Burda puff sleeve top 03-2022-110

Actual sewing is moving to the back burner these days as plenty of other things are calling for my attention. After another dry winter it was finally time to face facts and re-do my front and back garden to use less water. My house was built in 1950 and the time for mostly lawn has passed in California. So it has been a big project to get the lawns out, enlarge the planting beds with more drought tolerant plants, and shrink my water bill. I don't know if I should envy you in the more rainy states - those summer storms/floods etc seem very scary but our water shortage is getting that way too. Of course I will still have a lot of flowers and color - that's my ideal garden, continuous color, just like my wardrobe :) 

As for recent sewing, I immediately wanted to try this pattern when I saw it in the Burda preview. 

Now that I've made it I do have a couple of ideas for modification, including not using polyester as I did here. The fabric is one that I got at a sewing swap, so the color was nice but it will be set aside for winter wear. I wore it the other night on a warm evening and it did not feel great. 

Here's a look at the pattern drawing and image from the magazine. 

I think I might like it with a shorter sleeve, which wouldn't be a difficult change and would lighten it up a bit. I do like the shape of the armhole, it's the slightly cut-in armhole that's my favorite for sleeveless dresses and it was nice to find it in a sleeved top as well.

Here's the pattern pieces for the outer sleeve (larger one) and the sleeve lining. The shape and drape of the puff sleeve is created by gathering it onto the smaller sleeve and then sewing that as one unit into the top. 

Unfortunately when I finished it and put it on the inner sleeve was so tight as to be uncomfortable. I didn't feel like taking it all apart as this was kind of a test version of this top so I just cut some vertical slices in the lining to give it more room. If I make it again I will make the inner sleeve lining only about 10-15% smaller than the outer sleeve, that would be plenty to still have the support of the puff sleeve and gather the bottom edge. 

Now you can see my lining is made from scraps from my lining bin. Not exactly a matching fabric but it doesn't show at all. One less scrap in the bin! You can see how the inner sleeve lining allows the outer sleeve to blouse over the elastic edge. 

In the photo above I'm wearing my latest version of the Ash jeans, the black pair shown here in the top. The fabric is a stretch cotton sateen with a dot texture. The other pair is a denim I had in my stash, it's nicely lightweight which makes them my "summer jeans". I hardly ever wear jeans in the summer - it's shorts or skirts but having a lighter weight pair should be useful. 

Despite what appear to be quite a few pattern repeats, the recent couple of Burda magazines definitely have some nice summer dresses that I would like to sew. The repeats in the magazine don't bother me as I haven't been subscribing for very long but I can see that would be annoying if you already had many of them. I expect the pandemic has impacted production of the magazine as it has with the output of many pattern companies. However I'm glad they are all still putting out new patterns and wish I had more time to make them :)

That's all for now - as I seem to say in every post I hope to do another one soon. If my garden project permits. 

Happy Sewing,

Beth

Here's today's garden photo, the pink jasmine all along the back fence has just about finished blooming, but when it is in full flower the perfume is fantastic.