Burda Style dress 125, 03/2002Burda Style dress 125, 03/2002

 I have decided to eliminate as much stashed fabric as I can, so instead of my usual tactic, which is find a nice pattern and then find something from the stash to use to make it, I am now pulling out season-suitable fabrics and using all of it. This does mean lots of co-ordinating items in identical fabrics which is good and bad depending on your view.

Since I probably have enough stashed fabric to get me through the rest of my life without buying anything this seems the way to go. It gets rid of huge amounts in a few weeks. I started with the glitter grey sweatshirting a while ago and cut several items and I still have two other items to sew up after this dress.

The downside: well its very unlikely I will come accross this kind of fabric at a bargain basement price again. I actually bought 12m of this so its been going for a while. Its the second lot of grey glitter sweatshirting I bought. I used the paler fabric a few years ago and because I enjoyed the tracksuits I made so much I bought this bolt of 12m. I then made a couple of tracksuits but the rest has been sitting there ever since. I had at least 6m of this in the piece of fabric I pulled out of my stash, but its now cut and being sewn.

 I will be making another pair of track pants - slightly different to my previous versions but still using the same pattern as a base in the next couple of weeks and also another dress. Thats a lot of warm winter clothes though and will keep me happy I expect for this winter. That frees me up to make some more glamourous and also practical stuff - like finally finish the hand sewing on the coat I started last year. I am also altering that slightly but more once thats done and I can finally wear the thing. Its not too cold as yet which is lucky for me because I will need that coat once it is.

In the meantime I have made this dress. Its model Burda Style dress 125, 03/2002. I made it before but in a far thinner fabric. That one has always seemed too thin but it actually worked better in many ways.

Neck version one -needed alterations

When making this I cut as I said several items and because of this I made the tube neck much shorter. The burda directions give a very long tube neck. I was sure when sewing this up that the front neck line was just a bit too high. I cannot find the old version to compare if i just traced it wrong. I started to pack to move house 3 years ago and the first dress is somewhere in a  box. I do not want to be unpacking stuff so its going to move with us and I will decide after I unpack if I still want it. Anyway its not around to have a look at so I need to go by the magazine not what I did previously. 

Neck version two- cannot see the inside seam!

I had some issues with the fit of the neck here as I will explain:

 

So the tube neck on this is shorter than my black faux suede dress. Its probably best like that because the sweatshirting is far more bulky than the black faux suede. 

I think it may not be comfortable if the huge tube neck was doubled and so long a tube as the pattern dictates. Either way I do not have enough offcuts of sweatshirting for such a massive tube neck so this is smaller. 

But as you can see from the photos this neck ( as above photo of neck version 1) is really very high at the front and you can see the inside seam which I did not like.

The neck just kind of hangs down.

Yes I was very much not happy with the neck hence the face!

 So I re-did the neck - at front only so a bit of a bodge really but only I will see the inside of this and it also meant I was less likely to reck it if I only altered it slightly because this was difficult to sew. 

And at this point I will say, I began sewing this with my Janome 9300dx overlocker.

I love that machine but I relatively recently bought a new one which is the Brother 4234D. Now the Brother is supposed to be easier to thread. For me its an absolute pig and I never so far managed to thread the thing. I always get someone else to do this for me. And really thats so far from ideal its just awful. I just cannot get it to chain when I do it and  have no idea why. The Janome is fiddly but I always manage to successfully thread that so I have previously slagged off the Brother machine but when faced with 6 layers of sweatshirting my Janome could not do it and I nearly recked the garment. The six layers are at the shoulders where the tube neck joins.  I swapped to the Brother and it made such easy work of it, its definitely worth having. I still prefer my Janome even though its old and the cutters continually go out of line meaning I have to fix it - thanks YouTube for being so helpful!

Anyway, the Brother finally came into its own for this dress.

And end result?

Fixed the neck.

Well its very 60s really with the weird sleeve seams (which I have to say I do not like) so sleeves are in two parts like a jacket rather than a dress. 

Sleeves could accommodate shoulder pads!

 Or maybe even 80s because you could easily accommodate shoulder pads here and I took the sleeve seam in as far as I dared without risking recking the dress. Perhaps the oversized shoulders will wear in?

I also added cuffs to lengthen the sleeves - possibly slightly too much. Perhaps I should have also added thumb holes? Hmm not sure. I do not like short sleeves ( unless they are actually meant to be short). I prefer a longer sleeve but maybe this is slightly too long? Its ok when the cuffs are turned back though.

And despite the sleeves, I like the end result. It does have a very 60s feel and the neck ended up more as a collared boat neck but thats actually something I very much love so thats ok. If I make this again I will alter the sleeves but otherwise I will be wearing this a lot over this winter I expect and its so cosy.

Have a great week and hope to see you soon,

Bracken