Burda 8985

After all that hiking, biking, river rafting and friend visits in Colorado, Bad Dad asked why we ever left the state. I thought I would remind him of the beach. This photo does not do justice to the sky and sea colors I saw on this morning's walk, but it does show off my shirt in a surfing pose.

• Are you as bored as I am with my standard hand on hip pose?
• I know that the color of the sea depends on variations of light, wind and the  algae count that day.  But, my immediate reaction today was, "What a lovely shade of blue-green!"

On my way home from the beach, I stopped by Target and saw this light phenomena to the southwest at about 11:15 PDT (10:15 local time). The sun was higher up and more to the south of this patch. I did not see evidence of any blue or violet in the sky, though you can see the faint green glow below the yellow.

I have been sewing, most recently with Burda 8985, which is out of print but still available here.

I sewed it three times (sorta). Here's version one, with the bodice right out of the envelope. I found the bodice a bit short so I sent it to a petite friend in Colorado and it fit her perfectly.  I mailed it to her on Monday, it arrived Wednesday, she hemmed it Thursday, and wore it Friday.  Then her husband emailed me on Saturday to say how nice she looked in it.  Sewing success!

Back view.

Instead of making the many-piece yardage-hog skirt on the pattern envelope, I just cut two rectangles with cut-on pockets.  There is no need to make paper patterns for rectangles.  Simply cut a pattern piece for the pocket and cut around it, then use a straight edge to cut the rest of the skirt rectangle.  Easy!

I bought 5 yards (54" wide) of the blue rayon challis and used 2.75 for V1 of the dress.  I went back to purchase more to make V2, but it was sold out.  I then creatively pieced the leftover side pieces below the pockets to make enough fabric to cut out the second bodice.  Two dresses from 5 yards with almost no waste scraps.  I was feeling very eco-virtuous.  But wait until you see what I did yesterday with no new fabric.

Bad Dad finally sorted his shirt collection and weeded out a few worn out ones.  This Hawaiian shirt was badly frayed at the hems and collar and has faded from it's original charcoal.  However, it is made from a lovely rayon/cotton/linen blend and is carefully matched at the center front and pocket.  It was too good to toss out. 

So I recut it using the bodice of Burda 8985, which I remembered fit me well.  I lengthened it slightly to fit the available fabric.  I got lazy and used a scrap of gray Kona quilting cotton for the neck facings without any interfacing for stabilization.  Kona is very stable, but it stretched slightly while sewing and pressing.  I hope that it will shrink back after washing.  If not, I will have to pick out the neck stitching and take it in slightly.