Another Burda WoF Skirt

from sarah the sewist

Between my Burda World of Fashion magazine subscription and my Sew What! Skirts book, I will never, ever have to purchase a skirt pattern again. This is a good thing, 'cause I'm cheap and skirt patterns always seem like a waste of money, since I'm probably not going to make a bunch of the same skirt. Pants, yes. Skirts, no.


This is the most recent skirt I've made thanks to Burda WoF. This is from their current "Plus" Fashion magazine (see minor rant on their "plus"designation here). It's sort of view "A" and sort of view "B" of style #406. I used the technical drawing for 406A as my inspiration, but the shorter length of 406B.

Wonderfully, Burda has enough sense to include---in all their magazines---a variety of styles for different body types, and I'm loving the fact that this skirt was already sized for those of us who are not exactly tall. (I'm 5'4", but the fashion/sewing pattern industry has decided that I'm some sort of super-short freak, even though that's just a smidge shorter than the national average of 5'5". I often try on pants and they're probably 7 inches too long.) Anyone, wonderfully, there was no petitizing of this pattern for me, which fabulous.

I made this in the lovely brown stretch cotton sateen I got a Bolt awhile back, the same stuff I used for my super-awesome pink Hot Patterns shirt. I probably could have made better use out of this fabric by making the Hot Patterns Razor Sharp Classix Nouveau pants that I had been planning, but it's fantastically comfortable for a skirt, just doesn't drape and flip like Burda intended for this style. Which is fine with me.

I added a little pizazz to this one by taking a cue from the technical drawing above and adding a lot of topstitching.



I topstitched on either side of the panel seams with the twin needle, switching to a single needle when the panels split and the gores are inserted. (Does that make sense?) I also twin needled the seam when the yoke meets that panels and the hem. All together, it really creates a tailored, professional look. (The rich brown doesn't hurt either.) Oh, and you'll be relieved to know that after four and a half attempts (!!!) I finally conquered the invisible zipper that just wouldn't cooperate.



(I'm still not sure about the Built by Wendy blouse I'm wearing in this picture. I've made it twice, but it's not been quite right either time.)