Faux leather Burda style dress #129 2/2015

I don`t know why I don`t sew more of the Burda Style patterns. I don`t really hate tracing the patterns and I have a SA ruller ( actually two ; one in 3/8" and one 5/8") that makes adding seam allowances really easy and I do have a subscription since 2009. Maybe because there are so many other sewing patterns companies that I want to try.

This is  the dress pattern 129 from issue 2/2015. It is a petit pattern so I traced the equivalent of size 36-38  and after a little paper fitting,  I had to adjust the pattern as it was too short in the waist. I used this method that is explained on the Burdastyle.com. After that I made a muslin and based on that I added a few cm at the bust , 2 cm per seam , using information from Pattern Fitting with confidence from Nancy Zieman, the method with rotating the pattern. 

The first two pictures are from lengthening the pattern  and the third one from what was added for the bust.The muslin was really tight around the bust and at the armholes and this solved those problems.

The dress was really easy to put together, I only had the take extra care when pressing the seams to avoid getting marks on my fabric. I used no steam and always pressing from the back and using a piece of silk organza , doubled , as a pressing cloth and a lot of finger pressing or with the clapper . 

The  fabric was really nice to work with.The back of the fabric is a kind of tricot so that makes it also nice on the skin. I really like the slits in the  sleeves and at the hem. 

This was a nice and pretty fast sewing project.

Denim Dress #11 Patrones Magazine 365 aka 70`s denim dress

I love Patrones Magazine! I have a subscription for years and  a few years ago I bought a bunch of old Patrones magazines , a few years of older issues . I have so many of their patterns on my wish ( to sew ) list but this dress was immediately at the top the moment I saw it .

 It is from issue 365, but to be more exactly it is from Fashion Style magazine issue 1 and that is Patrones 365 translated in Dutch . 

I made  a muslin for this pattern and then one version in another fabric and after that I made this one in denim. I traced size 38 at the shoulders and 42 for bust, waist and hips  and from this I made the following changes after the muslin  : reduced the waist and hips to size 38, shoulder seam 2 cm shorter, underarm side seam raised by 1 cm , sway back adjustment 3 cm , the skirt 8 cm shorter. Also I added a cuff for the sleeves. The patch pockets are also lowered bij 1 cm.

I really like the long darts and sewing them in combination with the pockets  it was a little challenging. I alsa made a  second yoke, for a clean inside.

The belt idea came from a dress I saw online, from M.i.h jeans ,  it is almost the same dress, only this Patrones pattern has the nice darts and cost way much lesser :)

This denim has a little stretch and that makes the dress really nice to wear. I had it  all day on ( see the wrinkles :) and it was really comfy .

It was a lot of top stitching on this dress and to make my life easier I used a second (old ) Pfaff only for top stitching and it did a really great job. I used the 448 top stitching thread from Gutermann and for the buttonholes the 448 regular thread ( on Sunday when no store was open I realized that I had no regular thread in the good color for the buttonholes so I contact one of our small stores here in the city and the owner was really nice to open the store so I could go finish my dress. Thank you, Zus & Gus . 

I am really happy with this dress , definitely a winner for me.