Navy Blue Burda 6202

My third Burda 6202 blouse this year! I believe this is the sixth short-sleeve version I’ve made for myself from this favorite pattern.

Apart from the fact that I love the fit - and I have tuned the pattern to my preferences to perfection - it's a tiny blouse that requires very little fabric. I often manage to squeeze it out of remnants as a side project.

Thus, out of the 1.8 m navy blue knit fabric, that I bought in July, I made one pair of calf-length joggers, one long sleeve hooded top, this short sleeved Burda 6202 T-shirt and I even managed to combine the leftovers with other knit fabric scraps to make three pairs of lingerie for myself.  I love using my fabric to the last centimeter, especially when it’s this good! This navy blue is not only a perfect match for my complexion, but it’s divinely soft against the skin—a total win-win.

Pattern: Burda 6202 from Burda Catalogue 1 / 2020

Size: 34, shortened

Fabric: cotton knit

Time to make: 2 days

I especially love the puff-sleeve detail on this blouse; it's a small feature with a great effect.

We are still enjoying beautiful, sunny weather here. It’s hard to believe I’m taking photos of a short-sleeved blouse just a few days before Christmas!

Bistritza - Zeleznitza on a Sunny December Day

Today was a gorgeous sunny December day with very pleasant winter temperatures. We had a few ideas for winter hikes in mind and in the end decided on Bistritza, as the closest to home. And it turned out to be the perfect decision for this time of the year - the super easy trail between the two mountainous villages is very popular and can be boring on a summer day, but in winter on a work day there were only a dozen or less hikers, the forest was very quiet and tranquil under the low December sun and the overall hike left us with the impression, that December is the best time to hike here.

Although the trail runs through the forest, the bare branches of the trees let the sunshine through and the ambient temperature was surprisingly comfortable.

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

Husband: men's boxers, knitted socks, Burda cargo pants, Knipmode sweater

I:  lingerie, Navyblue Lotte blouse, Chaika sweater, CC copycat hat, Zerda knitted gloves, purple snood

Hike info:

Date:  19 December 2025

Destination: low altitude circuit trail Bistritza - Zeleznitza and back

Mountain: Vitosha

Total length: 12.5 km

Elevation gain: 80 m

Total duration (plus picnic and rests): 3 hours 20 min

Average difficulty: 2 / 10

We had our tortillas and hot herbal tea on a sunny bench by the river, basking in the sun - it was a bliss!

And back along the same trail, feeling very satisfied and quite mellow :)

Karpatka Cream Pie

Karpatka is a Polish type of cream pie, that is in fact a big eclair. I've loved eclairs with a passion ever since I was a tiny little girl, so consider me sold on anything eclair in advance.

As I try to minimize the use of processed sugar and butter in our sweet treats, I made a budget version with reduced sugar and sunflower oil, which was a big success at home.

First I made the cream - in my version it is simple custard cream:

Ingredients for the cream:

• 2 eggs
• 50 g flour
• 50 g sugar
• 500 g milk
• vanilla
• 1 tbsp butter 

After the cream was cooked, I covered it with cling foil and set it aside. Then I made the eclair dough.

Ingredients for the eclairs:

• 100 g milk
• 100 g water
• 100 g sunflower oil
• 125 g flour
• 1 tbsp sugar 
• pinch of salt
• 4 medium size eggs  

Preparation of the eclair dough:

Bring the milk, water and oil mixture with added salt and sugar to boil, reduce the heat, add the flour and stir, until the flour is absorbed and the dough is smooth and doesn't stick to the walls of the pot. Take the pot off the plate and leave it to cool a bit. Beat lightly the 4 eggs together and start adding them gradually to the dough. A lot of energetic and strenuous stirring is required to incorporate all the 4 eggs into the dough, so in this case I used the available helper - my husband :)

Once the dough was ready, I divided it into two fairly equal round cakes and baked them free form in the oven for 20 min at 200C. However, I wouldn't recommend it, as the eclairs puff up a lot and came out pretty shapeless. Next time I would bake each cake separately in a ring cake form.

In order to make a descent looking cake, I cut my eclairs to fit the ring cake form. Of course, I preserved the cuttings, cooked some pudding and I made three additional bowls of pudding with eclair cuttings. Thus we had our dessert in the evening and the cake could peacefully stay in the fridge overnight.

I decorated the cake with fresh mint, frozen blueberries and a dusting of powdered sugar and in the morning I also added some melted dark chocolate (not pictured here), which was heartily approved by son and husband. 

All in all, an easy and affordable holiday dessert, I would unreservedly recommend it.

Polovrak on a Cloudy Day

Luckily, it happens rarely, but sometimes the forecasters get the weather completely wrong. I usually start monitoring the forecasts for the week come Monday and by Wednesday we have already fixed the best day for the hike we have planned. The forecasts for Friday in the Lozen mountain were for cold, but fairly sunny day and since Friday is the hiking day most convenient and preferred by us, it was decided for Friday on Polovrak.

The day started very cold and cloudy in Sofia, but we hoped it would be different on Lozen. There was actually some sun when we passed near Pancharevo, but as we approached Lozen, the cloud cover got only thicker.

So, we put our internal gears on max speed and climbed towards the top along the well-known trail at max possible speed without any stops. 

The closer we got, the thicker the cloud cover became and the lesser the visibility.

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

Husband: boxers, Burda cargo pants, Burda longsleeve, orange hat

I: lingerie, hat, gloves, snood, leg warmers, refashioned hoodie

The view from the top - fog and clouds everywhere

We decided to have our picnic on the small hill within the Polovrak memorial site - despite the cold and the mist, the place was sheltered, the wind was mild and we actually had a very enjoyable picnic with delicious hot herbal tea and our ubiquitous tortillas.

Hike info:

Date: 12 December 2025

Destination: peak Polovrak (1182 m)

Mountain: Lozen

Total length: 9.5 km

Elevation gain: 420 m

Total duration (plus picnic and rests): 2 h 45 min

Average difficulty: 3 / 10

On the way back we stopped for a minute at the Lozen monastery. The view from the monastery wall - somewhere over the Sofia valley in the distance the sun did shine bright, but not for us :)

And back to the car along an alternative trail, making the hike almost completely circular.

The thick mist moved along and Sofia and the valley were somewhat visible again.

We kept the high pace on the way down and finished the hike in less than three hours - nice and refreshing, despite the mist and the absent sun.

Navyblue Lotte Blouse

Finally a full-grown sewing project :) 

I've been sewing a little, mostly lingerie, repairs and refashions, but this is my first true sewing make since the pink dress I finished in September.

The pattern is another Sinclair Lotte blouse. This is my fourth make out of this pattern and my third in the form of a blouse, although I bough it, because I liked the idea of a hoodie with thumb-hole cuffs. However, my only attempt at a hoodie out of sweater fleece was not very satisfying - I find it too tight as a hoodie and I usually wear it as a warmer blouse during hikes. 

In February I made a version of the pattern in solid color, with a hood and thumb-cuffs and it's been one of my most worn blouses this year - I prefer it for hikes and I love to wear it at home too. The idea to make another one of these came to me spontaneously last week, when I reached again for my favourite blouse and found out, that it was still in the laundry basket - obviously I urgently needed another one :)

Pattern: Sinclair Lotte Hoodie

Size: Petite (152-160 cm) XS (US 2)

Fabric: cotton knit

Time to make: 2 days

The making of the blouse went like a breeze, as I already had a modified version of the front for a solid color and I also had my notes of desirable corrections, based on the previous makes of the pattern. This time I lowered the neckline at the front by 1.5 cm, thus opening the shawl part of the hood and reducing the overlap a little - I find it a bit more comfortable like that. I also returned the original length of the sleeves, as I found, that I feel more unconstrained in my hand movements, when wearing a sweater over the hooded blouse with the thumb-hole cuffs on, if the sleeve is longer. 

The construction of the thumb-hole cuffs is very clever and I consider the pattern worth purchasing even if only for the cuffs :)

My hands and head are my most cold-sensitive zones, so I find blouses with built-in gloves and hat a god-sent :)

Lately I love-love-love wearing sweaters with shirts or hoodies underneath. Here is a combination of the new blouse with my navy Starry Night sweater - a match made in heaven :)