Burda 8905, An Almost UFO

I've been planning to make this jacket out of this fabric for so long that it feels like I've completed an unfinished project. This is really not the time to be making yet another jacket but this fabric ,a cotton twill, was yelling out.

"Enough already! You promised I could be a jean jacket!"

Here it is.


It's probably not to every one's taste but I like it. It replaces this one that went to live with Tamara in Ottawa a couple of years ago.




Burda 8905 is out of print, but if you have this pattern let me tell you that it's a little gem.



It's easy to make, unless you decide to Hong Kong finish every single seam which is what I did. That took a long time and I was very happy when the last stitch was finished!

It's slimming as it has a nice curve at the waist at the side seams. That's what I really like about it.

I've made this five times previously.A couple were for my daughter. I always thought I should do an FBA but always forgot when cutting it out. This time I did and ended up being sorry. The FBA caused the two front pieces below the yoke to curve and so the pockets when placed within the seam joining the yoke to the lower bottom front were slanted . I had to place the pockets lower . This is how they look.



It's Ok but....

Special features of this piece are the snap buttons ,the pink top stitching and the polka dot quilter's cotton I used for the facings and the Hong Kong finished seams because I didn't have enough fabric.







The polka dots might be a bit much but only the lapel reveals them really. What do you think?


Sometimes I think that sewers wear clothes that other people just don't. I always know that's the case when I wear an item and no one comments or compliments me.This may be one of those items.

But on the other hand, it looks a little Coldwatercreekish, don't you think?
More pics here!






It's finally hot here today ,so next up are a couple of little dresses to keep me cool.

More later from

Not Quite a Wadder

I've been absent from Blogland for a while because I've been trying to catch up on weeding and other yard work now that it's no longer raining every day.I have done some sewing though.

Does anyone else out there love this pattern?



It's Butterick 5646 and I loved it the minute I saw it.I was a little leery of the length and I decided to make a mock up first using a crinkle semi sheer polyester that has a nice weight from my stash.I made View B.It's the green one in the picture.

The long slanted bust dart posed a problem because I don't know how to do an FBA on this type of front. This is what I came up with.




I added 3/4 inch below the dart across the front , then made the legs of the dart 3/8"wider on each side and tapered them to meet the same end point. It didn't really do the trick and is going to take some tweaking. If anyone out there knows the correct way to do this please let me know! I'd really appreciate it. I'm thinking bust dart but I'm not sure.

I knew before starting out that the back would be way too long so I had to cut off about 3" there. Now the back didn't meet the angled sides of the front piece so I had to trim off the side point from the front piece.Here is the line drawing



I'll show you the finished top now. It's still plenty long enough.I just couldn't get a decent shot on my dress form so ...





Do you know what I forgot to do? I forgot to check how low the armhole sets!!! ooh! Frustration!
It's really low!! Thus my reaction to the finished garment...an almost wadder.
I know I can wear a cami underneath it and I will, but I decided to do something quite radical...I added a piece to fill in the bottom of the armhole. See! Not very elegant but it feels better.



The pockets are quite unique. To shape them into the square they're suppose to be ,I had to use some stabilizer. I show what I did here on my other blog.



I'm also not satisfied with the cut of the shoulders and upper chest.
If I do make this again, I'm going to redraft that section along with the armscye.

Anyway, I don't know if it's worth blogging on this piece but what the heck.







It actually looks better and is quite cute in real life. It just doesn't photograph well.

Would I make this again?

Yes I think so . It's a comfy and elegant top . I'll probably wear this one as an at-home piece or at a barbecue type gathering.

So if you like this pattern, go ahead and give it a try. Please let me know if you do. I'd love to see it made up by someone else.

More pics here.

More later from

My Own Design but Inspired by Marci Tilton

I enjoyed making this garment so much! It was fun from beginning to end!

I bought this cotton knit stripe on impulse and agonized about what to make with it.I settled on something similar to the sleeveless top in Simplicity 2374 with the draped sides.So that was my starting point.




The weather influenced my decision to add 3/4 sleeves.(It's been so cold and it feels like warm weather is never going to arrive.) I had to redraft the shoulder area and armscye to fit the sleeves using another top pattern.I did this by laying the front and back of the top pattern over the pieces from 2374 but only at the shoulder and armhole area.
I wish I had taken photos as I went along but I didn't.

After I had the front and back sewn together, I added the neckband and tried it on . I knew it was not a good look for me.It stuck out over the bust area and looked like a maternity top. To tame that beast I played with the front and this is what I came up with.



Now ,I had a matching neck band and under bust trim and the fit was somewhat better.

I added the sleeves,




tried it on again and asked DH for his opinion. He said:

"It looks like a maternity top"

I said:

"But it's cute,right?"

He said:

"I guess!"

It was back to the drawing board. Oh, I mean the sewing room!

I fiddled with the back this time ( I was still having fun by the way) and after some time ,this is what I did.



Exposed darts!It was starting to look like a Marci Tilton T-shirt!

Now all there was left to do was to hem the thing. I realized it was shorter at both the front and back than I liked. I asked myself:

"What would Marci do?" And it hit me like a ton of bricks:

"She would add a contrasting band!!!"


And This is what I did.




I had so much fun creating this top! I had such a feeling of satisfaction that it was my own design, even if MT did inspire me during the process.It made me realize that even if it just hangs in the closet without being worn very much,it doesn't matter. It was the whole process of creating and sewing that was worth while.





I'm adding this a couple of days later. I've worn this all day and both DD and DH have said they like my top and think it's very me! Tamara took these pictures.








PS. Dear Fellow Sewing Bloggers,
Thank you for stopping by and taking a look at what I've been up to. I appreciate all of you wonderful people . It makes me so happy, knowing you're out there and that you love sewing as much as I do.God bless us all!

A Dress for Tamara's Birthday

My daughter is home for a wedding and her birthday ,which is Tuesday. Of course that called for a new dress.

The pattern she's been wanting me to make is Simplicity 2369 so I made a combination of Views A,B and C


Here it is:



And here are some detail shots. The dress is not a wrap dress but just looks that way.



It is fastened with two long ties tied in a bow,



Tamara really likes the loose flowing sleeves.



A back view




The fabric is a poly/lycra. I used no interfacing and the only notions I used were thread and Steam-a-Seam to hold the hems before straight stitching them.The whole dress including the cutting out took about six hours to make and was sewn entirely by machine.

This is an easy project. The dress looks like the pattern envelope and the neckline isn't too low. I would highly recommend this pattern!

I made a size10 top and size 12 bottom and the dress was a perfect fit. Tamara declared it her new favorite dress.Here she is wearing it to a wedding party.







Here we are together . I'm wearing this dress made last spring.




I love having a daughter and it is very special and makes me very happy to have her home for the first time in 10 years for her birthday .

Check in with me in a few days for a fun and really cute top which I designed myself!.

Hope you've had time to sew this weekend!