The Burda 6456 is a blouse pattern that's been sat in my stash for a while. The pattern has been prepped and ready to go, but I've never quite found THE fabric to let it loose on until I snapped this up from Abakhan. The unusual geometric print of this fabric caught my eye in. I bought a big piece so I have some left over I can make something else out of.
I cut a straight size 10 for the Burda blouse. The fit is intended to be quite loose so I didn’t make any alterations to the patterns pieces.
As the fabric is very drapey, I wanted to ensure I was cutting the patten pieces as accurately as possible. I usually pay a lot of attention to the straight grain but very little consideration to the crossgrain. As the fabric was an offcut I decided to take extra care to ensure my fabric was laid out flat before cutting. I Googled the best method, and am embarrassed to admit that 10 years into my sewing journey, I had never pulled a thread to determine the cross grain before! Once the pulled thread identified a straight line, I could line this and the selvedge up against my cutting mat and lay my pattern pieces out flat. This helps to avoid wobbly pieces that sag into a completely different shape once cut out! (we’ve all been there right…).
The main attraction to this blouse is the central flounce down the front. This is made up of 2 bendy pieces of fabric with a slightly daunting curved edge to hem. The pattern suggests folding over a 1.5cm s/a and zig zagging closed to the fold before trimming away the excess. I tried this tentatively, not keen on zigzagging or trimming something that was going to be so visible on the blouse. A few zigzags showed that the fabric was going to tunnel in between the stitches and not look great. Instead I folded over and pressed 1.5cm, stitched a straight stitch close to the edge, trimmed and then folded over again- another row of stitching to secure. As a result, 2 rows of stitching are visible on the back of the flounce, but they are neat and petite, and definitely an improvement on the zag zag and raw edge method. The hem is so narrow that it finishes the edge without distorting or wibbling the curve.
Reluctant to put a delicate fabric through the overlocker (because I am a wuss and the settings still puzzle me…), I decided to French seam the side seams and centre front of this blouse. I haven’t French seamed in ages and every time someone mentions French seams I think ahh I have got to get them back into my life! I was pleased with the result – my tip would be to be brave when trimming the seam allowance down before the second row of stitching. The moveable needle placement on my machine made it much easier to sew small (and straight) seam allowances than it was on my old machine.
The CF French seam did lead to a bit of confusion when it came to cutting the notch at the neck and attaching the flounce to the neck edge, as there was fabric folded this way and that, however I also think the instructions here weren’t quite right. From the images, and logically, the seam allowance of the neck should sit underneath the flounce, so effectively on the outside of the garment, but hidden. Following the instructions, however I placed the fabric the seam allowance seemed to show on the outside of the garment. I would be interested to know if anyone else experience this by following what was said?
I was able to figure out flipping the fabric round so the seam allowance lay flat and hidden, though admittedly the French seam did add a bit of bulk/confusion at the V-point of the neck, and I had to put a couple of sneaky stitches in to finish the top of the seam allowance.
The rest of the neckline is tacked then hidden inside the collar band. The curve at the front is really tight, and when pinning the neckband to the raw edge I was convinced I’d cut the neck band a size too big! I persevered though, and found the neck curves easier to pin while the blouse was on the mannequin rather than on my lap. The neckband DOES fit, but I would recommend super accurate cutting and sewing around the neck to make this as trouble-free as possible.
The armholes are bound. The binding is cut from the same fabric, folded in half, seam allowance from the armholes is reduced but 0.5cm, raw edges of the folded piece are then matched with the armhole and stitched before trimming the seam allowance, turning the folded edge over the seam and securing by hand. The pattern does suggest top-stitching here but I did a slipstitch by hand - we will see if it survives! If not I can always secure this with a machine stitch.
Quick double turned hem (quite easy as the bottom of the blouse isn’t particularly shaped), though once I’d done this I saw the pattern did suggest side slits, woops! The blouse fits well though and there is no struggle getting it on or off so why add the hassle!
x
Location: Milton Street, Sheffield
Currently listening to: Doom Bikini, James K
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