Little Black Dress (Burda 2/2012-110)

“When a little black dress is right, there is nothing else to wear in its place.”
Wallis Simpson
- Thank you, Your Grace, my dress is right :)

My LBD is ready and I am absolutely happy about it. I already know that it will become irreplaceable in my wardrobe. It could be dressed up and down, and would pass for any occasion. Exactly what someone needs for a minimalist wardrobe.

I made two amendments to this pattern. First, I scipped the pockets as usually. Second, I added full lining.
The most difficult part was to take pictures since black doesn't allow to see any details.

One more thing I am happy about is how darts and seams meet :)

Wrap Dress (Burda 5/2006-115)

Wrap dress is ready and I am pretty happy with the result. Didn't make any changes, except little fitting of the sleeve's head. Unfortunately the design of the fabric doesn't allow to see the details of the pattern, like lovely folds at the skirt.
I wear a spaghetti strap vest top underneath since the neck is low as usually with Burda patterns. I decided on this option when I was just considering this pattern.  Actually the low neck was one of the reasons why I hesitated sewing this dress.
The fabric is rayon knit.

Though it is still snowing here and the temperatures are below zero I am in the mood for warm weather sewing and knitting. I would like to make a sleeveless LBD that I could wear with a jacket in winter and on its own in summer. I am thinking about this dress from the February issue of the Burda Moden magazine.

Till later...

"Haste Makes Waste"

I reworked the jersey dress I complained about in the previous post.

The reason for that bubble at the back was that I soaked the cloth before sewing and hang it to dry. The sides of the fabric stretched and I cut it as it was. What a fool I was! This kind of things happens when I want to finish a garment quickly, usually in one day. I sew mostly on weekends and sometimes delaying half-ready garment for another week just burns my hands. 'Haste makes waste' as they say.
So I had to spend extra time unripping the back, removing the zipper and steam ironing the back to return it to a normal size. It's amazing how ironing could make miracles to sewing!
I didn't put the zipper back because I can easily get into the dress without it. But I added lining made from thin rayon knit and now I am more or less content with the result.
The dress is very comfortable and I wore it several times already.

I've been thinking about making a little black dress next but spontaneously bought another knitted fabric and have already started a wrap dress. It is a variation of Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress.
HeathersSphere from SEWspicious Minds recently published a nice collection of patterns for wrap dresses. I don't have access to all these patterns so I turned to my collection of Burda Moden magazines. I am going to use the pattern #115 from 5/2006.

This is a fabric I am going to use for this dress. My camera can't capture the real colour, in reality it is darker and has more khaki hue.

I decided not to rush with this dress but make everything slowly and very accurately.

***

Some new finished knitting projects. A new hat and scarf for my son since it was rather cold here. I used free patterns from Junghans-Wolle web site. I like their patterns, they are so clear and precise, it is always a pleasure to use them and they turn out well.

 

 See you later!

A Swarm of Spiders Cardigan and Where's my mojo?

My blog was rather quiet for a while. As many others I ran astray due to holiday's season but the real reason is that I was discouraged by failure of my last sewing project. However during this time I completed two knitting projects and here is the first one.
The pattern is from the Italian knitting magazine Mani di Fata (April 2007).

On the sewing side I've completed a new jersey dress using a pattern from November 2011 issue of Diana Moden magazine.

Here's my dress

The pattern is not difficult at all BUT I made a mistake and here's how the back looks like. It has a bubble on the back and the top end of the zip perks out.

I need to unstitch the back and change everything now. It sits this way since end of November and I don't start any other projects because I know that if I'll start a new one I'll never come back to fix this one. I wore it once though and found out that it needs lining as well. I have already  bought a knitted lining fabric but again, lining doesn't come easy to me. Yet another reason to hesitate and postpone.
Ending on the positive note, I am ready to fix this setback at last because I want to move to some other  projects already.

Hope to come back soon with the amended dress and the second knitting project.

Ruby Silk Shell (Burda 04/2011-114)

I bought this ruby Chinese silk with jacquard pattern because I just felt that I must own it. It is not the colour I normally wear and would never use it to make a full attire, so I decided to use it to accessorise my "parade" black RTW suit.
I used the pattern from April issue of Burda magazine, only lengthened it several centimeters.

 Here is my shell. The picture with the suit shows the original colour best of all.

The colour is not correct here

I still find this Carmen red-black combination too dramatic for my colouring, should try this shell with other pieces in my wardrobe and probably find better combinations.
Here is a closer look to the accessories. Christmas tree brooche I've bought years ago from Harrod's and Venice glass earrings.

The picture was taken at the residence of the French Ambassador in Moscow. I always wanted to see inside of this building, which I think is the one of the prettiest houses in Moscow. It reminds a gingerbread house. Here are some pictures of the outside view.

And few more pictures of the interiors.

I wish you all a very Happy New Year! May the New Year come with joy, happiness, love and prosperity!
Thank you for your attention to my blog, hope to see you here next year :)

Very Simple Summer Dress (Burda 6/2011-107)

The Christmas is around the corner and I am still posting about summer projects :). I admit I haven't been blogging actively lately.

After sewing several flowery projects for Summer I finally got a desire for some one-colour and very plain pattern. I made a choice in favour of this dress from June issue of Burda magazine.

The fabric is rayon but it is so soft and nice to touch that feels like silk. The colour is pale gray blue and has jacquard pattern.

Though it looks very simple it was rather expensive. When I've just started sewing I was hesitant to buy expensive fabrics because was not sure that I will not spoil them with my sewing. I wonder about other dressmakers, when you've started sewing, did you spend money on expensive fabrics or like me opted for budget cloth?

But some fabrics are so appealing that I just can't resist buying them. Together with this blue rayon I bought a piece of  ruby Chinese silk. Normally I don't wear that bright colours but that one was so beautiful, I couldn't keep myself from owning it. I will report about this project next time.

So here is the finished dress. The pattern is very simple, literally only a couple of stitches.

I am very happy with this dress. I made it in August and had a chance to wear it a couple of times before Autumn arrived. It is very simple and understated but it immediately became my favourite out of all summer sewing projects.

Here is a small Swarovsky brooch that I use to accessorise it.

 

Jersey Dress (Burda 8/2011-116)

I haven't been posting much last time so I still have some things to report about that I made at the end of summer.

This simple dress with small kimono sleeves and hanging collar I finished in August but didn't even had a chance to wear it, the weather turned to the autumn so fast.

Not much to report about this dress, the stitching was fast and easy. Except for my first attempt to make it using other fabric which ended in turning into a top :).
After this first failure I  researched all finished versions of this model at Burda web site forum and decided that mine should be made from very thin and flowing jersey.
The only problem with this sort of jersey was that the collar just hanged flat without making nice  drapes which is the main feature of this dress. To overcome this I added fusible interfacing to the collar. And I didn't make pockets in side seams.

As for the rest I just followed the instructions.
 

Arms trimming

Now I only have to wait till the next summer when I could wear this dress.