress that got so much notice on the previews. The notice was well worth it too, because it’s a great pattern. Except for a little operator-error snafu, the dress went together perfectly. Mine isn’t as blingy as the model’s sequin dress, but I like it all the same.

 

It fits well in back.

 

This fantastic SPRINGY fabric is from the Swap Meet in National City. My favorite fabric “store”.

 

This is when my husband was taking pictures and I was over it.

 

Here’s my snafu. You are supposed to fold the facing wrong side together and treat as one layer when you sew the arms to the bodice, right? Well, I did the RST cowl sandwich that I normally do and it, of course, didn’t work. If you put the cowl neck facing WST, like they tell you, it goes together fine. Remember that when you sew the cowl-neck to the arm sleeve, you need to leave a seam allowance overhanging on the sleeve seam. This is what you will sew to your neck facing. I found after trying it on that the neckline was too low and stretchy. Self-facing facing would have not shown, but I needed the beefiness of this white elastic. Next time (oh yes, there will be a next time), I will reinforce the neck and then sew on a self-fabric facing.

 

Hope everyone had a fantastic Easter.

 

This dress also shows me what to do with my next Jalie raglan-sleeved dress. I’ll change the body to be more fitted like this.

Jalie 3245 as a T-shirt Dress

Yadda, yadda, best raglan t-shirt pattern ever, made it a million times, yadda yadda.

 

Today, though, it’s a dress. I’ve been meaning to do this all winter with a sweater knit and a big cowl neck. Now it’s spring and that doesn’t really work anymore.

 

I’ve got to tell you though, I’m not sold on it. I think partly, it’s the fabric. It’s a poly-blend double knit from Fashion Fabrics Club. I don’t really love how it flares below the hips and that is the fabric too. It’s does not drape AT ALL. I could have cut it more straight, but I followed the curve of the tunic top.

 

 

However, I received rave reviews today at work. There was a lot of “did-you-make-that-it’s so-freaking-cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”. I’m wondering though if it doesn’t look crafty and homemade. That’s like the kiss of death for me. I think sometimes people ask because it doesn’t look RTW, and then they have to say something, so they squee a little and say it’s cute.

 

Here it’s a bit more fitted. I looked at the original pictures and decided it needed to be a bit more shapely. I added some elastic to the back in a casing. I like the front better, but not the back now.

 

What do you guys think?

 

I used the flatlock stitch on the front and back of the raglan sleeves.

 

I made a design feature, ahem, because (what the hell was I thinking) the collar is way too wide and would not lay down against the neck (like almost two inches!). So I sewed a section down at CF. It was a good solution to my problem, and I think it’s cute.

 

I used embroidery on one of the pockets. These look a little sketchy too because I could not for the life of me, make this stuff take a fold. I was trying to get the pocket pieces to lay flat which I was sewing them on. Not awesome.

 

 

What do you guys think? Too Suzy homemaker? Or cute like people at work said? My plan for the next one? I probably need to suck it up and do a swayback adjustment (do I HAVE to add a CB seam? Is there another way?). I will also make the skirt go straight after the hip instead of flaring.

 

Next up is this Burda dress. I love it. Look, it’s a raglan too!