My friend sent me two burda magazines from Poland the other day, and I made two garments from burda 10/2017.
The friend is a talented DIY blogger (http://www.friendsheep.com/), She knows I really love burda and gave them to me. burda 10/2017 has a lot of attractive patterns.
The jacket with the pleated collar and mini skirt caught my eye at first. The jacket made of flower pattern fabric appears on the front cover of the magazine. I've seen the skirt already on bruda online shop. I was really glad that the magazine has the skirt pattern😸 The instructions are written in Polish, but I could make these without reading them.
As a pattern review (You can download here: Retro Style Boxy Jacket 10/2017 #118B).
I was curious about the shape of the collar and wanted to try it immediately. This pattern is so lovely but was a little troublesome from the start. I cut a size 38 using a maple patterned-wool fabric. I used the fabric from a used- kimono (took apart and washed). I thought the shoulder of the pattern is too wide for me. I shortened these areas by 3/4 inches and also the sleeve length by two inches.
The most annoying part was making the pleated collar, although the welt pockets were annoying as well! I managed to make them well but I had to redo the pockets several times. The pleats in the collar are lovely but very difficult to make. The collar didn't hold well like the jacket the model is wearing in the picture. It didn't keep the pleats naturally, so I folded and sewed the collar together to hold them. (Remember to mark pattern pieces well! Especially the pockets and collar)
The skirt has five pleated lines and sewn ruffles. I really really love the skirt, but the length of the skirt pattern was too short. I don't want to wear a mini-skirt in cold weather, and a raspberry pink plaid skirt is too childish for me. I added 3 1/4 inches to the skirt length and I had to lengthen the ruffle by 4 inches.
I was worried of using the thick wool fabric, but it was OK. It turned out to be a fantastic knee-length skirt. I usually steer clear of pencil skirts because it makes my bottom look bigger (I'm a pear shaped). However, the ruffle in this skirt draws people's attention, and looks thinner.
----------------------------------
Do you know "Blog like Crazy" ? Fay's Sewing Adventure joins it and published a new blog post every day for 30 days in November. Her blog has a lot of tips and inspirational posts. I am VERY slow at reading and writing (especially English!) so couldn't do that. I am really impressed by her work.
Fabric: Jacket; wool (from Kimono), Skirt; wool 60" 1 3/8yd.
Total Time Spent (not include cutting) : Jacket 18 hours, Skirt 7 hours