Working 9 till 5

I recently started a new job (after a year of student life between my last job and this) and so suddenly became in need of some super snappy office clothes. Sadly, new work doesn't pay immediately, so I needed something fast and cheap.

I trawled my BWOF (or Burdastyle as I believe it will soon be called) back copies and wrote down a list of about 2o pieces that would be suitable. I decided that my most pressing need was for skirts, and so I selected one that claimed to be only 1 and a half blobs of difficulty and was made up of only 3 pieces (speedy tracing and chopping... hurrah).

This was hastily followed by a quick hello to my local fabricland (fabric, lining and zip came to about £6 total... score!). A few muck ups (I didn't notice that the waistband measurements did not include seam allowance!) and pleats later, and tadaaah!

Burda Mag 04/09 113

It has plenty of give to allow for the copious amounts of office bending I do (OK that sounds dodgy - I mean I have to pick up lots of files from low shelves) and the ''kiss'' pleats make it a bit more interesting. I tried my hand at flat felled seams for the lining, and they worked a treat! I made no alterations to fit or style, and it was quick and easy to make.

All in all, pretty damn good!

You shall go to the ball

After several long weeks there has, all of a sudden, come a rush of activity in work, home and sewing. My poor machine has been languishing in my lengthy absence, and together we're getting all revved up about some new projects on the horizon! More to follow soon, but in the mean time, I've finally managed to get some photos together of my graduation ball dress!

After the pallava of making the damn thing fit, I realised that the only thing missing, was a wopping great big bow. So I added one, and felt much better about the whole situation.

Just to recap the changes made from the original BWOF 12/08 pattern were :
- Cutting the skirt off at the knee
- Raising the waist by about an inch
- Adding waist darts
- Adding a bust dart on the shoulder strap side
- Raising the shoulder
- Adding a big bow

If I was making it again, I think I'd just use the lining pattern for the bodice and not bother with the shoulder pleats included in the original pattern. They can't really be seen on the photos because they came out pretty badly and had to be covered by the big bow. I think if I'd done them properly they would have looked good, but it really wasn't very clear at all, and some how I managed to ruck them all up. They looked fine when they were flat, but when I put it on they looked pretty bad.

Generally this pattern was not a good fit for me, but I think after all the tweaking the dress came out looking pretty good, so I was happy in the end and had an awesome time at the ball. And both the dress and I made it into the survivors photo!