Fashion Forward or Fashion Rewind?

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I normally wouldn’t talk about purchasing the latest Burda magazine, mostly because in Australia issues arrive 2-3 months after the northern hemisphere release and it seems like old news by the time it gets here. But old news is perhaps the point here.  The latest copy of Burda to hit the newsstands around here is Burda style 09/2011. I noticed this dress on the preview page for 10/2011

Picture showing lady wearing wrap front dress

122-10-2011 Wrap-front Dress. Image from http://www.burdafashion.com/ru/index.html

The styling of the dress strongly reminded me of another dress I had seen before from Burda to the point I could point my hands straight on the issue.

Lady wearing wrap-front dress

115-09-2006 Wrap-front dress. Image from http://www.burdafashion.com/ru/index.htm

There’s 5 years (and 1 month) between those issues. I know that Burda likes to recycle designs and that fashion comes and goes in cycle but it’s a question of the styling. It’s a wrap-dress in a tone on tone print on a blonde girl with long, slightly dishevelled hair wearing a large hat with a floppy brim. If the dresses had not been styled so similarly I would not have drawn a correlation between the two and that’s what makes it seem a little style.

The dresses do have some difference. 115-06-2011 has 3/4 sleeves, is design for fabrics like panne velvet and wool jersey and has no darts.  122-10-2011 has front and back darts, with longer sleeves that appear to have an elastic casing at the wrist.

I shouldn’t perhaps complain about Burda repeating things though. I tend to buy Burda magazine for specific patterns and that tend be the same sort of patterns over and over again. usually biker jacket’s. And there’s a biker-style jacket in this issue.

102-02-2011 Blouson Jacket. Image from http://www.burdafashion.com/ru/index.html

I have said before that I need stop buying biker style jacket patterns Burda patterns in all formats (downloads, magazines, envelopes). They are a staple in my wardrobe but there is a limit to how many I actually need. This design does have some differences to the rest of the biker patterns I have. It’s a boxy cut that has set-in sleeves and the collar is quite different to the other patterns I have. It’s shown made up in a fabric that softens the silhouette of the boxy cut and I think that makes it more flattering for me. I have never heard of the fabric they used before. It’s made up in duvetyn. A quick google search tells me that duvetyn is a soft, short-napped (or velvet-like) fabric with a twill weave, made of wool, cotton, rayon, or silk.  That sounds like an appealing fabric to make it up in a sort of cosy fashion. The collar would be lovely and soft on the neck too. I’ve this to the ever growing list of jackets I would like to make at some point.

A little bit of knitting and no sewing

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There hasn’t been much sewing around here. There has been a bit of knitting though.

Coast Hoodie

I cast on this hoodie about 3 weekends ago. The pattern is from Vogue Knitting Fall 2008 and the yarn is Rowan Yorkshire Tweed in Coast. The yarn was discontinued a few years ago. I’m not getting very far very fast on this as I’m only working on it at home. I did try to use the sleeve as travel knitting but it doesn’t quite work. I made a few errors in crossing the cables, mostly because of trying to see my place in the cable section whilst using DPNs which only give me a partial glimpse of the panel at any angle.

So Thursday week ago I cast on something that was more suitable for carrying around with me.

Baltic Scarf

This the My So-Called Scarf pattern available for free on the internet and the yarn is Lorna’s Laces Shepard Worsted Multi in Baltic. The scarf is currently 95 cm long. I have only been knitting this whilst on trains and buses, and while hanging around in waiting rooms before various appointments. I think the length of the scarf says something about how I’ve spent a good deal of time this week: either waiting to get some where or waiting for something to happen. There is not much left of the skein so I’ll finish the scarf when the skein is finished.

I think it’s pretty obvious by now that the jacket sewalong has fallen by the wayside.It fell victim to a random combination of events: a medical treatment plan that did not go according to plan and left me somewhat deconditioned; my sewing machine somehow being broken; me being without my sewing machine for a couple of months longer then it should have taken to repair it; our landlord deciding to sell the house empty and evicting us; and having a vision disorder where sight varies with fatigue and stress. I’ve decided to put the jackets on hold for now as most of the jackets and coats involve wool, and it’s getting to warm to sew with wool.

So, sewing plans for summer. I did start work on a spring 6-pack and have purchased fabrics and patterns. I would like to finish this but I think the first thing I want to do it fit the Vogue dress fitting shell. I really need a properly fitted bodice sloper as most of my fitting issues are due to being short-waisted. I have ordered the Liechty book on fitting as I found it useful enough to warrant having my copy. When the book gets here I’ll start working on that.

Once I have a reasonable fitting sloper I’ll go back to working on the 6-pack as it will make things so much easier. In other plans, I have ordered the Colette sewing book and some fabric to make three of the garments. I feel like making a bunch of dresses and skirts. There are few other projects I have in mind but I always feel like I’m tempting fate with making plans. They never seem to quite happen.

I’m actually glad I didn’t get much sewing so far this year. I had my braids cut off a week ago and went from having waist length hair to hair that is between 2 – 8cm long. I have had my hair this short before but not quite this style. I think it’s a little telling that it didn’t occur to some people around here that I had cut my hair because they think of me as having short hair. Other responses have ranged from “cute”, “looks good”, and “amazing”. The cut really does suit me better even if it does make me look almost 10 years younger. The other thing the cut does is emphasise how delicate and small my face is, and how long my neck is. I now have a couple of necklines in the wardrobe that no longer suit me. I will have to go through and reevaluate my patterns to make sure that there isn’t anything that has the wrong neckline. There shouldn’t be too many. Short hair has always given me a very androgynous look as well so I need to check that there isn’t anything too much at odds with that as well. I think at some level I’ve been picking patterns over the last few years like I still had short hair so there shouldn’t be too many patterns and clothes that are problematic.

All’s well that end’s well

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I finally, finally have my sewing machine back. I actually got it back a fortnight a go but was in the middle of moving. This means I also have a new sewing area and things not quite unpacked.

So, the saga that was getting my machine serviced properly. I originally put my machine into be repaired at Camberwell because the point at which I plug my foot control had been broken. I’m not sure how it happened but that was the only thing wrong with my machine.  I briefly looked at the sample and checked the repair. Everything seemed okay. Took the machine home and I set it up to do some sewing. I couldn’t get the machine to stitch right I checked the sample and the back was a mess. Try as I might I couldn’t get the stitch tension right. I ended up with the upper set to 9 instead of 5. The most frustrating thing was that the tension was fine before the machine was serviced. I called Camberwell and complained. The machine was taken back to the shop a couple of weeks later. I showed the staff at Camberwell the back of the sample and they wrote on the service order form for the guy to check the sample back. Now that I thought of it, I’m wondering why Camberwell didn’t check the sample. The stitch tension was obviously out. I know that they are not doing the repairs but they are the point of contact for the customer and wouldn’t it make sense for them to do a final quality check considering that they are providing the customer service? Particularly as they call for the customer collect the machine and would have to deal with any issues arising?

The second time I picked up my machine at Camberwell, I checked the sample and the bottom thread wasn’t sitting right again. I complained to the staff and they put my on the phone to their repair guy and boy oh boy was he rude and patronising. I explained that I wasn’t happy with tension shown in the stitch sample of the machine. His response was that it was old. In fact that seemed to be his response to everything I said. “The machine was stitching well before I bought it in and now it’s worse than when I bought it in”. ” It’s old”. “The machine has been serviced so the upper tension now is set at 6.5 instead of 5?” “It’s old”. The bottom thread not stitching right at all? It’s old. At no point did he seem to be responding to what I was actually saying. His tone of voice I found very patronising and being called darling in the way that he did did not help that impression at all. I gave up on getting any sense out of him or Camberwell and I left the store more than a little upset and with a machine not operating right. Not good customer service.

I decided to take my machine straight out to Ringwood. When I first moved to Melbourne I lived out that way and had my machine repaired by Barry’s Sewing Centre.  He had left a good impression and was the only person I could think of who might be able to fix my machine properly. He has moved since I last was living out there but we eventually found the place. Barry remembered selling the machine in the 80s and the complaints he received about one of the more unique features of the machine. That made me feel better I left the machine there and a couple of weeks later it was ready to picked up. I couldn’t get the machine picked up for another week due to moving house in hurry

My OH picked up my sewing machine from Ringwood and he was told that there had been thread around the bevel gears. Now I took the machine straight from Camberwell to Ringwood. I didn’t even take the machine home to use it. The thread on the bevel gears must have been there when I picked the machine up at Camberwell.  This strikes me as very peculiar I would have thought that it would have been noticed and fixed by Camberwell’s repair guy.

Anyway, OH brought the machine home and I tested it out. I can get the stitch tension perfect. The machine runs well, better then when I took in to be repaired. And, best yet, the machine is giving perfect tension at 5, which is where it should be sitting. So much for the tension being permanently out of whack.

I’m not happy that I had to pay two lots of service fees but at least my machine works properly now. I know which repair person I’ll be using in future. It’s also probable that I will need another machine in the future and I also know where I will be buying my machine. Camberwell may not be doing the repairs in shop but there is no way I would want to risk ever having to deal with their repair guy again.

Sewing Machines and Patterns

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The talk of patterns is going to continue around here for a while yet. I picked up my machine from being repaired a week ago and whilst they’ve fixed the problem that the machine went in for, they’ve also created a whole new batch of problems. They’ve completely screwed the timing and the tension on it and to get the machine to stitch evenly I have to set the upper tension to 10;  and the correct setting is approximately 5. In the 22 years I’ve had this machine, I have never ever seen the tension and stitch balance like this, and the highest I have ever had to set it to is 7.5. The tension was fine when it went in and the machine was repaired on the condition that it was also serviced at the same time.Sorting this out is complicated by the fact that I don’t have a drivers license and so I have to get my husband to drive it back to the store on Saturday. I have no idea when I’ll get it back. In the mean time I have borrowed my husband’s sewing machine. It is  a much more basic machine but it does have a zigzag stitch. It also has no seam allowance marked on to make things slightly harder but hey it’s a machine and it’s fine for doing mockups on. I do have a backup machine of a Singer 99k but I have yet to master stitching straight on it.

I received my Vogue pattern order last week that I made in June. I had taken a look at my wish list and realised that I have not been buying too many to the point that there was several pre Jan 2010 patterns on the wish list. I made of point of mostly ordering them as I thought they were likely to be discontinued soon. Just as well I did so as two have since been discontinued.


I got V8621 Claire Shaeffer jacket,  V8498 Claire Shaeffer trousers, V8519 Claire Shaeffer jacket, V1204 Issey Miyake tunic , V8600 Marcy Tilton jacket V8599 Marcy Tilton waistcoat,and V1072 Vintage Vogue blouse and skirt, Like last time, I paid $25.00 in postage, and the envelope has $11.39 stamped on it. I’m on the look out for fabric to make 1204, 8599, 8600, and 8621. I’m picky about colour and fibre content which makes finding fabric I like hard.

I also received a new (to me) vintage pattern. I bought this 1940s Butterick blouse off eBay and it was still in factory folds.


I bought this mostly for view A. I love the petal collar, hand-finished top stitching, and cap sleeves look good on me. (As a side note, Decades of Style have issued a version of this blouse; I have yet to try any of their patterns so that’s not necessarily a recommendation).  I like views View B and C and find the construction interesting. The front of this version of the  blouse  has a few pattern pieces; the lines on the front are seamlines and not embroidery.   There is a transfer sheet for the scallop embroidery. The problem with View B & C  is that that type of neckline does not look good on me. I have this problem with a lot of 1940s patterns and have yet to figure out enough reasonable solutions. If I could find a way of changing the neckline without spoiling the appearance, I’d make view B or C as well as view A. I also have no fabric to make any of these blouses either. Actually, I have no summer shirtings in the stash at all and I need to fix this at some point.  I’ll scan the pattern envelope in properly and upload it to flickr soon.

Vintage Sewing Patterns

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A small case of life and a sewing machine in the repair shop means not a lot of sewing has been done around here recently. I hopefully will have my sewing machine back soon; I have no drivers license so picking it up again is dependent on other people timetables.

What I have done recently is digitise all the envelopes and instructions of my 1930s-1940s sewing patterns. This was for my TAFE course where I had to create a digital archive. I have uploaded them all to flickr along with some metadata. These were originally scanned as 300 dpi tiff files. Flickr converted them to jpeg but they are still huge in size.

The collection is located here on flickr with the envelopes and instructions in their own sets.

Butterick 3935

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A day or two after I purchased the Vogue patterns I came across Stitches & Loops on MSMO who sell Vintage Sewing Patterns, Knitting and Crochet patterns and at reasonable prices too. I was very tempted by a few things but I decided that being sensible was a good idea.  I only purchased Butterick 3935, mostly to satisfy curiosity, and the pattern arrived yesterday. It was very well packed with a cardboard insert in the mailer and pattern inside a cellophane sleeve. The international postage charges were very reasonable and the seller emailed me to say when it was shipped. The pattern was in excellent condition and matched the description.  I’m very happy with the purchase and I am looking forward to picking up a few more patterns from there once the budget allows it. I recommend taking a look at the shop as she has some interesting vintage patterns.

Butterick 3935

I originally opened the page to look at Butterick 3935 is because it’s the original version of the reprint Butterick 5281, which I purchased in the Vogue order. I like looking at the original versions of the Vintage Vogue and Retro Butterick reprints. I planned on making the dress from 5281 so the reprint’s description was fresh in my mind. So when I read this:

Softness sweeping from the right shoulder of this one-piece dress harmonizes with the detail on the opposite side of the graceful skirt. Slightly deeper armhole sleeves in long length A; cap sleeves view B. The skirt has a three gore back.

the last sentence struck me as being odd as it sounded different to the reprint. Double-checking shows the reprint has a two gore back.  If you look at the reprint cover, the back view shows the seam where a back with three gores would have a seam. When I realised that I purchased the pattern because I wanted to see how much difference there was.

On comparison, there are a number of differences between the two. One of them I should have picked up on reading the original description (the deeper armscye), the others come from the pattern pieces listing. There are pattern pieces in the original that are not in the reprint and vice versa. Pattern pieces seem to have changed shape even allowing for using a modern block. It seems to me that 2008 reprint is more of an impression of the dress than an accurate reprint.

I’ve chosen the original version to make this time. There’s nothing wrong with the reprint but at the moment I only want one winter version of this dress.

I thought it might be fun to compare and contrast the reprint and the original as I sew up the dress. I’ll probably do that in May, as I have some other sewing that needs to be completed ASAP.

Vogue Patterns

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There’s not a lot of sewing been done recently. The jacket has progressed a little bit more since I last posted and I will post on that at some point. There has been purchasing of sewing patterns. I decided to take advantage of the current Vogue Patterns for $3.88 and Butterick $1.88 sale at the end of March. I picked seven patterns to stay at the $25.00 shipping  mark.

I purchased: V1136 (dress and jacket from 1945),  V1019 (suit design from 1947), V8677 (Divine Details suit),  V8449 (Claire Shaeffer evening dress), V8697 (skirt),B5281 (dress from 1946) and B5298 (coat from 1946).  B5298 was on clearance so I ended up paying $3.00 for that.

I received the order 8 days after I place it, which is quite good for shipping times between here in the US. The Vintage Vogues got a little bent  but still I was pleased with the order until I noticed the postage stamp. Vogue paid $10.76 shipping and they charged me $25.00. There’s no internal packaging and the envelope is just a standard yellow envelope.  I don’t mind paying a small handling fee, particularly if it means better interior packaging to protect the  patterns but the discrepancy between the two figures is ridiculous.  I think charging 2.3 times the cost of postage is in the realms of profiteering.  It is still cheaper than buying patterns locally though, particularly with the current exchange rates.

Some slow progress on Burda 8846

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I did spend the weekend before last sewing on the Burda 8846 jacket. It’s just taken this long to get some pictures together for some fitting advice.

What I have done to the jacket is:
- shorten the jacket from the longer version to 9 cm above the hemline marked on the pattern for the short version. This avoids the whole “I’m no longer rectangle shape” issue with the hips being to small.
- I graded the pattern down to a size 8 from the top of the side seam, through the armscye, shoulders and neck.
- I remove 2.5 cm at the shorten here line through the upper back.
- I narrowed the shoulders a further 1 cm using Ann Rowley’s method posted on Stitcher’s Guild.
- I graded the sleeve down to a size 8 and enlarge the bicep by 2 cm.
- I also took a wedge out of the sleeve taking 2.5 cm out of the back sleeve head tapering to nothing at the front.

I did not do a forward shoulder adjustment. The shoulder line is actually a couple of cm behind the shoulder seam on this jacket. Looking at the pictures, I think I may need to do this in future.

(Please excuse the cat hair, I did remove it but it seems to have gained a new layer of the stuff. White cats and black jackets are not a good mix).




As it stands this is the best fit I have ever achieved on my shoulders. I’m beginning to understand this fitting lark. Hooray but it’s still not perfect. As I see it there are 4 main issues.

Issue 1

Burda 8846 Front Shoulder
I have a fold above the bust near the armscye like there is too much fabric there. I’m not sure what to do about it. I know my bust dart position is not perfect but given that this is a ufo, there isn’t much I can do about it. It did not help that I went up 3 cup sizes in six months last year for no reason. I think I need to do a full bust adjustment in future but I’m not sure if the fold is purely bust related. Perhaps, it would be more accurate to say that I’m wondering if I have the armscye right after all the adjustments I made to it.

Issue 2

Burda 8846 Sleeve Movement
The sleeves are restricting my movement. I think I need to drop the bottom of the armscye at least a cm at the side seam but I’m not sure. Most of the issue seems to be from the side back panel which is wrinkling funny like there is too much fabric there.

Issue 3

Burda 8846 Sleeve Cap
The sleeve cap had too much ease in it to start with and the wedge taken out along with the bicep alteration has done something really peculiar to it. It needs to be eased in differently and possibly a little bit of fabric removed but only after 1 & 2 are dealt with.

Issue 4

Okay, I’m getting a lot of creasing in my lower back at the middle seam. What is with that? I’ve never noticed before because I always had too much length in the upper back. Growing up I was always told I had a swayback. Looking at this I’m now wondering if I need to learn how to do a swayback adjustment.

I think it is still worth proceeding with the jacket The bust fit is going to stay on the poor side. I only have enough fabric to recut the sleeves or side back panels but not the front. It will also be a good chance to practise inserting a front zipper and a lining by machine if nothing else.

Burda 8846 Wool Jacket

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I dug out a very old UFO this morning for the 12 jackets. I originally cut this jacket out several years ago, probably about 2000. I know it got put away with a lot of my sewing stuff due to life being more then a bit full. I picked it up again a few years later, only I ‘d gone through another growth spurt and had to let it out over the hips. The only reason I didn’t have to let out the bust is that I had followed Mum’s advice and originally cut it too large. As it stands now, the coat is partly sewed up. It looks like I was working on the sleeves and got stuck attaching the cuffs and put it aside again to work on later. Later has proven to be about 5 or so years due to treatment of vision problems. So it needs to be finished or otherwise removed from the sewing room because it’s been hanging around way to long

All the fashion fabric pieces are cut out and present, which is a good start. Not useful is the missing and damged pattern pieces. The jacket is cut to a 12 whcih is a reasonably useful base size; I usually cut a Burda as a 12 for bust and 14 for hips.

The first thing I’m going to do is take it apart and recut the shoulders to a smaller size. This is going to be made easier by the fact that I haven’t attached the sleeves. Once that’s done I’ll need to figure out how to deal with the cuffs. I also need to check that I’ve picked the right weight of interfacing and if not recut the collar. The lining has not been cut out so that needs to be done. One of the missing pattern pieces is a lining piece so that’s going to be inconvienent. I also need to find where I’ve put the zip. I guess that this is what I’m doing this weekend then.

2011 Sewing Plans

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Finding exactly what to say for the first post on a blog or forum is something I’ve always found to be awkward. Instead of trying to write an introductory post about me, I’ll just write a post about my sewing plans for the year.

One of the main things I am meaningto do this year is to use up quite a bit of the fabric stash and deal with the ufos. I seem to have lost my sewing/study area in the last move and space is now at a premium.

The big project, or more accurately projects, is the 12 Jackets in 12 months sewalong that’s happening on the Stitcher’s Guild forum. I’ve decided to join in. I figue getting some of the coating out of the stash would definitely create some room if nothing else. My list of jackets is currently as follows:
1.Burda Jacket. A UFO that never got finished, needs to be refitted and finished.
2. Vogue 7908 Claire Shaeffer Suit Jacket. Not the easiest project to do but I need a new suit. To be made in elephant coloured wool gabardine.
3 Burda Mens coat pattern in spruce coating.
4. Simplicity Threads patterns in burnt sienna lambswool coating.
5. Vintage 1940s Butterick suit jacket, fabric to be purchased
6. Vogue 2973 in black wool. I’m determined to get to this to fit. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve tried to fit it.
7. Butterick 5393/Vogue 8333 in plum italian wool.
8. Mushroom silk tweed, pattern to be decided.
9. Vogue 8600, fabric to be purchased
10. Burda 126-10/2009 in army green wool.
11. pattern undecided.
12. Vogue 8621, fabric as yet undecided. I really love this pattern but have no real reason to make it. I figure that if I get the rest down them I’m going to make something really frivolous.

Other projects planned include the bottom halves for the suit jackets mentioned above and creating a pattern (and jeans) from a favourite old pair.

Mostly important though is to have fun despite the lists. I have a lot of boring basics I need to make like tees and jeans but I really hate that type of sewing. I’d rather make something with unusual and often fiddly details with lots of hand sewing. Above all, I need to remember to plan a piece like this in at regular intervals and allow myself to play.