The Burda Bodice

The window job was bigger than the carpenter anticipated. He was here all day Saturday and Sunday and it's still not finished although the inside is far enough along to start filling and painting the walls. I'll begin this morning right after I finish cleaning house. Normally, I'd do that later only this will be a busy and broken up week with work and other appointments. If I want the house clean on Friday when Howard comes home, I need to deep clean today and do a touch up Thursday morning. Speaking of...




... my dear darling husband. He emailed photographs of fabric from the market in Tactic and asked which one I'd like. I picked the purple/pink piece center of the above picture. Most likely, it's a cotton weave that will - hopefully - be suitable for an unstructured jacket like Burda 7401 or a vest like Burda 7399. Matching won't be fun. I may incorporate other fabrics to mix with and break up the pattern. There's eight meters. I should have options.



The cotton-silk fabric that I used for the second prototype dress - Burda 7378 combined with Vogue 8409 - has an 8" wide embroidered border that worked great for around the bottom of the skirt but was too wide for the sleeves. I cut off the very edge to re-applique to the sleeve hem.




I think it's important when you're doing something like this to make a sample - to see if your idea works and to determine how you want to execute it. I pinned the edging in place and then used a zigzag stitch to hold it before...




... cutting away the fabric underneath. At the last workshop that I took with Ron Collins, he mentioned that the finer the fabric, the more difficult it is to prevent puckering. I noticed that sewing this dress. I used a smaller stitch length and a finer thread. Pressing helped. The fabric presses like a dream, which is a good thing since it wrinkles easily too.




Here's the finished sleeve. I think it's quite pretty. I haven't tried the dress on yet to see if the final fit is good. I'll let you know tomorrow.




All I did for this version was swap the front bodice of Vogue 8409 with the front bodice of Burda 7378. Don't you love the pleats? I do. The neckline is rounded. The depth and width is good. Next time, I will make it more of a V shape.



Look at the waistband match-up through the invisible zipper. YES YES - I love invisible zippers now that I have the right foot for inserting them. It makes all the difference. This match up happened first try using the trick that Ron Collins taught me of securing the "to be matched" portion of the zipper first before stitching the rest. I was glad. Picking out silk didn't seem like a good idea.

Carrie wrote - If you want to look at one more pattern with a similar look to your Vogue one, check out Simplicity 2217.

WOW - that is so close and it comes with the different cup sizes. I'll probably buy it just to compare the lines of the bodice and see if the change that I made are good or if they could be fine tuned. I may be swapping more bodices - LOL. Thanks.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - to have my house to myself this morning and time to do the chores even though I don't really want to do chores - I just want them done. I'll enjoy the results.