Remember that sheath dress I made a while back?
…
It didn’t work out. The flowers didn’t make it through the first wash, and when I removed them, I was confronted with the inescapable reality that the neckline had stretched out during sewing and could not be repaired.
Sad but true.
Happily: I had enough of that lovely silk-linen fabric left over to make a decent skirt. And here it is.
It’s the first ever garment I’ve made from a Burda magazine. Yes, I got a subscription. Alone out of all of my tech-loving sewmies, I hate pdf downloads. I hate buying them, I hate printing them, I hate worrying about the scale, I hate taping them together, I hate cutting them out once they’ve been taped, and I hate trying to store them afterwards. I would rather trace out a grayscale labyrinthian pattern sheet any day, if it saves me from the horror of the pdf download.
(I said horror, and I’ll say it again if I want to. Horror. See? I’ll keep it up, too, if I have to.)
It’s skirt 101A from the 3/2016 issue. It’s got a deep box pleat in the front, and is otherwise a simple a-line shape. And it’s got a cool extra-wide hem band at the bottom, which gives it a bit more weight and body.
Technically, it also has welt pockets, but I opted to omit those. I can hardly imagine how I would have botched the whole thing if I’d attempted to put them in, with my focus being what it is at the moment.
I drafted a lining for it as the silk-linen is loosely woven and a bit translucent on its own. You wouldn’t think so, since it’s not thin, but it is. The zipper is supposed to go on the side, but I put it on the back, and I used a wooden button at the waistband for the closure.
It was entirely unexceptional and unexciting. The pattern went together nicely and everything fit. The skirt is comfortable and just different enough to be worth making. The fabric is lovely and I enjoy petting it every time–silk linen! All the waxy stiffness of linen somehow combined with the softness and sheen of silk. It’s a technological miracle.
Zoopolis 
The skirt is lovely! Sorry the dress died on you.
I’m sorry too. But the skirt is a definite win, so there’s that.
It is beautiful!! I’m sorry about that dress… is there anything salvageable?
I’m sure I could salvage some of the fabric. It’s just a big project and I’m not in the mindset for it right now. Maybe next year. 🙂
I like Burda. And most of the patterns require minimum adjustment for me. Love the skirt, and am much sorry about the dress as it was lovely. You do have a lot of patience to sew on linen – do you serge the edges?
I definitely serged these edges. The fabric was so ravelly it was like it disintegrated on contact with air when cut.
I am really enjoying the Burda subscription. There’s almost always at least a couple of things I want to sew up and they manage to be a little different than what the Big4 put out.
Silk linen! I have got to get my hands on some of that. And I am 100% with you on the horror of putting together tiled PDF patterns. I would sew a lot more Burda if they had a copy shop option.
Silk-linen is gorgeous stuff. You’d love it.
I really don’t mind tracing patterns. I just put something on the TV or the ipod and trace out a bunch at once so they’re waiting when I want to make something up. But I suspect I’m in the minority there.
Oh I don’t mind the tracing… it’s the trimming and taping that makes me ragey.
That’s such pretty fabric. I love linen even though it’s wrinkly. Or maybe I love it especially because it’s wrinkly, in that wabi sabi way!
It is really pretty. I’m glad I had enough left to make a nice skirt. And anything that breathes so nicely in a hot muggy summer is inherently lovable. 😉