Finished Burda 8186.

So I completed the instructionless (or so it seemed) Burda waistcoat! a while ago admittedly but it proved rather hard to get photographic evidence!!


 I only had one major disaster and a couple of minor points which I hope to improve upon for the next time I try them but overall I think this turned out well. What do you think?


 The material and buttons were purchased entirely from  Mandors and the shell is a heavy weight cotton twill and the lining is err lining material? It's non staticy and in any case it is the most awesome red paisley pattern and I want to line everything with it!! I did manage to restrain myself though and only line the waistcoat...

The main stumbling point for this pattern was how to interpret this pattern piece?! I wasn't entirely sure what was going on with the cut lines at the bottom - so made that part up! - I mean I made an educated guess.....

I decided thatoneline was a 'fold to' line and that produced ok results

How cool are these buttons!! We decided that from the outside the waistcoat looked nothing special so to give it a unique feel we trawled the buttons in the store and found the most unusual ones that could hold together the front adn create a diversion from the attempt at welt pockets. I think they look quite 'Alice in wonderland' esque.

I was so pleased that I managed to line up the button holes so well - me and the automagical button hole function aren't really the best of friends!

One feature that I like (and which was horrifically explained) was the pleat in the back of the lining I thought it made an interesting design feature.

The only thing I would change the next time construction wise would be to make the waistcoat a little longer. The John isnt exactly a giant in stature (about 5' 10) and it does come a little short. Admittedly this wasn't the best shirt to wear and I think he should have tucked it in but when I was getting photos from an unwilling and hungry other half I wasn't going to moan too much.

The waistcoat is a little rumpled after months stored in the bottom of the wardrobe

In other news, its the Christmas Stitches fair at the Glasgow SECC this weekend. I have held off on buying fabric for my Dahlia pattern which I bought the other night so that I can hopefully snap up a bargain :-)

Has anyone else tried this pattern?

JCS xx

Burda 8186 Progress

I'm going on a stag do he said.....I need to wear a waistcoat he said.....

A waistcoat??? This sounds like a sewing challenge! muahaha. Now my boyfriend does not do waistcoats - apparently they're not manly enough so this was the perfect opportunity for me to practice something a little different and sew something for someone else - also a chance to try making men's wear.

So after about half an hour on the minerva site (directed viewing as the initial 'you find a pattern and I'll make it' resulted in a 'where do I get a pattern?!' lost look), the choice was made:

Burda 8186

Now I'm not sure how noticeable it is however that's a 4* (bloody) difficulty rating! The challenge has commenced however with literally about 3 instructions and 8 pictures all squished into the area of a double sided postcard i think im gonna be on my own on this one :-(. It seems that you don't realise how much you depend on pictures as opposed to the written instructions!

That being said...the lining was easy enough to put together

(As usual) I got my fabric from one of Glasgow's stores Mandors. They don't have an online site but I don't mind the love the chance to look around the store! So I picked up a lovely paisley print red lining fabric. It still needs pressed but the back pleat to allow movement and all the darts were quite apparent as to where they go. I'm thinking it's maybe the rest of the suit which merits the difficulty!

Hopefully get this finished up tonight..

Have a good weekend all!

JCS

UPDATE: Here is the link o view the finished waistcoat