A shifty little number

I recently treated myself to a new book, not just any book, a book which promised so much and built up high hopes in me that my sewing prowess would be dramatically increased upon reading aforementioned wonder book.

This book was BurdaStyle Sewing Vintage Modern by Nora Abousteit and Jamie Lau. If you've not taken the time to look at the Burda website yet you absolutely must! It full of amazing patterns (including some free ones) to download, with images posted by sewers of their creations, and all sorts of hints and tips.

I decided to purchase the hardcopy book because I much prefer being able to hold a pattern and instructions in my hand rather than go squint-eyed trying to read from a screen constantly. This book also had a high proportion of projects which I would actually like to make which certainly cannot be said for every craft book on the market.

The beauty of this concept is that there are five 'base' patterns - three dresses, one pair of trousers and a man's shirt and then there are umpteen variations which can be applied to the base patterns to configure nineteen different items in total.

I decided to have a crack at the simplest pattern first, the Jamie shift dress. The most fiddly part was tracing the pattern off the master sheet onto pattern paper. From there it was just a matter of cutting out the four pieces and getting stitching. Couldn't be simpler!

The darker dress was my first attempt and I varied the pattern by attaching an exposed zipper instead of an invisible one. The facing was done in plain black cotton.

My second dress was in a lighter floral with red facing and a doily which was added for total satisfaction of my granny instincts. I decided to skip a zipper on this one altogether. Both fabrics were salvaged from vintage duvet covers.

Next time I'd definitely make these smaller. Don't skip the step recommended in the book about taking your measurements properly (like I did). I'd also like to make a version with a peter pan collar, a pocket and sleeves, although maybe not all three on the same dress.

If you wear dresses a lot like I do, this is most definitely a pattern you will use many times over. The A-line cut flatters absolutely any figure and once you have your pattern traced, you can whip one up in a maximum of  three hours I think (allowing for tea breaks and unpicking of mistakes).

I'm looking forward to cracking on with some of the other projects in the book and will keep you posted on progress. Let me know if you make anything yourself!