We had a lovely little getaway week in Paris in February, and I took the opoprtunity to do some fabric shopping while we were there – both in Montmartre and at the Atelier Brunette shop. From the former, I ended up with 3m of teal linen bought at the Coupons de Saint Pierre for €40. This was the most expensive of the three coupons (pre-cut lengths, usually 3m) I bought but it was a good weight and great price for 100% linen and in a very Me Colour, too. When I bought it I thought the 3m might stretch to a shirt for both J and I but when I changed plans to a dress, it turned out I needed pretty much the whole yardage! (Sorry, J!)
Parisian turquoise linen shirtdress
A digital print birthday top
Happy (slightly belated) 47th birthday to meeeee! I’m a week late but it’s for good reasons – being healthy enough to get out more means I’ve been celebrating all week long with friends! Multiple cycle rides out to dinners, to see one of my favourite musicians (shout out to the Union Chapel accessibility team for reserving me a box away from others!), out for cocktails, and even a trip to “the boy aquarium”!
You may recall that I sewed Burda Jan 2024 no105 in the first few months after I got sick, in a super soft charcoal grey jersey. I’ve worn it so much that I wanted to sew it again, and have been thinking about fabrics in my stash that could work for it…
A red velvet tee and black trousers
During my pre-Paris sewing frenzy, I also made a more practical set of top and trousers to both work down my fabric stash and potentially pack… You already saw my Gemma dress, but there’s one last garment in addition to these trousers and top!
Black Trousers
I’ll start wit the trousers, since I fear such a solid workhorse may get overlooked otherwise.
I’ve had 2.5m of black acetate twill from New Craft House in my stash ever since I used their plum acetate twill for my Claudia trousers back in 2023 (I eagerly await the day I can fit into them again because I love them so much) and went back to buy more. My notes say I paid a bargainous £4.5/m for this, especially good value considering it’s Japanese, from Hironen Mill. It’s long sold out but they’ve got similar acetate twills currently in the clearance section.
A Claudia tribute outfit – the trousers
After talking about the inspiration and my goals for this outfit, the drafting and sewing of the cape, and the incredible details of the silk shirt, we’re now onto the final piece – the plum trousers!
If you recall from my first post, the trousers used in the show were high waisted, wide legged, with a wide waistband and presumably a side zipper (as there’s no front opening on the wastband). I actually hate wearing all of these things, so making this fit my own tastes while still looking similar was going to be a challenge!
A Claudia tribute outfit – inspiration & finished set
It’s been years since I’ve had a reason to sew something for Halloween. I’m pretty sure the last time was when I made the badger and fox suits for J and myself, and that was 6 years ago. So when I found out we’d be in Cornwall over Halloween AND there was a local outdoor fancy dress party, I started plotting. And when a friend said she’d be hosting a vampire party on Halloween weekend, I really got down to some serious planning.
You’ll already be aware from my tribute teeshirts how much I adore the recent “Interview with the Vampire” tv show (Brits, it’s on iPlayer now!), so my immediate thought was to try and recreate one of the vintage costumes from it. The first season takes place from 1910-1940 but the main female character, Claudia, is introduced in the 4th episode and spans 1920-1940. Unfortunately, for a good portion of that she’s dressed pretty juvenile, so those early outfits really didn’t appeal.
Black flap mittens and a balaclava
As I cut out the fabric for my recent raglan sweatshirt, I also used the leftovers to cut out two bonus makes! The October 2023 edition of Burda magazine had some surprisingly nice winter accessories – #132 (balaclava) and #133 (mittens) as well as a muff (tube to put your hands into). Even better is that these are all FREE downloads on the English BurdaStyle site!
A black raglan sweatshirt with a designer touch
Once I could finally sit up for a few minutes after the initial Covid infection had passed, I wanted an easy project to get back into sewing. Something that wouldn’t have too many pieces to cut out, and I could sew on my overlocker, and be something I could sew without having to concentrate too much.
The October Burda magazine was a pretty good issue overall, and I really liked the look of Burda 10/23 #112. It ticked all my boxes for this, plus I had everything I needed in my stash!
A rescued Burda summer dress
This dress has quite the long lead-time to being finished, and most of that time was spent hanging on the “hook of shame” where failures and UFOs go to shame me every time I walk into m sewing room until I fix them, repurpose the fabric, or bin them. You see, this pattern was really the only Burda magazine design that grabbed me enough to actually sew up last year, and what luck, it ended up being a rare Burda dud!
Not only did I actually trace and sew it, but I did so during the publication month, too! Burda 07-2021-120 (which I actually found online in the steaming mess that is their English site!) is a loose fitting dress in two lengths (I chose the shorter one) with short sleeves and a gathered, panel skirt (no side seams!) and a centre front panel with bust darts integrated into the panel seams.
A Tie-Sleeve Top to Cheer Up My Mom
Our family have had a rough 2020, and my mom especially. We’ve had three family members die this year, and the enforced separation during these times makes the distance between us feel even greater. I feel thankful that I was able to fly over in February when my dad was in hospital (which actually feels like a lifetime ago), but it’s been impossible for a multitude of reasons to visit since then.
So I wanted to do what I can to both give her a boost, and to make the distance between us feel a little less severe. I’d sent over a few care packages full of face masks but as practical as they are, they’re not particularly cheery. Back in February I’d I made her (and myself) this tie-sleeved top from the June 2019 Burda magazine, and she really loved that we had “twin shirts”. You can see more about the shape of the sleeve pieces and the general construction notes in this post, so I won’t repeat it here. She really loved that one so much that she picked out some fabric at JoAnn for another version and I brought it home in my suitcase to sew up at some point.
Monochrome silk blouse
You saw a peek of this in Monday’s post about my mustard wool shorts, but today I can tell you all about this sleeveless blouse.
The pattern is No115 from the May 2020 Burda magazine and is available to purchase as a pdf here. This was a real standout for me from this issue and I knew right away that I’d be sewing it up – it has a distinctive gathered front neckline with no shoulder seams and it only requires 1m of fabric as a bonus, yay! And frankly I love anything with a cutaway shoulder…