Burda Magazine 7/2010 #106

I got this Marc Jacobs cotton fabric from Fabric Mart.
It's a light weight, but not see through fabric, so I thought it was perfect for a flowy top.
I realized I should be making more tops or bottoms, rather than dresses...
Since I go to the park alot with my kids, top/shorts or pants would be a better choice of clothing.

I picked #106 from Burda Magazine 7/2010.
It looks really cute as #107, with a butterfly sleeves (I didn't know that's what's called!), but I wanted something that covers my arms, so I decided with #106.

Whoa the sleeves were big!
I thought about it when I saw the pattern, but it looked really cute on the magazine, so I was hoping that's how it would look.
Guess not...

It looks somewhat ok from the front, but from the side...

The top looks big to begin with, so it just looks like it adds too much volume.

So I decided to make a casing out of the sleeve hem (used a buttonhole as a hole), and gathered the hem to control the volume.

It looks pretty different from the magazine, but I like this way better on me...
I would like to make one with even lighter material next time, with the butterfly sleeves when it's warmer.
(Well, it's not like Hawaii isn't warm enough at high 70F right now, but it will get HOT during the summer.)

Simplicity 1872

My sister-in-law asked me to make her a bridesmaids dress for her friend's wedding.
It's a garden wedding, so she wanted something casual and picked Simplicity 1872.

She bought me a whole bunch of different fabrics when she last visited mainland,(chiffon, satin, lining, etc) in the wedding color, which is nude.
I was so happy to see so much fabrics... but the thing is, when she picked this pattern, none of the fabrics were enough length!
I thought she said she got 5yds of each, but it was actually all 2yds each.
Since this dress has so much layers, it uses over 4yds of fabric.
She was going to buy more fabrics, but I told her that I'll try making a practice run using 2 different colors, and see if she likes it first.
She might not even like the style.
We both agreed that mixing the two colors turned out so cute!!!

I had to do some creative cutting...
I barely got to make the sleeves, because it needs 4 pieces each.
I had to cut some off grain, and made it a lining.
It was a little off to sew them, but can't really tell in the final result.
She might still get different fabric, because this fabric might be too hot for a summer wedding.
I'm a little iffy on the sleeves too.
It's a really cute design, but just not in this fabric. It seems too thick.
I might suggest to make it a sleevless and wear a shawl.

As for sewing it..
When I first made a paper muslin, I had a hard time matching the skirt pieces together.
The skirt turns bigger than the yoke, and I ended up puckering.
I asked for any advice on the www.sewing.patternreview.com, and they gave me lots of help.
What work was to match the pieces AT THE SEAM LINE, and not the fabric edges.
Seems like such a simple, a little wierd thing to do ("Really? Aren't they the same? It's only about 1/2in different."), but it worked!

I really think this dress is cute...
I want to make one for myself, in lighter fabric, probably in sleeveless.
Maybe a top with sleeves too!

Oliver + s Little Things To Sew

I love the library.
They seem to have everything! :)
I borrowed Oliver + s "Little things to sew".
I'm not too much of a niknak kind of person, so I didn't find too many things to sew out of 20 projects.
But I liked the hat pattern.
I just saw a hat pattern on Burda 3/2012 issue, but it looked too big at 50cm head circumference for my 1yr old daughter, and I'd rather not follow Burda's instruction if I have an option. (although I love Burda, their instruction is terrible!)


Sorry for the yellow tint to the picture, I use my ipad to take the picture and don't have the photo editing app. :p

Anyways, it was easy to make, although time consuming with so many rows of stitches on the brim.
I even made two. One for my daughter, one for my niece, they are only 15days apart.
Yellow one is for my daughter, I just found out that her favorite color is yellow.
I added the flower trim, because without it it looked like the uniform hat I used to wear at my kindergarden. :p

The only thing is, I had a problem matching the last piece (crown/side) to the rest of the hat.
The crown piece always came bigger than the brim edge.
I don't know if it's the pattn, or my sewing. :(

It's rated as beginner project, but I think it uses a little more skills as your stitches will show if you are using a solid material.
I used the blue print/serrsucker yellow on one (main) side, but solid pink linen on the other which shows more stitches...
I'm not too proud of it, so I don't think I'll use it as reversible as suggested.

Other than that I like how the pattern comes in XS to L, which is up to 8 yrs old.
I also love that it only took about 1/4yd of material!
I made it using some left over fabric from when I made them a top.
I'll be using this pattern over and over. :)

By the way my serger is at the shop...
It's been acting up, and I finally gave up and took it in.
Since I bought it second hand off Craigslist, it 's probably time for maintenance. :(
That's why the hat was a god project, because all the seams are enclosed, therefore I didn't need a serger.

BurdaMagazine 03-2012-136

Another top for my friend's daughter.
I got this fluffy seersucker from Walmart that I wanted to make something cute and fluffy.
Luckily Burda had a toddlers pattern in 98cm. (some of the patterns are for big kids)

They rate this "easy".
It is easy, because everything is straight stitch... But not really my favorite, because it's just full of gathers and II don't really like gathers!
I just have hard time making them even.

Few adjustments I made to the pattern.
1. They called for 3cm neck (chest?) band and fold it in half, and insert elastic.
If you fold it in half, it'll only give me 1.5cm to work with to seam, and add elastic!
I didn't trust my skill that much, so I doubled it to 6cm, and used 1cm elastic but still had a hard time inserting the elastic. :(
2. They said to zigzag the hem and let it frey if it wants, but I rolled hemmed.
3. Because it's for my daughter and can't try it on her, I added shoulder straps in case the neckband is too big for her.
At least it'll keep it on her.

What I wished I changed...
Each ruffles barely covers the stitches on the ruffle below. I wished they were a little longer.
If I was to make this again I'd add about 1cm to the middle ruffles.

Would I make this again? Definitely, i think my 1yr old daughter was eyeing it. :p
The smallest size is still too big on her, so once she's big enough to fit them I can make it in few sizes.