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Saturday, March 21, 2020

Working through fitting challenges

I mentioned wanting to sew a sloper this year and that is still a plan. In the meantime, I am whining left and right about fitting myself now :)

After getting the zipper in the Burda 7/2019 dress that I was working on a couple weeks ago, I went to put it on and couldn't zip it. Well, couldn't zip it alone - my arms were locked at my sides! I'd added bicep room but this is a raglan sleeve and I ended with weird fabric pooches  (stiffness of this sateen doesn't help, I'm sure).

Then something dawned on me - I have never sewn a fitted, woven Burda dress with sleeves that works well. Lots of sleeveless dresses and several that I ended up removing the sleeves to save. Hmm. Interesting!

Not that I haven't sewn ANY woven dresses with sleeves successfully, but not a Burda. So I'm thinking it must be something with the shape of the armhole and/or height of the underarm. Looking at this recent make, that raglan seam doesn't seem like it's in the right place for me...or like it needs to be a different shape??

I ended up cutting the sleeve in hopes of saving it but IDK with the back fit...

I really like the added belt/decorative waist treatment but not that it's doubled fabric. I happen to like pleated skirts/pants regardless of whether or not they "flatter". As I always say, I'm 5'5" and 185 lbs. I don't have time to try to look "slim" or worry about "adding bulk" - I'm bulky! LOL!! Life's too short! I wear what I like!



So much extra at the back neckline!
But the back sleeve is atrocious. 
A ton of extra fabric and clinging through the back bodice and what.the.hell!? is happening with the back skirt?!


I think that my butt fullness is just MUCH lower than the pattern expects it to be. The back bodice is just too small overall and there's too much length. 

I ended up finishing the ends of the fabric belt because there was no way that the doubled bodice fabric plus doubled belt fabric would work well with an invisible zipper with this sateen. It doesn't work here. 

I just...IDK what the heck happened with the back fit. I've sewn a lot of Burda patterns and never had such poor fit in back. I'm now thinking I'll open up the front raglans and see what the fabric wants to do. And I plan to remake this in a lovely Rag & Bone crepe I recently purchased from Mood once I work it all out.

I've sewn a bunch of stuff in the last week! 2 tops and a pair of pants that are WONDERFUL! And a cardigan that is on time out!

I decided it would be a good time to sew the pinafore dress from the February 2020 issue of Burda. Figuring the tracing, muslining, adjusting, and sewing a fully-lined dress should slow down my stress-sewing (though I love the spring wardrobe I'm coming up with!).


I traced this in a straight size 42 since I was going to muslin the whole thing. I flat patterned measured an came up with a 43 1/4" finished hip (mine are 44.5") I ended up adding 3/4" to front and back (3" total) which was too much). I had a ton of excess fabric  - part of this though is Burda's generous hip curve. I never need all that curvature and my seams are always a lot more straight than Burda's draft.

I didn't make any other changes off bat.
Initial photo - I am rotated and the blue line is CF and is fine except for right at the bust. The front neckline was gaping, the shoulder was sitting above my shoulder, and there was bagginess at the hip and across CF.

After photo - I realized the entire shoulder needed shortening. I sewed that seam at 7/8" which corrected the too-long CF. This makes sense as I normally use a size 40 neckline and this is a straight 42.

I removed about 1/2" from the front side seam (of the 3/4" that I'd added) and about 3/8" from the back side seam (so this means I ended up removing a total of 1 3/4" of the 3"). More below.

I will add a little at the bust on the CF panel to bring that line to center and will remove a bit from the side front. It's baggy under the arm. I will only remove a little bit as this is a layering garment.

Initial photo - you can see bagginess in back on the bodice and skirt and even on the hip seamline.

After - I have a tucked pinned through center back (didn't carry it to the side back but I will of course on the pattern piece). I'm rotating my shoulder forward to show that I have the CB pinned at the neckline - it was gaping a bit and I took a 1/4" tuck.

I sewed the back dart here on the right about 1/8" deeper and 1 1/4" longer.

Love the oversized pockets but will lower them just a bit - really minimally like 3/8".

Initial photo - made me think, WHAT IS UP WITH THIS BACK FIT ON BURDA PATTERNS?! And I went to through old posts to make sure I wasn't imagining better fit before :-p

Back bagginess at the waist and below, bagginess at hip, and perhaps you notice a bit of tightness across the butt.

After: 1/2" pinned at in back bodice and neckline tuck made a huge difference IMO! The tuck will extend to the side back and that will look better then.

Also, I think there's a noticeable difference between the right (left here) back skirt where I took a deeper dart, but I still have some excess fabric and pulling due to my butt.

Solution? Add CB seams for both bodice and skirt. This way, I can add the exact shaping that I need and I can add a wedge for the butt.

I'm super excited about this one!! There are a handful of gorgeous versions on the Russian Burda site. Mine will be made with a black/grey suiting with metallic threads,  a charcoal grey lining and black buttons and EEK! I can't wait.

In other news...

I have a correction to my Vogue blazer (from the class last September!) to make that I've been putting off but I'm going to get that fixed this weekend then all that's left is the hand sewing of the lining. I am sure I can still finish that in March along with this Burda dress. I may push my other plans, including my husband's jacket. It's corduroy so works for fall through spring and seems like we're not going to be going out much during spring. Plus, I am, like many others, in full "therapeutic sewing" mode.

camel wool for M7982 if I have enough yardage
yellow denim for Claryville jeans
red and navy cotton/rayon voile for M7925 if I have enough fabric
rayon crepe for M7976
rayon challis for the hi-low shirt from Burda 2/2020
white cotton lawn and silk organza for a shirt based on a Threads magazine tutorial (perhaps B5526?)

Photo courtesy of threadsmagazine.com

Threads magazine
 tutorial (must be an Insider or subscriber. It's in issue #204, Aug/Sep 2019).

Hopefully you and yours are staying healthy during this time. We are fortunate to be able to work from home and I am luckily, quite the homebody so that part isn't fazing me. I am terrified of the economic impact and sad for the number of families that'll be affected by illness.