Goddaughter H. walking Yoji Yamamoto in Paris Fashion Week

This is goddaughter H. in the Paris Fashion Week collection of Yoji Yamamoto on Friday night, and I could certainly see CyberDaze carrying this off with panache! Would you believe, H. turned down jobs with Sonia Rykiel and Cacherel to go home to university. It's hard juggling three Fashion Weeks—New York, London and Paris— with innumerable essays on ancient history and archaeology. Bravo, H.!

Burda's Shark Fin Skirt

So here's the Italian bimba skirt from February's Burda, which for obvious reasons, I'm nicknaming the Shark Fin. I think it'll be a useful cotton skirt to transition from winter through spring to summer, when I can wear it with my black cotton platform espradrilles,  but I have a few quibbles. 

One is the finniness of the gore, (I used a plain non-stretch cotton) which leaves me with the option of ironing it down decoratively into a triangular pleat, or going around humming, 'Boom-boom, boom-boom, boom-boom" in homage to Jaws. Admittedly, it makes this very pegged skirt highly walkable.

Another surprise was the height of the waistband, which I've belted here to actually bring the eye down. I have a very short waist so this baby reaches up unflatteringly to my ribcage. That's why I've chosen to lengthen the waistline back down with a black cardigan. But notice that with the high-heeled boots, very suited to the style of swishy gore, I look like Stilt Lady.

For "les courses" today (weekly shopping) I swapped the cardigan for a motorcycle jacket. Pretty good outfit for town wear, I think, racier than "office" but more stylish than "gym."

Preview of April Burda

I've been a little snarky lately about the Burda previews and then discovered remorse, when the issue was in my hands, because there was at least one, or maybe two items that I actually wanted to make. Already with the April Burda I see three things that are kind of interesting/easy/wearable, above.

But let's not get greedy. Having finished the Burda Shark Fin skirt (photos as soon as we get our sun back) it's high time to finish my Vintage entry for Joanne's blog!

Sharky Burda skirt

Last night, while watching Gentlemen Prefer Blondes on YouTube, in homage to the late Jane Russell, realized I had inserted the lining of my "sharky" Burda skirt upside down, after completing a perfectly under-stitched and finished waistband over skirt, lining and zipper.
Have had to cut off lining just below waistband, turn around, and reconnect using a strip of zigzagged bias tape. This is not pretty.

If you find me on the floor, do not resuscitate.

Burda gored skirt going sharky.

I don't think Allison C has had this problem with her marvelous pin-striped Burda skirt with the back gore, but I'm having problems with my black cotton version of (see post below.) I'd enlarged the sizing, because I'm not using a stretch fabric but the fabric seems to have so much body it's producing a gore shaped like a shark's fin.
No photos yet, it's way too scary. Stay out of the water.

Bookwise, cheery news that after so many years, amazon.com has decided to stock A Visit From Voltaire as of March 1. Copies used to be sent over the pond from amazon.co.uk. Who waits that long for books these days? And out of the blue, distributor Orion has added me to their Orion Authors twitter list. Now if only my husband could rise from his bed of pain, things might relax a tad...even the sharky fin!

Another quickie Burda, a skirt, plus sewing planner's masochism

I'm buying the lining for my Vintage Adele Simpson today, and in the meantime, making this Burda skirt with a fabulous gore at the back, from the February Issue. Unfortunately, it's designed for stretch, and using my lining as a muslin last night, I realized that a 38-42 wasn't going to work with unstretchy black cotton, so I cut a 40-44. I'm nursing an immobilized husband with a serious back fracture full-time, so not much time for sewing, plus I've got so much work to do on the latest manuscript. Helping to host visiting agents and one editor at a writer's conference in Geneva all weekend.
Feeling like I'm always three days behind myself!, I made things worse by picking up the March Burda, already out on our news stands, so I see a lot of projects I'm interested in for spring. Really a masochist, right?

Modelling Goddaughter Hits New York Fashion Week, "walked" last night in the Chado Ralph Rucci show

For those of you who asked how my goddaughter's modelling is going, H was featured in Women's Wear Daily on Model Call here answering questions within weeks of hitting Manhattan. She's finishing up tonight her first ever New York Fashion Week walking for Gwen Stefani, and while waiting for those photos to roll into Style.com, in the meantime here she is modelling for Chado Ralph Rucci, Rag and Bones, Malandrino and Wayne. Talk about "hitting the ground running," as we used to say in the foreign correspondent's club....for the photo of her as a kid go back to November 1 in the archives with a photo of her walking for Christopher Kane.

P.S. If you're enjoying my blog...

Please don't forget to list Chanel No.6 in your blog roll....I intend to update and expand mine soon, too. (Quite worried these days about the Selfish Seamstress!)

Burda trousers 108B August 2010 issue

This is yet another (third?) attempt at the Burda fit in trousers, the endless search for a skinny rather than a slim. I used a mustard stretch cotton which worked well, although I would have preferred a more neutral khaki had it been available.

I think the pocket flaps in the back are a bit superfluous and when I remake these in white for summer, I'll stick with just the side pockets, which are very useful, as featured as 108B in the August, 2010 Burda. I did these in a size 38 waist, 42-43 hip and again, opted for a 2 cm. seam margin in case I had to let them out. Instead, they had to be taken in again and again at the thighs hoping for a skinny fit. I'm still getting the sous-derriere droop for some reason. As usual, I lengthened them 8cm and eliminated the zips at the bottom but ended up with quite a hem because Burda assumed we're all wearing towering wedges as styled in the mag.

I'm thinking they're going to be a useful spring item under my safari jackets....just time for the Guardian to tell me that spring/summer 2011 is the season for wide leg pants. Lord, I did those in the 70's...are we back there again already? Wedgies? Floppy hats? Peasant blouses? I'm going to pull out an old YSL pattern and see if I can get back into the wide leg mood, but I was just getting the hang of these slims with flats...Sigh.

No scrap unturned...quilting

Here is some of my quilting, which is how I use up scraps. I have a rule that I never, never purchase fabric for quilting, the whole point being to make use of discarded clothes that aren't good enough for the Swiss version of Goodwill, or sewing remnants. I dislike quilting compared to dressmaking because it takes so long for a project to be finished and I don't actually need more such items, but I can't bear to waste piles of cloth. That means my creations are less than museum-worthy and feature a lot of men's shirting, jeans, old blouse or dress fabrics and bleached out kitchen tablecloths. Perhaps some of you make toys or potholders or something more useful and less time-consuming?

I don't actually like the traditional quilt stitched down through padding to make a blanket or bed cover, but use my quilted results as duvet covers or bottom sheets.
Anyway, I like to try out new quilt patterns by making small pillows for bed as above, or stool, below.
Here are two examples, the first a Japanese pattern from Susan Briscoe's book on Japanese quilt blocks, and the other an lattice-work pattern found in many books.