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!

Parachute Dress

My latest dress and my first parachute (short tiered) dress. My finished projects were beginning to pile up again - I have yet to take pictures of another dress I completed last week and a pair of cargo pants for my husband from the week before last - both fairly big and intricate projects, which I want to photograph properly and therefore am postponing their photo sessions, risking their season to be soon over. So today I decided to be quick and organized and to take a few less artistic, but timely photos of this unpretentious dress.

If you haven't been under a rock lately (like my husband and son), you must have noticed that tiered dresses are everywhere this summer, and Burda has been publishing various tiered dress patterns in its recent issues. I was skeptical of the silhouette and resisted the trend, until Burda 07 / 2021 came out. Then I gave up and bought model 104. And when I saw Ellen's interpretation of the pattern I knew what my next project would be.

As this year I'm trying hard to sew from my stash, I took out the remnant from a cotton voile I was gifted a couple of years ago. The fabric I received was at least 4 m, maybe more, and I made a dress out of it for Gaby (which she never wore). Then I overdyed the remaining fabric and made a tunic for me I never wore. Hopefully the last pieces of this fabric will have a better fate, as I truly love my new dress.

Pattern: Burda #104 07 / 2021

Size: 36, modified

Fabric: Cotton voile

Time to make: 2 days

My notes and modifications:

I am short and a long voluminous dress would have drowned me, so I decided to skip the last tier and make the dress much shorter. To add up to my desired length I elongated the upper part by 10 cm, thus bringing the gathered volume of the first tier below my bust, and not just across it, as is in the pattern. 

I also changed the sleeves from long to elbow length and moved the elastic from the edge to 5 cm above the hem. For this purpose I sewed a narrow tunnel out of a bias tape of the same fabric, inserted the elastic and then closed the tunnel with the end of the tape. This is the first time I am doing this and I love the end result - so much more comfortable and higher quality than simply zigzagging the elastic to the sleeve.

Overall impression - I LOVE the style! So comfy, so breezy, I get it why it is so popular this hot summer. This version out of a simple cotton voile will be a house/lounge dress, but I want to sew a proper viscose version. Things I would change - the gathering around the neck and shoulders is too voluminous and makes me - a narrow shoulder person, look broad-shouldered. The raglan line is longer on me, I should shorten it for better comfort. Also, I think I would prefer short kimono style sleeves, it's simply too hot this summer. So, I will probably look for another tiered dress pattern or construct my own based on a favourite top pattern, we'll see.

On a side note - husband and son both didn't like the dress and were amazed I had sewn something so shapeless, which to them looked like a maternity dress or a nightgown. I hope a more expensive viscose fabric would change this impression.