Friday 2 May 2014

A Humble Muslin of Burda Wrap Blouse 04-2014-115 goes "Celine" and some tips on avoiding problems!

I still hope  to make a classy linen version of the wrap-around blouse that is selling out on the Burda US website, and once I had cut out a muslin in IKEA cotton to check the fit and length, I suddenly thought, why not go "Celine"? By which I mean, this, and this:

So here in progress, is my wearable muslin of the blouse, waiting to be stitched up and maybe even worn over the Burda black cotton "sharkfin" skirt which has a very high waist.




Yes, I know I still have to sew this thing up,
but I couldn't resist leaving it on my fitting stand just to wake up in an art gallery this morning.

TIPS: I'm glad I'm doing a muslin of this on IKEA cotton and not on an expensive silk. As simple as this design is, there are already a few hiccoughs I'm encountering. One is that I wasn't clear on whether the whole hem of the shirt, front side as well as bottom was supposed to be 4 cm so I used a 1.5 cm seam surplus on the slanted side and a 4 cm on the bottoms of all sides. As it turns out I need the 4cm to give me just a 1.5 hem turned in .5 and then again 1 cm. That way I've got a finished look, but a longer shirt. I suspect I was supposed to do 4 cm all the way around. (My French isn't perfect and I'm using the French edition of Burda.)

Second, make sure you don't catch the overlapped front into your shoulder seam at the side, but only at the top.

Third, the instructions tell you to do a mitred corner on both the front hanging angles. Watch OUT. If you do a standard mitred corner you're assuming a 90 degree angled corner and this has an oblique corner that you should baste and adjust so it lies flat once it's sewn and trimmed. Otherwise it pulls too tightly on the shirt hem.

UPDATE; Finished this in record time, so the rating in Burda is on the nose. All it needs is a press, because I test-washed the corner to see if it was colorfast. Notice how I color-matched the red stripe running off the shoulder and down the arm? 



7 comments:

  1. love it! Celine has such fantastic shapes and structures. Great call on re-thinking the pattern.

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  2. I saw this on Pattern Review and I absolutely fell in love with the wonderful fabric! It is fantastic. I can't believe you painted it and that it is your muslin. Wish I could paint. I also want to make this pattern. Thank you for your tips.

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  3. Dear Marsha,
    I've never painted anything in my entire life! (I guess fingerpainting doesn't count.) I just put up some runway photos on my computer and gave it a go, taking the colors in order, and piece by piece laid next to each other. I don't have an original bone in my body when it comes to the visual arts, so give it a go! The whole shirt only cost me the price of the paints and one brush, plus some two-dollar fabric.
    Thanks for commenting!

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  4. I am so loving this shirt. You did a fabulous job with it. And when I first saw your photo on PR, I immediately thought "Celine"!

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    Replies
    1. Or as we Tolkien fans would say, "My Precious!"

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  5. What a fun top! I have been admiring those Celine prints myself.

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  6. Thanks, Audrey, I'm one of your most devoted 'lurkers.'

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