Burda Jumpsuit

Hello I hope you all had a good weekend, I managed to get back to the machine to make my jumpsuit and I have to say that halfway through I wasn't really sure about this. It is certainly one of those garments that looks so much better on than off and the fabric is quite see through I feel, this also looks better once you are wearing it.  Well colour matched underwear will be required though!

This was my third make from the Burda June issue and how am I feeling about that?  Well I like the things I have made so far but I do wonder about the accuracy of the sizings,  I made a bigger size to be safe and then still needed to let out the seems to a very small seem allowance.  I know I haven't gained that much weight during lockdown or none of my clothes would fit.  So now I will be even more cautious with the sizes for future makes.  I went on a forum and this was a common theme and it is not on every garment so there must be errors.  This is only a grumble as I know I would have sized it more accurately without the pattern and by trying do things according to the magazine it all took so much longer then needed adjusting.  Well it is finished and I do like it except if I visit the toilet while I am in it I will need assistance with the  button when I come out and that has been my issue with jumpsuits all along the practicality of wearing them and also why I own three mock ones.

So it doesn't look see through at all in this image but then the weather was very dull, a bit of light shining through and it may be different.

There is elastic casing all around the top of the trousers and the back top is attached but the front is just attached at the sides so the front can tie.   I used the fabric recommended in the magazine and this is a linen viscose blend and the colour is coral.

The July issue has arrived but I am struggling to find something to make in this copy, a lot of the styles are very boxy and basic but there is one dress that is a maybe but I am wondering if it may be too frilly for every day wear as I am trying to make things to be worn not saved.

Does anyone else have the July Burda and if so what are your thoughts on it? Sometimes it can all be down to fabric choices or the way things are styled.  I keep having another browse through as I had should a good reaction to last months issue but they won't all be winners I guess.

On another subject my oldest moved in with his girlfriend at the weekend it felt a  little odd, although he often stays out at her flat it felt very different knowing that he wouldn't be home.  Now we have the massive sort out task of his room. 

Well that is all for now back soon.


 

June...ing

Well I have been a little blog absent this last few weeks but sometimes you have to have a little  break especially at the moment. Last week I had intended to post here but I had pulled my back and couldn't think of anything else for days, no sleep, couldn't sit for any period and generally feeling a bit useless at hurting my back!  Therefor I did not complete the sewing planned for the weekend, it is all cut and ready to go...

Planning a jumpsuit, well tracing off and cutting out then leaving on the table all week! That is what happened but that can't be helped but the weekend is nearly here and I will finish it off then.  It is the Burda jumpsuit that I shared from the magazine and the third make form the May issue.

Here is my cut fabric, when will I wear this? Well hopefully soon and lots I like to make things that I can wear every day but my days are looking very different at work so we will have to see.

Adapting to my work... small classes mean I am often surplus, so cleaning sorting etc, it can be dull at times. I love the busy ordered day where we have so much to do and lots of children to work with with.  The difference is quite drastic and as we all do I long for normality.

Reading  some of the books I have bought, I have read a little book on Frida Kahlo it wasn't very long but I like the way it was styled.  You could say it was more of a gift book really with just a few art pictures, quotes and details of her life.  I enjoyed it but it was a very quick read as the pages were meant to look pretty rather then be fact filled.  I am still enjoying Things in Jars by Jess Kidd, reading at a slower pace and in no hurry  but loving it none the less.  Next on my list will be Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik I have enjoyed her other novels  so I thought I would give this one a try.

Now this is rare for me as I am a lover of the library and charity shops for my books but we do  not have that option at the moment so I have bought new.  I am ok with that as it is out of necessity and they will be treasured.

Loving  all the plants starting to flower in the garden, there is still a lot that will be a while yet but the ones that are are starting to bloom are looking lovely.

 We have three water butts and we are getting through a lot plus there are the courgettes and tomatoes which tend to be very thirsty.  I love watching things grow however and I am perhaps too over excited at at a new bloom.

Watching Sinner and we are are on series three I believe, my uncertainty is due to the male habit of always having the remote so I know what we watch but I often struggle to tell you if it is on Netflix, Now or whatever!  It may even be sky... anyhow we are binge watching that this week, well does one episode a night equal binge watching?? I think the young people would probably watch the whole series in one sitting, but that is not my thing.

Browsing  my new copy of Burda magazine but I am not as taken with this copy, I would say I don't need a pattern for all of the items in it so why would I trace them?  There is maybe one dress that I will make but it is not great I feel for July.  Everything is way too basic, it could be the time of year and the styles or just because I haver made similar before.

That is all for now, I hope to be sewing productive this weekend so I will hopefully have something to share next time, take care.

Sewing for Boys

I hope you are all having a good weekend,  I have spent the last two afternoons making two jackets for my friend's boys.  They are my latest make from the burda  June issue, the sizing didn't go down small enough for the baby one so I have had to create my own pattern from a little jacket my friend dropped off.  I made the bigger jacket first then worried it was a tad too short so I have added a cuff to the bottom to give it extra length and it also now has four buttons not three.

I chose to line the jackets but they are not lined in the magazine, I also faced them my own way as the pattern just shows it as continuous piping.  Always I have to go off on my own way, I think you just find your own preference for doing things after time.

Oops I forgot to take another picture of the larger one with the amended hem, it just has a cuff like you have on a bomber jacket but in cotton.  That is the only difference a bit more a big boys jacket.

It has been some time since I have made things for my boys, also they always used to want dressing up clothes making of whatever the favourite character of the moment was.

If anyone has a good idea about the sizings relate to UK ages it would be helpful, I know all children are different but I find the height info an odd way of doing it.

The fabric for the jumpsuit has arrived so that is next, I just need to trace those pieces off, I did find that I ordered a coral button to go with the coral fabric and the colours are nothing like each other, possibly coral can cover a range of colour shades.

This evening I have been watching Goodbye Christopher Robin, it makes no sense to me how the upper class could be so far removed from their children.  You would think if they had missed out on time and attention from their parents they would be more determined to change things but no it appears it just passed through the generations.

Well that is all for now, take care everyone.

Retro Sewing on a Rainy Day

A little bit of bag making today and I just loved this fabric as soon as I saw it when it arrived in my gift bag from Jo.  The colours are very 1970s I think and I decided to do a little bow design to keep it in that sort of same style, it was really fun to make with a bit of playing around with the bow to get it just the right size in the right spot.

I have used a number of fabrics on this one with three layers in the body, one of them being a waterproof piece as the outer body is not, there was only just a small amount of the black faux leather left so this has just been used as detail at the edges, underneath and on the strap.  Although I would have to say do we ever let our handbags get completely soaked, I think not but the extra layer gives a bit of protection from the damp.

I am happy with how this turned out and I may do other variations of this design, experimenting with where the bow can go and so on.

While I was making this I listened to a couple of videos about etsy, I say listened as it was just people talking so I didn't really need to look.  There were a few interesting tips but I am always left feeling very behind with the whole techy thing whenever I listen to this sort of stuff.  Everyone making these videos always seems so young and they have grown up  with IT as a first language while all us older people are still frantically peddling to catch up.  Or is that just me?

I also made a few more face masks for my friend and I will give those to her tomorrow at work, I really do not relish the idea of having to wear these things for any length of time. It can get very hot behind a mask.

People are making lots of these but I do find them rather boring to make, is because they are now a necessity and things like that are never as much fun?  I went to visit my mum earlier and she has an appointment next month so she will be needing some and my brother asked for some for his girlfriend so obviously I am not done yet.  I had better source some more elastic.

There are some lovely courgette flowers growing in the greenhouse and lots of buds on various plants, it would be nice to see the sun again although I do appreciate the gardens were in need of a good drink.  It is much more fun gardening when the sun is shining and you are not getting blown about, a few of the taller plants are starting to lean due to all the wind and just as they were getting stronger!  Lets hope this cool snap doesn't last long.

I have strarted a new book 'Things in Jars' by Jess Kidd it is nice to be reading something other than War and Peace after all these weeks and a nice change of pace.   I'm not fully into it yet as I have only just started it, I'll let you know if it is any good as the reviews were very mixed as they often are. 

That is all for now, take care. 

Burda Top from Maxi Dress Refashion

I have had a fun day of sewing today, I got the shopping done first thing and with that out of the way I could get on with my refashion.  This is my first pattern to try out from the Burda June issue and I thought I would try it out by refashioning a thrifted maxi dress that I bought for £1 some time ago.  The dress is a size 16 so I had an idea I would be able to cut out the top pieces from further down the dress where there is more fabric.  It only just did it as I wanted to save the bottom border for the frill.

             

It has taken me quite a bit of time mainly because of the frill as I had to join the pieces together that matched, the ones you can see in the image with the little petal shapes. After a number of joins I then chose to edge the frill with a fine zig zag on a small stitch as I didn't want a turned under hem because I thought that would look too bulky.  So as you can already guess I started following the instructions then did things that I thought would work better like this hem.  One thing that did annoy me was that I could not find pieces a, b or c for this pattern on the sheet!  As it is just the frill and belt I could guess at the width and length and do my own thing but if you were new to sewing  this may  prove tricky, maybe it is just my eyesight, there is a lot on those sheets. 

One thing I did manage to salvage from the original dress was the tie belt, I just cut that in half and made the ties for the back. That was the only quick job as the rest I made from scratch, this was not your usual chop the bottom off refashion but rather chop it all up and start again.

After cutting the pieces out of baking paper I had a bit of jiggling to get the facings out of the fabric so they did not lay straight on my scrap pieces but rather at an angle, this has not affected the finish of the top though.

There was surprisingly little fabric left after I had finished probably because the top of the original dress just had spaghetti straps so not a lot of fabric at the top and then of course that deep border.

When I bought this dress for the fabric I had no idea what I would use it for but it just shows if you wait the right project will come along.

When I had trimmed these pieces down for the frill I used the in between pieces to make the binding for the arm holes.

This just gives it a bit of interest on the inside too so I am very happy with that little detail.

I am happy with the fit so now I know that the sizing for the patterns in the magazine are accurate I will be able to confidently make more items without worrying that they are poorly sized.  I never make mock ups before I sew I usually just jump straight in.

Now we just need the sun to return so that I can actually wear this, here is the original top from the magazine and it looks much warmer where she is...

As you can see I chose to make my frill much narrower than this as I felt it would look better on me.

Well week one of June and that is one project complete from the magazine, if my fabric doesn't come in the next few days I may have to hunt around the house for something else to refashion!  There is a charity shop mans shirt that I bought, not sure what to do with that??

Well bye for now and enjoy what is left of the weekend. 

                                                 

Sewing Plans

Today I have been back at work all day, I was in yesterday but only for the morning it is very different at the moment and I will be happy when things are back to normal as I am sure most people will be. When I got home I had another look through my Burda magazine which arrived a few days ago, I do like the look and the layout and I keep picking it up for another skim through.  I think it is the production and styling of it that is just not there in  some of the other sewing magazines.  Experience will tell how well I find the patterns but most people swear by this magazine so I have high hopes.

I have sat and made some plans of what I would like to make from this copy...

 

So first up is that jumpsuit on the front cover, I was in two minds to go for a  tropical print for that but I have followed the rules for once and looked at the fabric suggestions then I found a lovely coral fabric, I ordered that fabric an hour ago so I will have to wait now to make it.

As the fabric is ordered this one is a definite make coming up, after that I saw this little child's jacket that I would like to make for my friend's son possibly both her sons but the sizing doesn't go down far enough so I may have to see what I can do there.  The fabric is ordered for these too but I went for a print, it is styled for a girl in the image but it is a unisex jacket.

There were a couple of other things that caught my eye and one of them I may do as a refashion from a £1 maxi dress from a charity shop I bought a while ago.  It is a top with a ruffle, not always sure how I feeel about ruffles so it is maybe best to try it on some thrifted fabrc first.

There may be some problematic tan lines with that back though!

I will not bombard you with the other ideas just yet but there were a couple more, obviously there will not be time to make everything I like right now and of course I wouldn't spend that much. There were a couple of sales from my bags last week so I felt I could treat myself to some fabric this week.

My latest bag creation is this one...

This was an idea of using this sample so it would do both sides, I also used the red fabric from the shorts ( did you spot it Jo?)

One more thing before I go and it is a little photo of one of my plant babies starting to flower, there are a few that are getting  close now but his is the first of the year from all the seeds I planted.

Bye for now.