The Long and Short of It - Burda 7073

The jacket style of Burda pattern 7073 is one of my favorites when I want an easy to fit and sew jacket.  It has princess seams in front and a center back seam that are great for fitting my body differences.   The center fronts meet, but do not overlap (no button holes) adding vertical style lines.  There is no sewn on collar. The neckline edge is raised and lies against the neck. This can be worn with a scoop neck top underneath and still covers a decent amount of upper neck or with a collared blouse.  It is a great style of jacket for a SWAP or mini wardrobe. 



Burda 7073

   I made the shorter jacket some months back  in a black and white silk tweed  and really loved it.

 At the sewing retreat I finished the 2nd,  longer version in a black and red wool tweed. It is only 4.5 inches longer that the short version, but for some reason the longer length felt strange to me when I wore it.   

   In the 80’s/90’s I wore a lot of longer jackets, but they were typically made of the same fabric as the skirt or slacks worn with them.     I started worrying about the proportions of the pieces that make up an outfit. Prompted by memories of proportion diagrams,  I decided to take some pictures of the two different length jackets worn with the same  knee length skirt and pair of  slacks . To see if I looked like a fashion proportion faux pas.

Sorry about the facial expression above. It was starting to sleet. Little, hard, cold icy pellets hitting my face.

My conclusion was that the  longer jacket actually looks nice with the skirt and pants.  I think the cut away front had a lot to do with it.  If the jacket front edge  had been straight across , it would have had a more cropping affect.

Well, the only proportion I will be worrying about next week is the amount of rum in my fruity punch or the length  of lily white legs I want to expose to the sun. Off to a warmer, sunnier climate. 

Challenge 7 - Mixed Prints

My tunic won Challenge 6.  Amazing!  Thank so much to all of you that have voted for me and left encouraging comments.  This challenge is wiping me out.  There are some days I am so tired of sewing or even thinking about sewing. DH is being very understanding and supportive,  so I took a break to spend some time with him this weekend.

Challenge 7 is mixed prints

Mixed prints are a recent fashion trend. This challenge was to make an outfit of mixed prints and come up with a story on where you would wear it.  This was an excuse to delve into my fabric stash and look at the print fabrics in a whole new way. I usually store fabric by fabric content or by color schemes (great for SWAP planning). I pulled  all the prints out these storage bins and piled them on the table looking for interesting and unique pairings. It was a real challenge.

Prints can be mixed on one garment like a dress of coat or you can wear separates, each in a different print. 
 
Regarding  print separates, one style blog commented that  mixing prints  was scary,  but pointed out that once you get a handle on it and start creating combo’s you have never tried before, your wardrobe combinations and permutations increase exponentially,   you can get dressed faster and you will impress your fashion friends effortlessly. Well, I appreciate her positive spin on it.

I chose to go with the separates option so I can also wear the garments in more sedate pairing with other items in my wardrobe.  My comfort zone is mixing small scale prints, in the same color way. This is a holdover from my quilting days.  I  decided to push my comfort zone a bit in the print scale dept.  But at my age,  a motley mixed print combo  combined with a bad hair day can come perilously close to "Bag Lady" look.  So I made the garment silhouettes fitted and classic and the prints current and modern. So the outfit would look deliberately fashiony,  if you know what I mean.


Here are the prints I chose.



Prints
 

 I made three garments. Which garment from which fabric?

Patterns

  Pamela’s Pattern   - The Magic Pencil Skirt,

  Vogue 8262  OOP

Burda 7073

 

 

 

Pamela's pattern Magic Pencil Skirt

 

 

 

 

Burda 7073

vogue 8262

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where am I going to wear this outfit?

 

Where am I going to wear this outfit?  The Visual Art Studio (VAS) Patrons Preview later this month.  I have taken many classes at the VAS over the years. Rug hooking, stained glass, shibori dying, and several in pattern drafting and design. My DH and I also make charitable donations to this organization, which are matched by both our employers. This bumps us up to the patron category that gets invited to art sale  previews, events that attract an eclectic crowd who dress in unique garments  and jewelry. I will probably be one of the more conservative dressed attendees. But maybe I will find some fabulous jewelry, just when someone would appreciate a holiday gift suggestion for me.

 

The last challenge was announced.  3 pieces that can be worn together as one outfit or two outfits.

Argg, didn't I just sew that.  So tired.........