More Flowers: Burda Skirt

Pattern: Burda No 0005A from Burda Style Special autumn/winter No5/2013. This is already my fourth make from this Burda issue, which is actually the only Burda issue I have. So, I am proud that I have used several patterns from it and no, I am not done yet, there is another pattern that I want to make.

The skirt has a front and back yoke and a front and back skirt panel. It comes with a facing, which is essentially the yoke pattern. I also made a lining by just cutting out the back and front skirt panels from lining fabric. The skirt has an invisible side zipper.

Fabric: When I bought the shell fabric, I was convinced it is some kind of linen. But now I am not so sure anymore. Because linen creases and I have been wearing the skirt/sitting in the bus and no single crease appeared! So, maybe its a linen/polyester mix - with loads of polyester!

Annoyingly, there was a blue mark on the fabric, which I didn't spot when it was cut. It looked like somebody had scribbled lines with a blue pen on it. The stains didn't go out after washing and I couldn't avoid them, because I had just enough fabric to cut the shortest version of the skirt. There is a blue line on the front skirt panel, but luckily it is difficult to spot.

Looking at this pic, I think the hem is still not level.

For the facing I used some white cotton voile. I was worried that the "linen" would loose its shape and to avoid the yoke growing on me, I used the cotton and a woven fusible interfacing. The lining is made from a nude-colored polyester. I made a lining because I was worried that the white parts of the skirt might be a bit see through.

Nude lining - it felt a bit weird lifting my skirt in public :D

Size: I cut a straight size 40, but had to take in a couple of cm when trying on the basted skirt. Otherwise I didn't do any alterations, yeah.

Construction: I didn't follow the instructions at all, but just sewed however I though it is right. For putting in the invisible zipper, I followed Sunni's tutorial from the free Craftsy Zipper Class and when adding the facing used the technique from the Colette Sewing Book.

I wanted to have a pic with the flowers.

Facing and shell fabric are stitched together at the top of the yoke (obviously) and at the yoke/skirt panel seam line. The problem was that my shell was slightly bigger than the facing and I decided to just ease it in. But because of the easing there are now a few bulges on the front yoke. (That was the moment I asked myself: Why is my sewing never going smooth? I don't think I ever had a garment that I sewed without any problems.)

The part that took me longest was the hemming. Because of my sway back, the back was shorter than the front. I was standing in front of the mirror and tried to guess how much I have to chop off. It took some trial and error (and more chopping off than I wanted to), before I had it right. Then I just couldn't decide how to hem the skirt. I wanted to have something like a lettuce hem, but didn't know how to archive this with the linen. I then settled on just turning the hem up once, because I wanted to avoid a stiff hem as much as possible.

But I just couldn't convince myself to hand stitch the hem on a full circle skirt! But I still wanted to have a hand stitched look (or rather invisible stitches). Thus I used the invisible hem stitch foot that came with my sewing machine. I didn't want to use this foot, because it doesn't give me a nice and neat finish. I can't say that it behaved - I had to go back and stitch a few areas twice, but in the end the result is alright. And I was faster by machine then by hand.

Do I like it? Yes I do! But not in combination with the Pink Burda Top that I made and that the model wears together with the skirt in the Burda magazine. I don't know why, but the skirt/top combination doesn't look good on me. You have to take my word, because I just couldn't take pictures of this mismatched ensemble!

But fret not! I still have some of the pink jersey left and now that I have finally gotten my hands on the Renfrew pattern, I will make a pink jersey top soon.