One Sunday = two garments

So, what did I do this weekend? Finish the baby quilt? Get going on my winter coat? Sew up my Hot Patterns pants? No, no, and no. I’ll admit that I have ADD when it comes to sewing projects – every day I have a new obsession. I’m unpredictable like that!

I spent a fair chunk of time making my Halloween costume that I wore Saturday evening, but I’ll show that project to you on Wednesday.

I spent Sunday making up two fun and easy knit garments. I just received my first-ever order from Fabric Mart, and I’m proud to say that I’ve already used two of the yardages!

BWOF 10-2005-114

October 2005 is one of my favorite past issues of BWOF; this is from back when I subscribed and didn’t sew a thing from it. Better late than never.

What should have been a 1-hour sewing project was stalled because I noticed my stretch twin needle (for topstitching the hems) was occasionally skipping stitches. I had used the needle once before and it had worked fine. I fiddled with all my machine settings, Googled for solutions, but no luck. I have to confess that for a very brief time, I considered just living with the skipped stitches because I really wanted to keep going! But really I wouldn’t want to wear a garment with skipped topstitches. So I went out a bought a new twin stretch needle and the problem was solved. Thank goodness there is a fabric store that is only a 7 minute walk from my house. (Yes, I’ve timed it.)


Fabric
A medium weight cotton/lycra knit, cream with flecks of grey, from Fabric Mart.

Construction/alterations
Traced a size 36.

I omitted the 1” bands at the sleeve hem and instead finished them by turning under the cuff and topstitching with a twin needle. I added 2” to the sleeve length.

Conclusion
Comfortable & easy to wear top. The drapey cowl neck is a look I’ve always liked. Next time I make this I will add ~2” to the bodice length.

**************

Burda 8771

Burda 8771 is a now out of print pattern that I got in 2001 when I first started sewing. Every year since then I have pulled out this pattern and thought about making it up. I don’t know what was stopping me.

Fabric
I used grey “washable organic wool” with polyester backing from Fabric Mart. Now, I’m thinking the polyester backing kind of kills any organic-ness of the natural fiber, but I’ll take it. I threw it in the washing machine and dryer as recommended; it turned out fine.

Construction/alterations
I traced my usual 36/38 morph (36 above waist, 38 below). I made the shorter dress length with the longer sleeves. Omitted the patch pocket. Set the sleeves in flat. Because this fabric doesn’t fray, I didn’t finish the seam allowances. With only 4 pattern pieces so this is super fast to sew up.

I was really surprised that neither the envelope nor the paper instructions provide a technical line drawing of the back view of this dress, especially considering this is a pattern intended for beginning sewers. It wasn’t until I actually started sewing up the garment that I realized the back of the collar is not the same as the front! I had assumed that it was just a kind of turtleneck/cowl look all the way around, but I was surprised and pleased to find that this dress has a “backward” collar, very similar to the popular BWOF 9-2007-117. The construction is different though, and I’m thankful I had the instructions to walk me through that.

Conclusion
Can I gush a little and say that I love this dress? It’s super cozy, the shape of the back collar is unexpected, and the sleeves have a slight bell shape – enough to be noticed but not so much that they flop all over the place. Next time I’ll consider adding in-seam pockets.

BTW, Lanetz Living currently has this pattern available, for anyone who’s interested...