#MMM18 New ladybird top from Burda Style pattern

I wore my navy trousers again. Not much to say really they are just elastic waist and very basic but OK for work in summer, but today I also wore my new ladybird fabric top which I really love.

I went looking for skull fabric but bought this instead. Yey!

Its meant to be kids fabric!

This is the same pattern as this ikea fabric top.

http://brackencrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/another-red-topburdastyle-022014117.html

I love this pattern. Really though rather than make more (I have yet another yet to show you - 3 in total!) I need to start tracing patterns again. 

So my tasks next month, cos May is a bit crammed right now, is to do this FBA adjustment on the peplum jacket since I really need to learn that as well since I am now noticing the same problems on other tops so I am now believing this may be a problem on several items I already made so has to be sorted. AND trace some more tops patterns. But thats for later. 

I enjoyed this top today. Its polycotton so does not crease which is what I need for work. Its cool (abit too cool today cos it was not a warm day or maybe its the office I work in).

Tho as usual there is an error. The central part of the sleeves I cut the fabric the wrong way! It actually looks good tho I think 😊

Thanks for visiting

Bracken

24: Red lace hoody - Burdastyle 01/2016 and black faux leather leggings

Well, I am a bit late blogging this week.

 No excuse really other than life just got a bit hectic and I never got round to it. Slack of me I know!
Anyway I made a whole new outfit the last week although not using any new patterns. Since I made the decision to try to be more authentic in my clothing makes I have completely reviewed all patterns I currently have available and decided to make another pair of my 19: Green leather look leggings
which I love wearing. This time they are in shiny black faux leather which is a bit less stretchy than the green was but they have still worked out fine as you can see. Again I made the extra long version which means the gather a bit round the ankles but I like that look.

I have also made a new version of the 15: Burda style 01/2016 hoody since I absolutely love my black one even though I made it as a muslin in a naff fabric. I have still found I have worn it loads. It was always meant to be just a muslin anyway so this red top is the real deal. I did not make any real changes to either pattern other than not adding the pocket onto the top since it is a very lightweight lacey fabric and I was not sure a pocket would work. I think if it was used at all the fabric would be destroyed by carrying things like keys around and to be honest if I had a pocket on it that is what I am most likely to carry in it so best just not to sew it on in the first place. It is the same fabric I used for my 5: Burdastyle dress- Lace Cowl Dress 12/2014 #121

I wore my new clothes when we went to the garden centre on Saturday which was a lovely sunny day and ideal for taking some pictures:

Possibly I was a bit overdressed for the local garden centre but at least I felt good about myself!
I suspect I will be wearing this top and trousers lots over the next few months.

If you have the time and you would like to leave a comment that would be lovely.
Thanks for reading and see you again soon.
Bracken

5: Burdastyle dress- Lace Cowl Dress 12/2014 #121

 I made the original purple version of this dress about a year ago when I first got the magazine. The purple one is totally made using a  zigzag stitch. The red lace one is made using a serger with a twin needle hem.

Please excuse the messy house. I was still unpacking when this was taken.

Unfortunately I had the idea it would make a lovely winter dress/top so I made it using two purple IKEA fleece blankets. Also because it has a fancy cut hem I did not need to hem it. At that time I had a machine that struggled with stretch fabrics and this was made using just a zigzag. The final dress looks great but is really not that wearable. Firstly it is not very comfortable and tends to "ride up" possibly because its tight and fleece. It is really good when its very cold because I do not need much on top of it and have worn it in winter over jeans. Generally though the UK is not that cold and so far it is simply too hot to wear it indoors most of the time. Also because its fleece if I wear for example a Tshirt under it when I get hot and try to take it off the Tshirt comes off with it so it is not something I feel comfortable wearing somewhere like to work since I dare not take off my top layer in public!

The burdastyle dress was also made in lacy so maybe that is why it my newer version works so well.
This is the pattern:

Anyway, since I bought this lovely dark red lacey-acrylic stretch fabric from Yvonne at Weston Fabrics, UK, I decided it would be time to have another attempt at this pattern.

I can honestly say I am very pleased with the final garment. I do have a few issues though. Firstly the elastic ruching at the side did not work as well with this fabric as with the fleece which was perfect. It is just not very ruched. If I do another one I will probably put in two cords so I can just ruche it by hand and tie it to where-ever I fancy. Then it would also be adjustable so giving different looks to one garment. Though to be honest I may just not bother with ruching at all if I made this particular design again since I also like it just with a straight side seam. Also I had yellow and green cotton in my Brother sewing machine which I had set up to do twin needle sewing and to be honest having finally sorted out how to do this I was in two minds as to risk un-doing the threads so I was lazy and left them so they do not match the colour of the dress. I thought it would be a contrast but to be honest it was a mistake and I should have changed to a darker coloured thread ideally red so it didn't show as much. Other than this though I love this dress so much. Considering it is lacy and light in weight it also seems quite warm so will be ideal for the next few months. I now need to make some slip dresses to wear underneath with this type of fabric. 
Thanks for reading
Bracken