Skip to main content

Burda 9564 - Corduroy Dress

The majority of the clothes I make for my kids are for my older daughter. My son gets hand-me-downs from some other families and my younger daughter gets hand-me-downs from my older daughter. So, my older daughter usually has the greatest amount of need for clothes. The other two do notice this pattern, so they get extra excited when I do work on something for them.

My daughter was pretty excited about the idea of a new dress when I started this one, and she was really excited when it won first prize in our local fair* but now she won't wear it.

Burda 9564

I love the fabric - the trees, the squirrels, the dark red background, the fact that it's corduroy. She doesn't like the fabric - "it's not girlish" is what she says. Bleh. If the squirrels were pink and sparkly (ick), she'd like it. I'm not sure if I should be frustrated with her narrow views or commend her for having a firm grasp on her own sense of style.

I also really like the pattern - Burda 9564. I think it's a great play dress pattern and I find it hard to find long sleeve dress patterns. The instructions about how to finish the neckline were somewhat unclear for me, so I just used bias tape. I also used bias tape to make elastic casings at the wrist. The instructions would have you just stitch the elastic right to the sleeve, but I find that hard to adjust for fit. The buttons I chose were smaller than recommended, so I used six instead of four.

Burda 9564

Even my "The buttons are made from coconuts - isn't that cool?!" speech didn't sway her toward liking this dress. It's a shame that she wouldn't even put it on for a picture, because it's really cute on her!

*This dress really didn't deserve first place. The second place winner was a dress with smocking, hand embroidery along the hem, and bound and piped armholes and neckline. It was all quite well done and I'm sure it took oodles more hours to create than this one did!

Comments

  1. Congratulations on winning first place! And being such a gracious winner to boot!
    It's a very cute dress, too bad she doesn't like it. This happens often in our house. I hesitate to sew for the kids because it is a lot of work and then they may be fickle and never wear it, which annoys me.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Grocery Bags

More gifts! These are just like the still-all-too-ubiquitous plastic grocery bags, but they're fabric.  I followed this tutorial and you actually use a plastic bag as a pattern.  The instructions are very good and include a pocket so that the bag can be folded up and is easy to keep in a purse or a car's glove box. Mostly for the sake of the gift recipients, here's how to fold up the bag.... 1.  Lay the bag pocket side down and fold it length-wise using the edges of the pocket as a guide. 2.  Fold it in half, aligning the top of the handles with the bottom of the bag. 3.  Fold in half again and then reach into pocket with your hand and turn the whole thing (pocket included) inside out. Happy shopping!

Shopping Bags

Most stores in our town charge you a nickel for a plastic bag when you check out. I love this practice and the way that it encourages people to bring their own cloth bags or reuse their plastic ones. My habit of bringing along bags to the grocery store is well established, but I used to find myself stuck at places like the drug store or farmer's market or other impromptu stops. Then I picked up a bag at an upscale kitchen goods store that rolls up quite compactly. Now I keep that in my purse, so I always have a bag with me. I like my bag so much that I wanted to replicate it for the art sale. The final result is a hybrid of the bag I purchased and these that I made last year. The bag is a little bigger than the average plastic grocery bag. The velcro tab is used to keep the bag rolled up, but also can close the top of the bag when it is full. Most of the bag is a single layer of cotton, but the handles are faced. There is a double row of top-stitching around both edges of

The Burda Skirt Again

I'm not sure what prompted it, but awhile ago I decided that I needed a green skirt. The last time I was at Fabricland I saw this green wide-wale corduroy. I wasn't really looking for the skirt to be corduroy and the color was a little different than I was hoping for, but since I had my eyes peeled for awhile and hadn't seen anything better, I thought I'd try the corduroy. After looking for a suitable pattern, I settled on the Burda 2/2010 skirt that I've already used three times . Because of the weight and bulk of the corduroy, I didn't want to try to mess with too many details. I'll use another skirt pattern soon. Really, I will. One of the things I really like about this pattern is the pockets. This time I made the pocket facings and part of the pocket bag out of a cotton woven solid to reduce bulk. Since I'll be wearing this skirt with tights I added a lining. Adding the lining was really simple except that I cut the lining exactly the sam