Polka Dot Blouse

I finished a new blouse for myself. I am a big fan of this style of polka dot pattern, last year I made a  wrap dress out of a similar ITY print and so the moment I saw this cotton jersey I knew I had to have it.

I debated between several styles of jersey blouses - the Carmen blouse, the Adrienne blouse (which I made for Gaby last year) and in the end I settled on this Burda 6202 raglan blouse with 3/4 elasticated sleeves - simple and easy to make and wear.

Pattern: Burda 6202 from Burda Catalogue 1 / 2020

Size: 36, shortened

Fabric: cotton knit fabric, 1m.

Time to make: 2 days

I matched the new blouse with a pair of capri pants I made at the end of last summer and which I refashioned this year. In the end I did not like the cuffed up style of these pants, so I let the cuffs down as much as was possible, narrowed the legs and turned them into fairly straight 7/8 trousers. I definitely prefer them this way.

In my usual daily-walk-in-the-park style, by the poppies in front of our building

Lounge Pants

I made a new pair of lounge pants for myself. On Wednesday the rain stopped like for a minute and I ran downtown and indulged in a fabric shopping spree. My alibi was that I was buying fabric for a pair of lounge pants for my husband, who politely asked for a  new extra warm pair. The temperatures in Sofia dropped significantly this week and even Alex put on long lounge pants.

Long story short - I bought some 10 m of various fabrics and some sewing notions and happily returned home. However, husband did not approve of the french terry I had bought for his joggers - he found it too thin. Ah, never mind, I liked it, so I immediately browsed through my Burda jogger patterns and found one I still hadn't tried, but wanted too.

This is #135 from Burda 11 / 2012. The pants are low cut, with long ribbed cuffs and side seam pockets. As I read that they come a bit too wide, as most Burda patterns, I cut size 34, the smallest size, though I'm closer to 36 according to my hip measurements.

I made a few small adjustments to the pattern - I raised the crotch part of the pants by 1.5 cm and made the ankle cuffs shorter - mine are 8.5 cm instead of 18 cm. I like the long cuffs on the original, but my rib knit turned out to be too stiff and wouldn't fold like in the magazine photo.

For the pockets I followed again this video tutorial, mostly because I couldn't quite get my head around the Burda instructions.

I made the waistband as per instructions out of rib knit, without an elastic, but I made an opening and I might add an elastic, in case the rib knit proves insufficient to hold them in place.

Pattern: # 135 Burda 11 / 2012

Size: 34

Fabric: lightweight french terry, 100% cotton; rib knit for cuffs and waistband

Time to make: 1 day

 

Capri Pants

I've somehow missed to show you a pair of pants I made at the end of August. 

I'm looking at the pictures now, sitting in my wool cardigan by the heater, while it is raining outside, it is 6C in Sofia and Vitosha peaks already had their first snowfall and I feel so nostalgic for the summer. Alas, we are "enjoying" a cold and wet autumn this year, nothing like the golden months long Indian summer we had last year.

The pattern of the pants is from Burda 06 / 2021 magazine. I had a small piece of cotton/polyester/elastane twill, which I bought with a pair of Capri pants in mind. However, I did not feel like buying a new pattern, as I did want to test these Burda pants, so I decided simply to cut them as long as my piece of fabric allowed.

Pattern: #103 from Burda 06 / 2021

Fabric: cotton twill with elastane 

Size: 36

Time to make: 5 days

Although the pants look straight and narrow on the pictures in the magazine, the pattern comes bigger than expected. I cut my 36 size, but I should have chosen the smaller 34 size, as I had to make quite a lot of corrections to the back - I made the darts there bigger and took in the seam in the middle of the back and also the side seams as much as I could and the pants are still a bit wide. 

 

I was deliberating over adding darts to the front too, but in the end decided that they would spoil the look and wouldn't match the fly front zipper. 

I'm also not very happy with my choice of length and the turned cuffs and I'm planning to remove the cuffs next summer, to slim the pants down the leg and to make them as long as possible, as I think I prefer something closer to a 7/8 look. However, absolutely love how they match my Rhapsody blouse.

Ruta Pants by Viki Sews

A few days after I finished my wide legged Marlene trousers mid August, I made another pair of elasticated trousers - Ruta by the Russian pattern company Vikisews. These are made out of knit fabric and are more on the sporty side and I've been wearing them quite regularly on my walks in the park or when out shopping groceries. A month passed but the opportunity for a photosession of these trousers just didn't come. So when yesterday husband and I were walking in the local park during probably the last of the Indian summer days this year, it occurred to me that I had to have a few pictures of these, then or never. And here they are, just a couple of casual phone pictures.

The fabric is very pleasant to wear navy blue ITY, drapey and fluid, but still with enough body for trousers. The pattern calls for 1.14 m of fabric for the pants and additional 30 cm lining material for the in-seam pockets, but I managed to squeeze the two more likely to be seen pocket pieces out of the main material and I cut the other two pieces of the pocket bags out of matching navy blue cotton knit, a remnant from another project.

Pattern: Ruta by Vikisews

Size: S 

Height 154 -160 cm

Fabric: ITY 1.12 m

Time to make:  two days

I made the pants without any modifications, only shortened them a couple of centimeters, as they are designed to be floor length, which is ridiculously impractical. The fit is very comfortable and flattering, despite them being only simple elasticated knit pants; now I understand all the hype about this pattern in the Russian vlogging world. Summer here is over and it's time to take out the warmer clothes (it's been raining all day today and the temperatures have dropped by 10 degrees), but next summer I'll definitely be sewing another pair of these.

Burda Marlene Pants

Hot weather is still here and I'm sewing more light and wide clothes to cope with the heat. I searched long for a pair of wide leg trousers in my Burda magazines and on the site, I browsed pictures and in the end decided to go with Nata's latest idea in the vlog - the Marlene trousers in Burda 02 / 2020.

I bought the pattern she showed on her vlog - #104, and only after browsing the finished works on the Burdastyle.ru site I noticed, that the pants had another version with a kind of a belt, so I decided to add this feature to my pants too. In fact my final inspiration for the trousers was sunnybird's version, with pleats at the front and elastic only at the back of the trousers.

I am very happy with this modification, as it does not take away from the volume and comfort of the trousers, but still elevates them a bit above a pair of super simple elasticated pants.

I finished the trousers on Sunday, tried the on and put them on a hanger, feeling very doubtful that I will ever wear them, anyway. First, they are not exactly my style - I feel I lack the height for such volume, and let's be honest, voluminous elasticated backside rarely compliments the figure. And last but not least - my fabric, very lightweight viscose, is so thin that it wrinkles like a paper napkin. The low quality of the fabric was the reason I saved myself the trouble of using french seams and finished all relevant seams on the overlocker - and dare I say they look pretty decent on the inside too. If the fabric was of higher quality or semitransparent, I might have bothered with narrow french seams, but I believe the effort would have been wasted on this black viscose.

So when I put them on today for a walk downtown with my husband and an opportunistic photo session, I expected to hate them and even feel a bit embarrassed for wearing such unflattering pants.  To my amazement the moment I walked out on the street in the heat, I fell in love with them - they are so light, so breezy, so comfortable - definitely a winner for hot summers! I totally changed my attitude to wide elasticated pants. Hurray for comfort!

 

Pattern: Burda 104 + 105 02/2020

Size: 36, shortened

Fabric: lightweight viscose

Time to make: 4 days

My modifications: 

- Burda pants are generally too deep for me, so I shortened the crotch part by 4 cm, but added 1 cm to the crotch line of the back. I also shortened the length of the pants significantly (can't remember exactly how much, 6 cm?) and I took in 2 cm from the width of the back pieces. This latter correction was out of necessity, as my fabric was a bit less than 140 cm wide. But the back of these trousers is so wide, that these 2 cm would have been excessive, anyway.

- As I mentioned, I elasticated only the back, calculated a generous width at the front, placed the excess into pleats and then calculated the length of the waistband to fit the new length of the waistline of the pants. I also reduced the width of the waistband from 6.5 to 4 cm.

 - As I didn't have the instructions for the additional belt with the straps, I improvised with the construction, but I don't think it could be much different from what I came up with.

 

Although I did put on these high heel Italian sandals for the photos, I brought them in my backpack and put them back there again after we finished taking pictures. I intend to wear the trousers with my usual ballet flats  - I'm too old to pay tribute to vanity anymore :) Once again - comfort!

Pants #114 Burda 04/2013 and Bailén Top

 My third Bailén Top and a new pair of pencil pants.

As with my other Bailén Tops, I made this top out of fabric remnants from other bigger projects - in this case a Shkatulka shirt I finished earlier this year. The fabric is a very thin viscose, which looks a bit plain, crinkles like nobody's business and has little other to recommend it but its noble color and solid drapability. I had enough fabric to cut the top on the bias and without a seam at the back.

As I'm not a big fan of spaghetti straps,  I modified the top to have wide straps, gathered slightly by a small tab at the front for added interest. This is definitely my most favourite out of my three Bailén tops, solely on account of the wider straps.

The second and more substantial make are the trousers - a relatively simple pattern from Burda 04 / 2013. I had a very limited amount of fabric - about 72 cm, plus some scraps, which I used to cut the cuffs and the belt.
I am fairly confident with Burda patterns, when I make my corrections on the upper part of the body, as I know my measures and how they relate to the Burda block. But I hadn't made pants for myself and I was testing the block. I reduced the pattern pieces 2 cm flat above the crotch and 2 cm above the knee and to achieve the desired length out of my short piece of fabric I added open double cuffs.

The pants have high waist, which is still a bit high on me, even after my correction, so I believe I need to make a petite front rise correction too, removing a triangle of about an inch from the front rise. Still, the fit is fairly good and I'm not a fan of wearing my tops tucked in my pants, anyway.
The pants close with an invisible zipper in the side seam.

The fabric of the pants is 100% polyester, probably a single brushed poly, as it looks smooth like velvet on the outside and textured on the inside. First time using this type of fabric, frays like crazy, but otherwise drapy, comfortable and heavy enough for bottoms.

 Back to bangs!