Grandma's Top

This is probably a top I will never wear again. Bill and I both determined that this is a top that his mother would have given me as a gift - that I would never wear. It has grandma love all over it.

I have no clue what drew me to this fabric, but it is from the G Street 2.97 table.  It is a square print for a scarf.  It took forever to lay out so that the print was centered. 



It is entirely stitched on the serger except for the back neck band.  The hems are all coverstitched. 

The pattern is Burda  Plus 2009 F/W - 403.

Here is a montage of past Burda cowls.

The original pattern was VERY low.  (Burda likes a bosom...).

I have since altered the pattern so that folks can't look down and see my belly button at work.

Just in Time for Christmas

Well, moving right along into Fall  winter sewing for the year.  I made another Burda cowl using Burda Plus 2009 F/W - 403.

  The fabric is eyelash acrylic (I think?) novelty fabric that I got from JoAnn's clearance section. I think it was about $3 a yard, so this was a $7.50 top.


The entire top is serged except for the back neck stand.  I coverstitched the hems.

I look slightly deranged in these pictures...- but my hair looks good. I guess you can't have everything. I'd like to wear this to work, but it might be a bit too sparkly.

Leftovers

I had just enough fabric left over from this disaster to make yet another Burda Plus 2009 F/W - 403 Cowl.

The fabric is a black and teal poly knit that I got from the $2.97 G street table.

For a more summery look, I eliminated the back collar stand. I finished off the back neck by creating binding and stitching it down.

You can see the collar stand in the figure below.

The entire outfit is serged except for sewing down the binding at the back neck.

I finished the hem using the coverstitch. I am getting pretty good at converting the serger from the overlock to the coverstitch. I can do it in about 3 minutes now.

I changed the sleeve hem from long to elbow length. I decided to finish the sleeve hems using a rolled hem. This is the first time I have tried to create a rolled hem using my new serger. I spent an hour trying to figure out how to thread the machine and what levers and knobs to push and pull. I used rolled hems to finish ballet skirts when I worked in a costume shop 20 years ago. I don't think I have done a rolled hem since. My attempt was just OK. I'll need to practice some.

I used wooly nylon in the upper looper. Threading a needle with wooly nylon is almost impossible. I have a little trick. Thread the serger with regular thread. Tie the wooly nylon to the thread at the thread stand. Set the tension to zero. Pull the thread and wooly nylon through the serger. Ta Da!

I bought the fabric to match a jacket that I got from Lane Bryant.


The skirt and shoes are from Lord and Taylor. The necklace is from Ebay.

Not Wearable

Sorry, nothing finished to show here...

I loved Burda 6/2010-139 when I saw it and yes, I noticed how low it was in front. Unfortunately, the bodice shown in the picture is modest compared to the pattern. It is LOW. It is scary low. It is awards show breasts everywhere low. I think it actually ended past my bosoms.

I attempted to make it from fabric that I purchased from the G Street $2.97 table. It matches a teal jacket I own.

You also need to be very careful matching the gathers on either side of the bust. I stitched about 4 inches from the top of the V in the center front to make it a little more reasonable. I tried it on before sewing on the sleeves. It was not good. Maybe gathers down the center front are not a good idea on a plus size girl.

I am currently working on a brown linen version of Simplicity 5914. Since I have successfully made it before, I'm hoping for a happy wearable ending.

Oh the Humanity!!!

Oh, Burda, you morons. The English Burda Fashion site (the magazine) is now being directed to the Burda Style site and the English Burda Fashion site has been REMOVED. I would understand this action if the two sites were COMBINED, but that is apparently not the case.

I first read about this on Celie's blog. The impact of it didn't quite sink in until I got Burda Style's email notice today. Apparently Burda thinks the removal of the Burda Fashion site is a good thing. Maybe they figured if they talk it up we might not notice that the archives are gone.

I hope Burda realizes that the archives and excitement of perusing the upcoming magazine is part of the allure of the Burda mag! This appears to be the case for many of the sewing bloggers who regularly pick their favorites every month.

The discussion thread on the redirecting was 100% negative. Burda's response :

"We definitely understand your concerns. In the upcoming months, we are going to migrate some of the content from burda fashion to BurdaStyle. This will include many of your favorite burda patterns and how tos."

Notice there is no mention of the ARCHIVES. I have sent an email to Burda directly asking when we will have access to the archives again. I'll share with you if I get a straight response.

So far it looks like you can still access the Russian archives and German archives, though the German site is really flaky. Looks like I'm going to have to learn Cyrillic...

UPDATE: You can still get to the English archives here. Not sure it they are going to maintain this site or not.

Oh Lordy... I hope this is not the beginning of the end of the English Burda mag. It doesn't look good....