My First BurdaStyle Dress!

This is my first time making a BurdaStyle Magazine dress. I have seen many that I liked and would love to have, but I have never attempted it before. In all honesty, I don’t think I would have had the ability to do this even a few years ago. I’m not talking about sewing skill necessarily. I mean the knowledge to trace the pattern and get it right. And most important, the confidence to actually put it together and be confident all the way through the process. That’s important. If you start out not believing that you can complete a project, you won’t.

I used this lemon-on-navy stretch cotton that I bought from fabric.com (it’s no longer available but I can link something similar).

For my version (yes, it’s the same pattern as the first picture), I made a few changes. I: 1) raised the neckline, 2) added in-seam pockets, and 3) made it short sleeved. I was contemplating making a belt to go with it, but I like the comfort and ease of wearing it as is (it’s gathered at the waist). It gets really hot and humid where I live, so the last thing I want for summer is anything that is going to make me feel constricted.

In order to raise the neckline (about 3″), I redrew the front neckline which actually made the front wider than the back at the shoulder. I just gathered the front slightly to meet to back so the shoulder seams were even.

For the pockets, (I couldn’t believe the dress didn’t have them. Most BurdaStyle dresses seem to have pockets) I almost always use the same pattern piece. It’s a pocket from a pattern for pajamas. I retraced the piece and made it a little smaller so it would be more appropriate for this dress. Then I keep the new piece with the traced pattern pieces.

With making the dress short-sleeved, I just figured out where on my arm I wanted the sleeve to stop. I didn’t widen the sleeve or anything like that since it’s a loose enough sleeve. No other alterations for that were necessary.

As I said in the beginning, having the confidence to even start a project is important. But not doubting yourself during the process is also key. This is one of the few things (and the only one from BurdaStyle Magazine) where I did not make a muslin first! I’m so glad this turned out as well as it did and I’m very happy with the results.

As always, I encourage you to give your own project challenge a try. You might be surprised by how well things turn out!

Here is a link for a similar fabric from fabric.com. The one I used is no longer available. Click here

*affiliate links in post

More Hacks for the Ruched-T

In my quest to buy few patterns this year, I have been working on my pattern-hacking skills. Most recently, I remade one of my favorite T-shirt patterns which is by Angela Wolf called the ruched tee. I blogged about it before in these posts here and here. After having done the RTW fast for 3 years total, I am far more inclined to make what I want than buy. But this time, I wanted to change up the sleeve a bit.

I wanted to give the sleeve a flutter look by fanning it out (I’ll show you the pattern piece in a bit). The yellow was my first attempt at doing this.

While I was happy with this one, I wanted more. So I reshaped the pattern piece again and this was the result I was looking for.

While the difference looks subtle, I got more of a full look with this one.

Top: regular pattern piece (pink top)
Bottom: pattern piece slashed and spread (yellow top)

For the blue top, I spread the slashed pieces out more and also lengthened the sleeve by 1-1/2″. Doing something like this is really easy. You just need to decide how dramatic you want the sleeve to look and spread accordingly. Cut to, but not though the top of the pattern so you can spread the pieces easily. Also make sure you have a piece of paper underneath the pattern because you’ll need to tape it down once you’ve gotten it the way you want.

That’s all there is to it. And the great thing about this is the top of the pattern stays the same so there shouldn’t be a need for additional adjustments to make the sleeve fit. This can be done on knits, like I have done, or on woven fabrics as well! Let me know if you give this technique a try. It’s an easy way to give a pattern a slightly different look.

My Take on McCall’s 7906

As many of you have seen, this skirt pattern is very popular among sewists and with good reason. It’s stylish, practical (it has pockets) and it’s easy to make. I made View C using a stretch cotton sateen that I fell in love with when I saw it.

In the picture above. I’m wearing it with a self tie belt I made from some leftover fabric I had. This particular version doesn’t have the self tie belt that View D does.

The pockets in the skirt are actually deep enough to be useful (LOVE that).

The only alteration I made to the pattern was to use the size 18 waist and size 16 hip. I really could have just made the 16 I think since the waist is just a bit looser than I would like (YAY me! All that exercise is paying off!).

But here are some other ways I styled this skirt.

The red T is Angela Wolf Patterns ruched T that I modified

Overall, I love this skirt and expect to get a lot of use out of it. The fabric is heavy enough that it’s not see through. This skirt has all the colors I enjoy wearing and should be a fun addition to my wardrobe!