Burda Challenge–September

Yes, I know. I’m late. Again. Siiigh. I need to do a better job keeping my shit together. It’s not that I’m not sewing either, I’m just getting distracted. Tee hee.

I like this skirt but I’m not sure I’m in love with it, if you know what I mean. The top of it is so low, I can’t decide if it’s better with a tucked shirted or an untucked shirt. Maybe just not this shirt (I just made this too and will review soon!). Anyway, the skirt is cute enough.

 

 

The skirt has lots of movement. You can see here that it flairs out just from me slowly turning for pictures.

 

The fit is nice. Low, but nicely fitted. This is the size 34. There are four pieces to this. A CF, CB, side front, and side back. They have you make the bottom out of two identical circles.

 

Sorry, husband was taking pictures. He’s like super helpful. The lumpy parts under the skirt at my hip level is the shirt clumping up.

 

See? Low. And I think that is exactly how it’s supposed to fit.

 

Invisible zipper in the side seam.

 

What do you guys think? Tucked in? Out? This top is supposed to be crooked like this. Maybe just a different top?

 

They have you just leave the hem raw. I did it but I’m not sure how I like it. It frays and looks unfinished (duh!). I put in a line of stitching about 1/4” away just to prevent any crazy runs.

 

The top sections of the skirt are lined. The flared part below is not.

 

I am still working on my Jalie jacket for the Sew A-Long. I put in the zipper but it was wavy. I think I need to interface or do something else. Still pondering that. I just finished this top in the pictures too. Will review that soon too.

How to Sew French Seams

This Challenge #3 of the FabricMart Challenge I’m in right now. Each participant was given a topic and we had to create a little tutorial for it. Here’s mine.





A French seam is just a fancy way of sewing a regular seam. Using this technique, you are enclosing the raw edge of the fabric so both sides of the garment look nice. This is a really great technique for light or sheer fabric where you may see the raw seam allowance edges through the fabric. It’s also great for things where you may see the inside of the garment, like an unfinished jacket or the join in a scarf. This also works with thicker fabrics, but the seam allowances may get bulky.

Put your fabric together WRONG sides together. Yes, really. I know normally you put things the other way. Trust me, this time put your fabric WRONG sides together. Instead of doing your typical 5/8” seam allowance, do a 3/8” seam allowance. When I’m making something with French seams, I like to do all the wrong-sides-together stitches first. For example, on a top, I’ll sew the shoulder seams and side seams all wrong sides together and then go on to the other steps. I find things move faster that way.




Iron your seam allowance open.




Trim your seam allowance to 1/8”



Now, fold the RIGHT sides together and press the seam with your iron.




Go back to the sewing machine and sew 1/4” from the seam edge. You are still getting a 5/8” seam allowance, you are just doing it in two steps!




Go to the wrong side and iron down that beautiful inside seam.




Enjoy your beautiful seams on the inside and the outside!


And voila, you have a garment that is beautiful inside and out!!

Here's a link to the other contestants. And here's a link to vote!

Fabric Mart Challenge #2 - My Dress!

Here’s my second entry for the contest! Can I just yell for a second? I LOVE IT, I LOVE IT, I LOVE IT, I LOVE IT!!! If I can brag for a minute, the waist seam hits EXACTLY where it should, there is no bust wrinkles and gaping. This is a great dress!! Okay, bragging done. *clearing throat* Okay, well, let’s start again. This is a my entry for the second challenge. I really like it.


And look, I even blow-dried my hair for this.


I wish I could find the pattern on some Burda archives somewhere. I looked at my links for the Russian and French websites but I the archives seems to have gone away. Dammit. Anyway, it’s 09-2006 ##114/115. It’s a slightly flared a-line wrap dress. 


With the pattern, they include a facing pattern piece for the bodice. I modified it slightly to create a one-piece facing that connects at CB and goes from one hem to the other.


I clipped, graded, and understitched.



I even did french seams for every seam! I never do stuff like that. But this dress is a labor or love.


Skirt and sleeve hems were serged and sewn up by hand.



How fun is the fabric? 


My inspiration for this dress. Not only the woman, but also the wrap dresses she is wearing. Can you say animal print? Collars? Really, I need any excuse I can to wear animal-print anything.


I even made my own DVF-inspired (lawn chair) photo shoot!


See the other entries here!

Vote here! Apparently votes really matter.

Fabric Mart Challenge #2

Our challenge this week to create a DVF-inspired wrap dress. She has so many beautiful dresses. I have a couple patterns to choose from but I’ve settled on a BWOF from 2006 that has a great wrap dress pattern in it. They’ll be looking at all the details, seaming, fit, etc.

 

 

This is my inspiration picture. It’s leopard! It’s the idol herself! And I just flat love it. And really, I’d like any excuse to use an animal print.

 

Kristin did end up winning the last contest. Her transformation from skirt to cute dress really was amazing. Apparently we tied for first, but reader votes pushed the judges her way. It’s okay, I’m not going to yell at you. Little secret? I voted for her too!!!!

I’ll post my finished garment here on Wednesday. :)

Fabric Mart Challenge #1

The Fabric Mart Challenge was to take a garment that was a FAIL and make it into something better. You could modify it to make it fit better, you you could just create a whole new garment. Remember the pirate outfit from April? Well, I took that and turned it into a skirt.





I cut the arms off, turned it upside down and added a casing for elastic and a double-thick hem to the bottom.





Here you can see what I did. I pieced the double hem from the voluminous sleeves.




It's bordering on too short, but that's also my jam. I will totally wear this with tights and chunky boots. I think it's really cute and it's SO MUCH BETTER than what it was before.





I left the original hems but turned them into flat felled hems to make them nicer on the inside.






The thick hem is my favorite part of this skirt.





This is all that was left at the end!!!!



Click here to see what everyone made. Some of the re-makes are pretty awesome. I would tell you to click here to vote for me, but I actually think Kristen's is the best. She turned a frumpy skirt (her words, not mine!) into a super cute sundress.