Invisible zippers

Burda pattern

The burda skirt pattern (left) which I moaned about in a previous post is this one.  I am making it in a wine coloured corduroy which I bought from the thrift store for a couple bucks.

The burda skirt has introduced me to a new skill.  Installing an invisible zipper.  Somehow I have avoided invisible zippers up to this point, but after hearing good things about installing one I figured it was time to try it out.

Conveniently I found this one at the thrift store new in package.  Pretty cool.  It has instructions inside on how to install the zipper but they were really confusing.  Lucky the internet saved me yet again. This invisible zipper tutorial from the Colette pattern site was really helpful as it has step by step directions with pictures. When it comes to sewing I find pictures to be really helpful.

Yet again I am amazed by the coolness of sewing machine feet.  One thing I got from my grandma was an envelope full of what looked like small lego pieces.  Turns out these pieces actually constitute an invisible zipper foot and shank attachment.  Pretty neat.

After a bit of fussing I finally figured out which shank piece fit my machine and it was onto figuring out the zipper.  Turns out sewing in an invisible zipper is kind of complicated.  with the Colette site's help though I was able to finally get the zipper in with only a small amount of frustration.  I think it worked pretty well.  Invisible?

Burda Insanity

I have started something new.
 
I recently discovered Burda magazine which is a nifty mag from Germany (but has been translated into many languages as well as English) which has lots of neat patterns.  What I like about Burda magazine is that although there are about 50 garments in each magazine to sew many of them use the same patten pieces.  This is neat as it shows how one pattern can really be done in many ways.

Burda does issue a challenge though. See below.

No, not the London Underground map

This is one page of 4. Every pattern is on one of these sheets in different colors, lines, sizes. It is insanity for the eyes.  Apparently in the early 90's the patterns used to be on 8 sheets and were actually readable. Not so much anymore.

I was very happy I picked a very simple pattern for my first try at Burda magazine.  Otherwise I might have gone insane.  The first thing you have to do is find your pattern and trace it onto pattern paper.  This would be fine, but my eyes just could not stay on the correct lines.

After much annoyance and cursing and a very large head-ache I came out with this:

Not to bad.

What I find hilarious about all of this is I have sewn garments from Japanese magazines where all I got was some measurements for the patterns.  Yet that was so much more simple than trying to trace out this Burda gobbledygook.  Even the explanation in the Burda magazine is so much harder to follow than the instructions in Japanese magazines and those were in a completely different language!  So wierd.

Burda magazine is pretty sweet though.  Most of the patterns are quite nice and it is really fun to have so many patterns in one magazine.

Burda is also cool as although there will be around 50 or so different patterns in each magazine many of them are variations on one base pattern.  For example there will be a basic jacket pattern.  The there will be the same pattern but with a different collar, or in a different fabric etc.  So you can really see how one pattern can be made many different ways to make all kinds of different looks.  That is really neat.  Wish there were more magazines like this.  Go Germany!

Pink Blouse is finally complete

This post is two weeks late, but here are pictures of the finished pink blouse.

I am really happy with how it came out considering it started out as a white BC Ferries bed sheet which I bought at the thrift store for $.50.

I dyed it pink,

And made a blouse out of it.
Even the buttons are recycled as I got them from Grandma's button box.  So all I bought new for the blouse was the interfacing which was stolen from the leftovers from another project and a couple spools of thread which Zellers conveniently supplied on sale.  Finding a thread that generally matched this colour was a surprise indeed.  So overall this blouse is about the cheapest thing in my wardrobe.  Nice.  I am now thinking of ways I might be able to refashion clothing and other items into things I can wear.

As the bed sheet was very well worn I can at least be sure that it is not going to shrink in the wash or anything.  Also, it is a polycotton blend which gave the dye job a very interesting pattern and means that it is not going to wrinkle either.  I hate ironing so this is great.

Overall I am really pleased with the pattern and I am definitely going to make a couple more blouses out of the actual cotton fabric I bought a while ago to use with this pattern.  This pink was really just meant to be a wearable muslin but I like it so much it has immediately gone into rotation with my other work outfits.  It also looks great under a vest.

I think the only change I will make next time is I might add 1/2" to the sleeve cuffs so they are a little looser and maybe make the puffed sleeves look a little less like a leg o'mutton sleeve from the 1890's.

I hope the next blouse will not take as long as this one did.  I think I started it before I got a job in Prince Rupert which was about 2 1/2 years ago.  Yes it spent a lot of time as a UFO, but mainly because button holes scared me.  Now that I am button hole competent I am less concerned about making the shirt dress pattern I have which is pretty sweet.

Random Rupert:

Because I thought the clouds/ fog looked pretty that morning.