the blue blog archives: sew busy

I'm real busy these days getting the house ready for an extended visit by the in-laws. In addition to "clean sweep"ing a lot of the crap out of the guest room/office, I finally got down to reorganizing all my stash and current projects. Wow, I've got a lot of things on the needles right now! And I also found three unfinished sewing projects to add to my two new ones. My side of our bedroom is suffering from some serious craft creep!

Last night's feeble attempt to stem the tide consisted of cutting out the fabric for my big Burda top. Here's the pattern pic (from the 12/03 issue). The pattern is written for fleece, but I wanted something springy, so I'm using this flowery cotton print my mother gave me gobs of, since the pattern requires lots of yardage. If the cotton doesn't work out, I might try it again with some polyester knit fabric I have. And if it does work out, I'll definitely be trying it again with my knit fabric! Here's a peek at the flowery fabric. It's the wrong side, so imagine it all brighter and bolder, if possible!

I hope to be able to sew up this top relatively quickly, so I can reacquaint myself with the machine and gain enough confidence to start the Butterick top. Hey, sew-alongers - any progress on the Butterick top so far? Did you check out the pattern reviews?

posted by alison at 6:24 am | in sew biggie , sew with me

Comments

My pattern is all cut out (That's the part I like least about sewing!)
I won't be able to begin sewing until Monday. I have SUCH a hectic weekend coming up!

I hope you have a very happy Mother's Day!

Posted by: Christine at May 7, 2004 10:18 AM

My top is done except for hemming the bottom. I made the size 20 exactly as directed and the fit is terrible. Just letting you know! Try it on before you sew each seam...you may need to make some serious adjustments. Not sure if this one can be saved....

Posted by: Stephanie at May 7, 2004 11:34 AM

Cut out, but not sewn. Stephanie, what's wrong with the fit? Too big, too small, just weird?

Posted by: Alexandra at May 7, 2004 1:47 PM

I've decided to use a nice leftover piece for the half sleeve version. It is a rayon/poly iridescent jacquard piece with a hand of a lining fabric, maybe like what Stephanie used. This one is going to be a trial piece as I am not sure about the fit.

Posted by: May at May 7, 2004 1:54 PM

I haven't started yet, because I need to wait for the pattern to go on sale. I'm worried about fit, too. I know my fitting issues, sort of, and I know I'll have to make a big bust adjustment, but I'm not sure if I want to mess with other things. One tip for this (and other American pattern companies) is to choose the size according to your "high bust" measurement. That's the measurement right under your arms. Then you can make the lower down part fit. But if it's too big in the shoulders it's hard to make that fit. I hope I'm making sense and that it's useful!

Posted by: cherylc at May 7, 2004 4:24 PM

Cheryl, while choosing patterns according to your high bust measurement works most of the time, but it does not work 100% of the time. The reason is that Butterick/Vogue/Simplicity/McCall, aka the Big 4, use B-cup bust measurement as their pattern sloper, while Burda uses C-cup. Suppose your bust is D-cup and choose a top pattern according to the high bust measurement, your neck/shoulder/arm areas and the length of the top are going to be too large. Fortunately, I am B/C-cup and can use the Big 4 most of the time without much problems, and I don't have much experience in pattern alterations in bust areas. However, many others with this problem highly recommends "Fit for Real People" by Palmer & Alto by Palmer/Pletsch Publication. In the above case, the book will recommend a 'full-bust alteration.' You can read about reviews on this book at PatternReview.com as well.

Posted by: may at May 8, 2004 7:37 AM

Oh no, Stephanie! It doesn't fit? How terrible!

I don't know anything about how these things are sized. Cheryl and May, your explanations on fit are very helpful. I'm learning a lot. Now I see whay many seamstresses try out a pattern in a different fabric first before they really make it. But, I'll be blindly following my size - no full bust adjustments necessary for me! - , so I'm just keeping my fingers crossed!

Posted by: alison at May 8, 2004 9:41 AM

May, you explained it more clearly than me, but we're saying the same thing. When I said American pattern companies, I meant the "Big 4." I forgot that people might not know that Burda is not an American pattern company (it's German). Fitting can be complicated in any case. In addition to patternreview.com, www.sewingworld.com is a good sewing resource that I love and find very useful.

Posted by: cherylc at May 10, 2004 4:01 PM

One of the reviewers at PatternReview.com has made up another one of the Butterick tops. It looks really nice. Check it out!! She did a very successful full-bust adjustment. http://www.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/readreview.pl?readreview=1&ID=3506

Posted by: may at May 13, 2004 11:36 PM