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Tuesday 3 May 2016

FO: Burda 109-10-2015 and Newlook 6230

Or the top that didn't want to be made....


Top stitiching and zip

So not everything that is made is a success. This top was a disaster almost straight away. The fabric is a lovely coral coloured cosy fleece backed sweatshirting material, bought from Geoff Rosenberg. It would have been ideal for a hoody or zipped hoody or tracky bottoms, but definately not this top.

It is a Burdastyle slouchy raglan top which looked great in the magazine. Catherine Daze had made it and it looked good on a real person, so I thought I would give it a go.

I downloaded the pattern and cut a size 38 (I think). I basted it together, and honestly it looked like the top was wearing me! I looked like I had an oversized spacesuit on.

Quite short
I took a massive vertical dart from both the front and back yoke pieces to try and bring the shoulders of the top somewhere near my own.
massive dart taken out of yoke
I also decided that I wanted the top to be longer so added a band at the bottom. This was foolish in the extreme given the shape of the hem and I somehow managed to mess up the all the seams on the band.
The insert where I got the drafting of the hem bands wrong

The mess on the inside of the back hem band

I have worn the finished result, but it is not drapey relaxed top I had envisaged. Having gone through all these pictures and not having any of it on me in the completed state, I might have to give it another chance before I give up on it completely.
 
To try and redeem my sewing I went to the next Geoff Rosemberg sale and managed to get the last of the bolt of the same fabric.  This time I was planning a reasonably straight forward raglan sweatshirt using a pattern that came with a sewing magazine - Newlook 6230.

Having checked the finished garment measurements and taking into account the thickness of the fabric I made a size 14. When I tried it on I realised that the neckline was far too wide. Had I done any sort of internet reasearch I would have come across this problem and dealt with it before cutting into the fabric. It would have been too wide as a t-shirt let alone a warm sweatshirt. I managed to add on extra fabric at the neckline and improve the fit of the neckband, but all in all this was pretty much a disaster as well.
creases from being folded up in a drawer...

I haven't worn this top much either, although it was a vast improvment on the Burda one. I think I have just had enough with that fabric!

These two just show that even though I have been sewing for years now, it is still possible to make mistakes and that, 9 times out of 10 the choice of fabric is key to the success of the project.  What have you learnt from recent sewing?


4 comments:

  1. Well done on recovering this make. I think you did really well to create something wearable out of your 'experiment'!
    Always good to try new stuff and also reassuring to know that failing is not a bad thing after all.

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  2. Sorry the Burda top didn't work out. I like the hem band effect though - worth remembering.

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  3. The Burda top looks a little bit 'Pierre Cardin' - albeit oversized Pierre Cardin! The New Look top looks good though - and I love the colour of the fabric - I keep meaning to go to one of the Trumpington sales.

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  4. I had the same trouble with fit on the Burda. I muslined a 38, but for my final version I ended up removing about 2in in width from the smallest size. If I were to make it again, I'd try the dart to adjust the shoulder and keep a little of the width. I think I lost the boxy look all together.

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