Wedding dresses are all very well, but not exactly practical for walking down your average high street on a Saturday (especially when it isn’t your own).
I am chronically short of separates, especially skirts, so I broke my skirt virginity this week and jumped on the Burdastyle Jenny bandwagon.
I realise this doesn’t exactly make me a trendsetter, but I don’t think I’ve seen a bad one yet and just had to have one! I must say, I wasn’t disappointed – I almost thought I was going to have a skirt (including toile!) in one day but then decided to faff around and bind the inside seams to give a secret hint of spring inside:
I had one of those bias binding making gadgets, which I had read about and heard were so great, such fun, so easy. Well, all I can say is that was NOT my experience! Nothing but a wonky uneven mess came out of the end of that little thing, so after several failed attempts and royally messing up my carefully created bias strips, I gave up on it in frustration and just folded down the sides the old school way. I may try it once again, but that’s it. I don’t know if my strip was maybe just a bit too wide, but I did follow the recommended width – who knows.
I absolutely love this skirt! I can see at least one more of these in my near future, in a more work-appropriate fabric. I can’t tell you how great it is to have a skirt that actually fits. I even like it from behind!
The top I’m wearing is New Look 6808 which I made a couple of months ago. Another winner, although it has some slight fitting issues I think to do with bust / armholes / shoulders – if I make it again I think I will do a toile to try and resolve them. It’s a bit hard to see the bow detail on the collar, but here’s a close up:
I feared said bow detail was the end of this top when I tried it on to admire my handiwork, only to discover the bow was decorating my right shoulderblade rather than my left collarbone. Whoops. As you have to do a bit of pleating and stitching to attach the bow round the collar, I was fearful for my thin silk, but thankfully (a) not too many people spend much time looking at the back of my shoulder and (b) it was more resilient than I feared.
Onwards and upwards, no more procrastination on the wedding dress – the bodice is undergoing final fitting tweaks, we are almost ready to cut into the real stuff! I had a revelation driving along the motorway on my way back from our last session the other weekend – you shouldn’t be able to (a) wear a padded bra (b) insert more bra cups and (c) still have plenty of room left over! Even for an amateur sewist, perhaps it should have been clear what was causing the saggy bust – oh well, you live and learn!
To Boldly Sew 