Border Ties

From July 2007, #101

This was originally one of the first Burda WOF's that I intended to sew, but did not get the chance to get to it until now. The drawstring neckline reminded me of March 2009's drawstring blouse #106, but without the button front. Here's my review.




Deja Loops
Here are the March 2009 and July 2007 Burda WOF drawstring tops alongside of each other.



Nothing Compares "2" You
July 2007
*Drawstring casing at the neckline
*Tunic style, no button closure
*Back yoke extending to the front
*Curved hemline
*Tab collar

March 2009
*Drawstring casing at the neckline
*Button closure
*No back yoke
*Front yoke
*Pointy collar


Pattern Description
"Open for new views ... This blouse in airy batiste has a gathered keyhole neckline, a narrow band collar and fashionably long sleeves."


Size
Burda 34-44. I sewed a 42 in the hips instead of a 40 due to the lack of ease in the fabric and the potential of this top to be close-fitting. I should have stuck with the 40.


Fabric
Border print fabric having a lightweight poly/rayon blend from FashionFabricsClub.com. It did not have much stretch.


Pattern Pieces
There are only 5! They are the front, back yoke (extends to the top front), back, sleeve, and tab collar. During the tracing process, I easily overlooked the two asterisks on the lower back piece that designate the start and stop points of gathering. For the drawstrings, I used two strips cut on the bias of the fabric. each with length 18" and width 3 cm. If I had kept the original depth of the neckline, I would have needed lengthen the strips.


Directions
They are satisfactory. I had to re-read them several times to ensure that I would not skip a step. It was easy to miss something due to several steps under one bullet.


Overall Features
* Simple to sew

* Drawstring neckline. Oops, silly me. My buttonhole openings on the neckline casing for the bias ties ended up being on the inside of the blouse instead of on the outside as illustrated. This works for me, since I plan to tie the ties into a bow to prevent a wardrobe malfunction, if you know what I mean.


* I agree with Christina about extra ease in the sleeve caps and the back yoke being proportionally smaller with respect to the remaining area of the back.




* The back yoke was a bit high up my back. It does not seem to work well with my slightly rounded upper back.

* The gathered upper edge of the lower back coupled with the upper back yoke did not suit me that well. I prefer the back of March 2009's #106 being one piece.

*Collar seemed to be a bit long for the neckline. It extended beyond the front edges of the neckline or the ends of the drawstring casings. It might have been due to my tracing and cutting errors.

* Very low neckline.


Modifications
* Used part of the border print for the tab collar.

* Added lightweight fusible interfacing to one of the tab collar pieces. There was no mention of interfacing the collar in the directions.

* Took a 1/4" from each end of the collar. I still found that it extended beyond the neckline. I did not bother shortening it further. So I bent each end to cover about an 1" of neckline's casing from the top edge, before stitching the collar facing over the neckline seam from the inside. I wonder if this was the intended design feature...

*I omitted the little button closure at the collar. The closed collar style does not work for me.

* Raised the center front 2" tapering to 0" below the shoulder seam.


Conclusion
I plan to sew this top again, replacing the upper back yoke and the gathered lower piece with one entire back piece, or a left and right piece with a centered seam.

I recommend this top If you do have the July 2007 which I think is good issue.



This is a comfortable top! I wore this top yestertay at work.