A Productive Weekend

I have been "auditioning" patterns for my Liberty Lawn purchased in Portland last year, and to that end today I finished BurdaStyle 01-2010-133, a bib-front tunic with pleats in the front and back. In the Burda version they actually used a Liberty, so I thought that this would be a good one to try. For my muslin, I decided to use a cotton shirting that I purchased from Fabric.com for $1.95 a yard (can you tell I love their sales?).


I purchased two lengths, one in blue and black and one in shades of green. I decided that I would use the blue for my shirt, and the green I set aside to make a shirt for my husband.

Before embarking on making a giant blue plaid shirt, I decided that I would do a little "snoop-shopping" to make sure that I wasn't completely out of line with current trends. Given that I had been seeing plaid EVERYWHERE in the stores, I figured I would be pretty safe, but wanted to make sure. Here are some of what I found, looking for both plaid, as well as bib-front shirts:

Plaid shell from Talbot's, $79.50:


Pullover plaid shirt from The Gap, $54.50:


Bib-front shirt from The Gap, 54.50:


Sandra Ingrish ruffled plaid blouse, 68.00, from Nordstrom:


Plaid tunic from Nordstrom, Originally 78.00, on sale for 58.90:


Given these examples, I embarked on my project. On Saturday night I traced the pattern and cut it out. Based on my measurements, I traced a 46 at the top, and transitioned to a 48 at the hips. There is so much ease in this shirt, I could have stayed with a 46. I also made some minor changes in that I did not use the piping around the bib and collar, and also left off the little loop that they have extending below the button placket:

Here is the finished product, somewhat more casual in style than the original:


The shape is nice from the front, the pleats lie flat and the sides are shaped nicely, but the back also has pleats below the yoke and it causes the back of the shirt to "poof":


I don't really appreciate a giant poof on my back, since my rear-end doesn't need any accentuating. Although I should have realized that it would do that, since another BurdaStyle top that I made last year does the exact. same. thing:


Which brings me to my next question...what is it with Burda and the pleats in the back? Are they averse to a couple of nice darts for shaping? If I make this top again, I may redraft the back to have darts, and no yoke.

For the buttons, I had some silver buttons with glass cabochons that look like westernwear buttons:


The sleeves have a nice cuff and pleats as well:


Overall, I am rather pleased with how the shirt came out. It will make a nice top with any of the plethora of black pants in my closet. Which I made another pair of this weekend. I sewed a second version of the pants from the December Burda with all the wild seams:

No photos, since nothing ever shows up on black pants anyway! But, I repaired the problems with the gaping pockets by just eliminating them.

And finally, I just wanted to include the following photo:


A friend of mine asked me how did I set sleeves when none of my vintage machines had a free-arm. I told her "I sew inside the circle" which earned me a confused look. Since it is easier to show than explain, here you can see what "sewing inside the circle" is. I have gotten so used to setting sleeves like this, when I do use a machine with a free arm, I still sew them this way!