Um, sorry, I've been sewing...so here's a peek of Burda's designs for August 2015 including the Cowboy Look...My comments

Ironic, isn't it, that because I've been so busy sewing, I've lost touch with my fellow sewing bloggists.

I've sewn a one-armed black knit sheath, the Kenzo white blouse, a Margaret Howell look-alike white shirt as well as my YSL knock-off red 'Carmen' dress and I'm just now finishing a pale blue version of my favourite 'grandfather shirt' from the same April 2010 go-to Burda.

Uh, no photos yet.

But I have been lurking a lot to get inspiration from you guys. Still can't get up the gumption to go with a jumpsuit, two years on.

Meanwhile, I found the upcoming Burda designs for August, but don't see too much that spins my sewing spurs without the photos. I say, 'spins my spurs' because the German house of Burda has gone again for the 'Western look.' Odd how much I love the 'safari look' which is a fantasy style, but loathe the cowgirl schtick.

Apart from the current season's fling with fringe, I don't see how it plays very far. Nonetheless, a fantasy about cowboys and Indians runs through German fantasy life and may be linked to a dubious line of children's adventure books from the 1930's written by a guy named Karl May. My husband, now in his 70's, smuggled these sagas about Winnetou and Old Shatterhand under the bedcovers of his Swiss monastery boys' school with a flashlight to devour Karl May sagas.

I really don't know anybody who wants to look like an extra from a Clint Eastwood movie.
Do you? Yet, the Claudia Cardinale-on-the-Texan-plains does strike some mittel-Europeans hard. Fifteen years ago, we signed the kids up for a local badminton club and found it was run by a clique of hardened country-westernized Swiss dressed top to toe in boots, hats and fringe.

St Laurent knock-off, the peasant neckline...again with Burda 2010-4-112B

Anybody remember the ruffled Lanvin look that was doing the rounds some years ago? It looks like St Laurent has returned to this favorite trope with their own collection for Spring 2015.

When we deconstruct this look, it's an elasticated ruffle peasant neckline with variations of skirt below and by my count this is the 4,579th time St Laurent uses it. You can big up the ruffle (there's another Burda pattern that puts wire in its oversized ruffle) but I get more mileage out of clothes with a little less oomph.

I'm taking up a length of pure silk I've had around for literally twenty-five years, inspired by the return of red and black as a combination in various collections this year. Since I don't need St Laurent's trailing skirts, I'm going with a dress pattern used before in blue silk, a Burda pattern from April 2010.

The 2015 St Laurent version

The Lanvin look from about 2009

My daughter wearing my Burda 2010-4-112B mimicking the Lanvin Lady above

Burda 4-2010 

 Burda 4-2010

Enough of Winter and Work! A weekend at the Montreux Palace, Get Your Read-A-Free-Ebook Week Coupons and more sewing!

Are you enjoying the Great British Sewing Bee? I am, not least because Season Three has been dominated by male sewers and already, it's quite obvious that Neil, the married military man, is going to win hands down. Still the challenges are daunting, especially that last one, a traditional kilt. No...thank...you. Just too hard.

My own Burda Easy zebra 'challenge' is finished! By laying all the pattern pieces to imitate the finished skirt, I avoided headaches with zebra stripes going the wrong way. I think the piecing adds just enough interest, PLUS, this serves as a wearable muslim in case I wanted to invest in a real leather skirt. The fit at size 44 was perfect, but look at what happened when I added a whopping 13 cm to the hem. This is a mini-mini as drafted.




But perhaps you'd also like to celebrate with me. The end of winter is on the horizon.

Most of our winter 2014-2015 looked like the picture outside our house on the left, (plus my husband is looking at his third major operation in the last twelve months as soon as we can get him a slot in hospital.) We had a great Christmas with the three adult kids and their grown friends but somehow around now snow starts to look like 'white mud' and we both needed a break. (don't give up, the free book coupons are coming...)

Unfortunately my husand can hardly walk until he gets some new parts. The Montreux Palace Hotel offered him a great 3-for-2 nights deal over Valentine Day Weekend, so we decided to celebrate our birthdays by disappearing to their spa for a 'staycation' forty minutes' drive down the freeway and shutting off the phones. Notice behind my husband in the red bathing trunks, one of Switzerland's legendary cruise boats is making its rounds of Lake Geneva.

The Montreux Palace Hotel is one of those landmarks of civilization that should be on everyone's bucket list. The author of "Lolita" Vladimir Nobokov, liked it so much, he moved into one of the wings and lived there full time. Since his day, they've installed one of Switzerland's premiere hotel spa and gym complexes without changing the Belle Epoque decor in the main building or the casino opposite. And then there's the annual Montreux Jazz Festival in July to lure you here if sybaritic lounging around isn't enough for you.

Zebra Fur Burda Easy Skirt FW 2014 and why I should give a f...inger about 'age appropriate'

The other night I was dining with some friends on the staid side, (all of us on the wrong side of 60.) One of the guests described her son's girlfriend as 'blowsy, blonde and wearing some leopard print thing.'
There was an awkward pause at the table as everyone realized I was blonde and wearing a leopard print sweater. I actually got a flustered email of apology from the guest the next day who realized she could have been misunderstood. But she wasn't misunderstood. I know that in the world of Talbot/Land'sEnd good taste, no one my age wears a leopard print sweater...or a leather jacket...or half the other things I love to wear.

These are the same people who probably hate my crocodile leather skirt, which I just tightened and shortened for good measure. I love this lady, but I don't care what she thinks of blowsy blondes in leopard print.

Which brings me to my next defiant act—to sew up the zebra fur skirt in the last Burda Easy mag, even though
1. I'm too old,
2. I'm sure it's going to be deemed in garish taste in certain quarters,
3. It's almost too late in the season to be embarking on a fur project.

TOUGH! Here goes! (I'll be adding a lining, eliminating the lower zippers and lowering the hem to just above the knee (by 13 cm.)  Otherwise, no drastic changes so far.

Burda does Kenzo Spring 2015

Were you wondering about this oddball white pique blouse in the February edition of Burda

with the slanting peplum line? I stumbled across its Kenzo origins quite by accident, (see below in cotton and denim.) Instead of offering two flounces like Kenzo's original, Burda simply lengthened one. But the idea is the same. This prompts me to suggest that Burda do more of this, by showing us their model but also, the inspiration from the runway. (One reason I'm a fan of their style trend features doing just that.)

Great British Sewing Bee S3E1 S3E2 S3E3 S3E4 S3E5 S3E6 IS UP! BOY DID I GET THAT PREDICTION WRONG!!!

During a terrible snowstorm, with the Snowbound Blues that strike without warning in this part of the world, what a pick-me-up to discover that the Great British Sewing Bee is up here:

EPISODE ONE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owkF9RKvnQM

EPISODE TWO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5we8MkKxON8

EPISODE THREE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3OR4abKUYY

EPISODE FOUR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZPOPOdH_Vo

EPISODE FIVE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5FmCpxF4uw

EPISODE SIX https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcLG_8MFkKY

Thank you BBC2, sooooo much!!

TNT replacement pencil skirt in crocodile 'leather', Burda Easy AW 2008-2009, Tribute to Peter Pan's crocodile?

(I read that the recent 'live' update of the beloved Peter Pan musical starring Mary Martin in my childhood days was a complete bust. That is sad, but the fantastic original is out there on DVD. Let's hear it for the ticking crocodile!)

Sometimes, if you haven't been sewing with a plan, or even shopping with a plan, you find that something languishes in the back of the closet because it has no 'friends.' Some years ago, on a whim, I bought an expensive brown leather coat that went with nothing. Not only was it not in a stylish motorcycle cut, but on an off day, it made me look something like a Stasi interrogator from the 1970's.
(In case you're too young or whatever to know what that implies, you're lucky.)

I had also restyled the Ralph Lauren brown tweed hacking jacket my daughter found in a vintage store last year, but again, it got less wear than I would have liked, because it was missing a match for the bottom.

Not that I didn't once have a brown skirt. Some years ago, using a pattern from Burda Easy I had sewn up a skirt in antiqued pleather with a bronzy leaf pattern on it. But as you only get what you pay for, it has now lost all its sheen and, cracked and shabby, joined the 'rack of shame' with other overloved items I can't bear to let go.

(I just read that hoarding is a possible sign of impending dementia. If that doesn't motivate me to donate half my closet to charity, what will?)

 In better days...

So, I realized that I would get a lot more wear from my chocolate-brown genuine-leather jacket, brown tights, brown turtleneck, brown shoes, brown boots, and various blouses with brown notes, not to mention my Bobbi Brown lipsticks :) if I filled in the gap with a new hard-ass brown skirt.

All I could find was crocodile pleather. Now, frankly, there are a lot of textures I find alluring, but generic man-eating reptile isn't one of them.

Still, that was what I could find. So I used the same Burda Easy pattern as above, (eliminating pockets, bows, etc. and leaving off any facing, but attaching the lining to the upper edge and turning down. The outer 'fabric' was too substantial to include facings with darts as well as lining.)

and with some care, produced a new skirt for wintry, wettish weather. And here's a better shot of the 'crocodile' finish:

Here I am, above, in Nyon, committed to lunch  a la croc. with friends(Please ignore Nyon's weird orange street planters. It's a charming town otherwise, with a Roman Museum, lots of music and film festivals and very friendly people.)

 I made the skirt slightly longer than before to accommodate high heels on occasion. The skirt also had to be carefully calibrated at the sides, so as not to be left ripping out seams. Below is the fitting progress of a side seam at the butt level to find the best fit using what is, basically, fancy plastic. I pegged the skirt in at the hem one inch on each side. Glueing the hem up three inches wa also a bit of an experiment. The first glue was too liquid and in the end, a variety of Elmer's worked best.

Back at the machine! Burda 2-2012-117A, the much-beloved black knit cheongsam dress for me, at last!

Whew, I've been AWOL for a while! One reason was the coming of the third newborn in our circle of family and friends in a row, necessitating yet another baby sweater in a lighter blue than the navy and pink one. No surprises here, but each one this summer was a labor of love and each a better rendition of this Elizabeth Zimmerman classic design that expands as the baby grows;

Then something for myself. I rarely make a design twice but I was quite frustrated that my earlier multi-blue version of the cheongsam knit dress didn't turn out so well, plus its combination of colorblocking made it a summer staple at best. So I ran up a black version in a thick black doubleknit that really was satisfying to work with compared to the cotton and viscose materials I used for the blue.

I've already worn this into London for a quick visit to the children and to a Sunday lunch today. A very versatile dress that I can highly recommend as the perfect LBD to dress up or down.

A Last Graduation and the Simplest Mom Dress of All, Burda cover dress, April 2014, Model 108

This last Wednesday we

had in our family one more graduation, only daughter's BSc at University College London, of which we're very proud.
Why are we so proud? Because after a very scary start the first year, in which she sobbed long distance, 'She couldn't do it,' and failed one class outright, she pulled up to the finishing line with upper second class honors, (2.1) in Natural Sciences/Zoology, a credit to her guts, smarts, (and sibling pride not to be outdone by her brothers.) And all this when she's been pursuing her acting and modelling career in London, and part-earning her way, too. The littlest one of the family has determination-plus. She even painted the soles of her M&S shoes with red paint to have "Louboutins" for her appearance on the podium.

 I planned a simple white linen dress based on the Burda trapeze dress on the April cover, but without the 'wings' or pockets. I got away just with 1.2 metres of fabric, plus lining, because the English weather promised to be iffy, with a red pashmina. I didn't notice until I sewed it that it had a raised waistline in front and a lowered one back, a nice feature, but one that prevents finishing the waist with a  belt. It had too square a shaping to be flattering at my age. I also had to add two darts on either side of the back zipper to allow for a shallow back. Otherwise, the 38-44 worked without any fitting problems and I sewed most of the dress and lining together before doing the side seams last for the best silhouette I could muster.

Yet, my dress itself turned out to be a 'beast' (to quote Heather in the Great British Sewing Bee,) because the viscose linen and lining I chose were so thick to prevent see-through, my plan to use the sewn-in lining method, where you turn the two back sides of the dress through the sewn shoulders turned out to launch WWIII between dress and me. Fingers were rubbed raw, blood was spilt, dress had to be handwashed with blood remover and left to dry for two days on a hanger, then carefully pressed all over again.

Now, to look at the photos, it's a bit of a blah wash-out—more Mom in Sack than Jackie Kennedy or Michele Obama as such shifts are supposed to look, but folks, it had been a long journey, a long and emotional day, and the important thing is, we were all together. It looked simple enough on the day and when it comes to young adult children, it met one criterion: it didn't embarrass them. I changed into a more flattering dress, the off-the-shoulder ruffled 'Carmen' dress from an older Burda issue for dinner at Joe Allen's in the theater district. The night before she took me to see The Crucible starring Richard Armitage. A great visit to London. A meh dress.

Another 'Best Baby Sweater in the World'

I have 'committed sweater' again, using that Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern that grows with the infant up to nine months, so my apologies to the sewing fans who have noticed by now that the sewing has slowed.

Part of the reason for a sewing hiatus is a weight gain that has discouraged my enthusiasm for trying to fit things around my waist and part of the reason is a flurry of health emergencies and summer visitors combining to distract me from both work and hobbies.

In the meantime, the coming grandchild of old friend is going to be a girl, hence I'm sending the previous blue sweater posted below to a niece expecting her third boy in October and this pink one to the other mother-to-be.

In the process, I've changed back to the traditional stitch just to show you how the pattern should look when the non-butterfly lace rows are done knit-purl instead of knit-knit.

(The wool is washable merino.)