Danielle dress - Burda

 

 

 

I have owned this pattern since about 2010. I printed it then as well. Just never got round to making this. Its the Danielle dress from Burda which used to be free. Its the first pattern I ever printed and was printed very bady on an old printer which died years ago, so was quite hard to put the pattern together since some of the pages were not printed straight.


I found a picture of the Burda original on Pinterest but cannot find it on the burdastyle.com website now.This is the link to the Pinterest picture:

https://in.pinterest.com/pin/441282463460531811/

I decided since we are in lockdown why not actually make this at last?

I cut it from a  piece of Ikea cotton fabric which I had used for a couple of previous projects. I need to stash bust and I have, to be honest, gone off this fabric but despite that the dress turned out really nice.




I lengthened the sleeves with an extra bit i  order to make a frill.  Now at this point I also added a ribbon to the inside of the sleeve where the frill joins the original sleeve in order to have a puffed sleeve but with an extra frill.







It looks so good just as it is that I actually left out the elastic and do not really need to ribbon. Though if I fancy a change at some point it will be easy to add some elastic and make puffed sleeves with a frill edge instead.

 Never mind. I like the extra long sleeves much better than the tattoo dividing shorter ones would have been. I prefer to either cover or show my tattoos and not half cover. Just a quirk of my nature.

I had some problems with the neckline. I tried understitching but it just did not quite lie flat so in the end I topstitched it dow all around the neck.

 As usual my invisibe zip is not quite invisible. The foot I use never quite gets close enough. Pobably cos its a cheap copy from China rather than a proper expensive Janome foot.

 An admission here: this is not quite a proper Danielle. I sewed it all up, overlocked to make it nice inside then realised there is another bit. Its meant to have a narrow band under the bodice - like a wasitband although ts high waisted so not on the natural waistline anyway. I missed it out.

 Well rather than take this all to bits - after all it fits and looks quite good despte the ommission, I decided to just make a belt from the border fabric which I also used for the sleeve add-on.

 I have worn this with and without the belt and like both looks so I think its going to stay as an option.


Next time I make this and I expect I will - maybe as a winter dress in velvet like the original Burda version - I will try to remember to make it with that missing waistband.

 

 For now though I am very happy to have made this dress. I do not think its quite my usual style but the printed pattern has been lurking in my loft for years waiting to be made. And for the record despite my initial dislike of being locked in I am very much enjoying lockdown despite the impact on our finances due to loss of wages etc, because I am finally getting all these lovely dresses I planned to make done. I have not had so many summer dresses since I was a girl at home with my Mum buying my clothes.

Shame we have to all go back to work. 

Bracken

#MMM18 another goldfish dress

 

So as promised

 here is a second Gold fish print dress and I have to say its a hit. I used the top pattern from the costume pattern and added a slightly A line skirt and its ace to wear. I have to make another in the same style. I am finding it very easy to wear tho not I think suitable for work despite my inteding for it to be.
http://brackencrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/new-fashion-top-from-costume-pattern.html

With it some ancient RTW leggings and my belt which is original 1980s pirate style and I fixed a while back.

http://brackencrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/1987-vintage-belt-fixed.html

It had completely stretched out of shape and was unwearable but for some reason I carried it round with me for years before I got round to fixing it.

I forgot the belt is me made and because dresses are really only one garment I also wore a Me-Made necklace.

 So I intended to wear my agreed two items using my necklace but actually my belt counts too so I have 3 Me-Mades today.

Thanks for visiting and I am off to drink prosecco now!

Bracken

Flora and Fauna The Monthly Stitch February Challenge

This skirt is a catalogue of disasters.

I bought this fabric probably 3-4 years ago. Long before I started the blog anyway so possibly you could say this was the beginning of my fabric stash. At the time I did not have ANY fabric at all and hardly sewed anything. I had though recently made my first bugs dress. So there I was in Ikea Bargain Basement and I got tempted by these two bags of fabric. In each bag there were 3 pieces and it said on the label they were 1.0 -1.5m long. At just £5 each bag that was a serious bargain. Except when I got home each piece was actually only half of the normal width so really I was ripped off. I could have taken them back but I live over 20 miles away from my Ikea store and it would have cost me nearly as much in fuel to go there and back to take them back so would not have achieved anything really so I kept it. This is the first piece I have found a use for. Its lovely heavy weight cotton – almost canvas. Meant probably for curtains. I think these were bits used in their in-store displays but other than the smallness widthwise they are in perfect condition.

Well its such a small bit – this one was just about 1.5m long and as I said half the normal width, so squeezing this skirt out was still not easy despite it not needing much fabric. So there are some serious faults with pattern matching which were completely unavoidable. I did not have much left over as you can see this is all I have left:

I had to use two pieces to make the waistband, since there was nothing left long enough after I cut the skirt bits so the waistband has a seam down one side. It does not matter.

I cut this out using the Toile pattern 1.1 which I used recently for this velvet skirt.

The toile pattern is still free at the moment. To get it you need to register. https://sewingtidbits.com/2015/03/20/open-skirt-project-final-sample-in-floral/

This time though I went up a size since the velvet skirt is very tight.

I missed out the back darts completely and “fittted” the skirt to me after construction – before the waistband being attached. To take in the excess I added two front pleats so its kind of a tulip skirt.

This version has a back zip and back vent but again is shorter than the pattern intends. I kept the back vent on this one and since its unlined I kind of just bodged the back. I bagged out the vent which worked great but could not work out how to do the hem without either spending ages hand sewing (not my thing) or topstitching so in the end its probaly a bit unusual in being bagged, topstitched and also I topstitched round the vent as well to reinforce it. Doesn’t matter. By the time I got to this point I no longer cared due to lots of problems. So I broke all the “rules” with this but it seems to work.

I spent ages checking my automatic buttonhole worked ok only to have it jam and cock up on the actual proper one so its very rubbish and in the wrong position.

I put the waistband on upside down and ended up redoing that 3 times. I never put interfacing in the waistband either! I did find a nice button from my Great Aunties stash though so am pleased with that.

Despite the un-matched print I am still reasonably happy with this for several reasons:

• It fits the theme of this months TMS challenge
• I finally found a use for my Ikea rip-off stash
• It will be wearable for work which works with my January sewing aims
• And to top it off, it gives me a new spring skirt, giving me something seasonal which usually I am rubbish at. Generally the season is half-way through before I manage to sew something for it, so all in all a success I think.

If you were wondering, I also made the top  I am wearing. 

Thanks for reading and feel free to leave comments,

Bracken

55: red Burda style top

This needs ironing!
I made this top from the June 2016 Burda style magazine
http://www.burdastyle.com/pattern_store/patterns/cropped-blouse-062016.


I really like the jumpsuit type of look but could never get on with them so this for me is a similar look but without the annoyance of being all in one.

Its the same fabric as the trousers I made here: 50: 05/2015 Burdastyle trousers 114/115
Construction was a bit weird and ended up quite messy on the reverse with some unfinished seams so when I make again I will change things a bit. I have never made a loop with a button closure before so that was new and the top is designed with really strange shaped panels so does not go together at all like you expect. I thought it would be a really simple design and it is not difficult. I just had to concentrate to work out what went where and how.The way Burda say to attach the straps could be much simpler. Anyway I am a bit rushed today so more on this when I make the next one. I will do step-by-step photos.

The main problem with this top, which by the way I love, is the centre front panel which I somehow managed to get the print upside down. So it kind of works but could be better.
I shall make a second one that I get the print right way up now though. Its a nice enough top pattern and I can happily have two in the same fabric made from it. Its definitely a cute top and nice and comfortable to wear. I think it goes well with the trousers I made from the May 2015 magazine.

I am off to make another top now in the same fabric!

Thanks for reading

Bracken

28: Bug Dress and Mesh Top

I made this dress some time ago now from Ikea bugs fabric. I have never worn it till today. I decided to wear this at last since it seems such a shame to just leave it hanging in my wardrobe. I am also gaining confidence now that the clothes I am making will be wearable and not just fall to pieces once I step out of the house.

Its a basic shift dress with front and back darts. You can see it better here:

It is meant to have an invisible zip but I used a recycled one from another garment so its a normal zip in this dress not an invisible one and to be honest I do not yet kow how to put in an invisible zip. Its on my "to learn" list. I think it was a pattern which I got free with some sewing magazine or other. Possibly with Prima because I bought it for a while just for the free patterns before I discovered Burda which I think is much better value for money. I do not tend to buy "women's" magazines normally and am more likely to shed out my cash for a gardening mag but I do like Burda in recent years.

Anyway this was the very first dress I have made in about 25 years so I think it was quite an achievement. I also made it on a very dodgy old sewing machine which kept losing tension whilst making this. I have a better machine now.

I also made this mesh top: 

Its a kind of lacey ladder design mesh which you can see a bit better here:

It is made in the same way as my:

7: Dark navy top with a step by step tutorial guide to making
so has overlocked edges and hems and is really easy to make but surprisingly warm. I expect its that "string vest" effect where string fabrics are meant to make you warmer by trapping the air in the holey bits.

I think it goes quite well with my Bugs Dress. Means I can wear it on these nice spring days we have been having recently. My dress is a bit too summery really but with an extra layer it is far more wearable.


Thanks for reading. Hope you come back again soon,

Bracken