A Productive Weekend...

This weekend has been fairly productive. The first thing that I did was complete the alterations to the pattern and sew a version of the Burda 04-2010-116 shirt dress. Burda describes the pattern as "shirt-styled shift dress of light-weight chambray is the ideal bikini cover-up. A belt with D-ring buckle cinches it to your waist."

I was immediately attracted to the dress, because I could just envision it in a blue and white stripe like a man's oxford shirt. But, I hated the shape at the waist. The dress itself had no shaping, and the back bloused out hugely, even in the magazine images:


That looks bad enough on that tiny model, can you imagine what it would look like on me? So, I decided that I would alter the pattern. I wanted to add darts to the back and shape the waist more than it was in the original draft, but retain the yoke and other aspects that attracted me to the dress to begin with:


I started my alterations by tracing a size 46. I then used the pattern that I drafted for the tunic that I recently made to add two large vertical darts to the back. I also used that same pattern to taper the sides. I had recently picked up an orange stretch cotton that I had purchased to make a shirt, but decided it was too heavy for the project that I wanted to use it for, so I used it for a muslin of this dress:


Here are the darts that I added to the back:


The pattern also included front bust darts that I left unchanged:


The one thing that I did have problems with with this pattern was that the sleeve cap was impossible to ease. If you look at the technical drawing, the sleeve caps are not supposed to be gathered, but no matter how many lines of ease stitching I put in, I could NOT get them to ease. I will cut down the sleeve cap for the next version, but for this one I put small gathers along the top of the sleeve:


I don't dislike it. I think it is a nice feminine detail on a dress with very many masculine aspects...back yoke, stand collar, curved hem. Overall, I am very happy with the fit of the dress, and if I find the blue and white oxford that I am looking for, I will make a second version.

The second project that I completed this weekend was the BurdaStyle JJ #6609 shirt from a free downloaded pattern. I had downloaded and taped this pattern together well over a year ago, but then never traced it off. So, last weekend I had started on it, and then it sat all week because finishing it would require that I rethread the serger with a different color. And since I am very, very lazy, I managed to put that off for quite some time. But, here is the finished shirt:


I made it from a dotted swiss purchased from Fabric.com. I left off the ruffles called for by the pattern, as I thought in combination with the puffy sleeves that ruffles would make it just a bit too twee for me:

I do like the puff sleeves:


And both the front and back are shaped with shoulder princess seams:


I had a heck of a time finding buttons to match this shirt. I finally found some inexpensive plastic buttons that matched the color fairly well, but since I didn't like the little details on the top of the button, I flipped them over and sewed them with their flat back showing instead:


My final project this weekend was to trace my vintage pattern for the reunion dress. I took all the pattern pieces out and ironed them...only to find that the pattern is missing the back bodice!! Oh, well...I can draft a back bodice, I'll just have to make my best guess on the armscye.

I also managed to squeeze in hemming a set of draperies for my brother-in-law. He is visiting this weekend, and brought with him a pair of drapes that were about 12 inches too long, so that was a simple fix. He came down to help my husband do some work on the gutters and downspouts. This morning he came down the stairs and announced "We are going outside to climb ladders and play in the dirt." And I pointed out that for men, being 35 wasn't really that much different from being 10. He said "Nope. And later we're going to eat pizza and play video games." So uncomplicated.