Burda/Blumarine wrap dress

The last thing I need in my wardrobe right now is an animal print wrap dress, but I just couldn’t help myself! I’ve already traced 2 patterns from the June 2011 issue of Burda magazine, which was exciting after nearly a year of issues that didn’t thrill me.

BurdaStyle magazine 6-2011-139

Photos from style.com

I am a sucker for a sewing pattern that has a designer’s name attached to it, and the Blumarine wrap dress in the latest issue of Burda was no exception. The dress is from the Spring/Summer 2011 collection, which is full of soft color and animal prints.

I was even more excited once I realized that I already had the nearly perfect fabric for this dress (I am on a mission to sew up my stash - which is taking up precious real estate in a huge dresser in my daughter’s room (AKA my former sewing room – sigh…)). In 2009, I bought an animal print jersey during my vacay in Italy . Bingo – animal print Italian fabric to go with the Italian label dress!

Fabric
Rayon/lycra jersey (I think) from Bassetti Tessuti in Rome, Italy.

Notes on construction/alterations
I made my pre-pregnancy size 38, but I could have probably benefitted from a 40 in the waist and the hips.  Even though I'm back to my pre-baby weight on the scale, my measurements aren't there yet, a fact about which I'm still in denial.  The line drawing and runway dresses appear much more loose and drapey in fit than my dress does.

The Burda magazine instructions do not call for any interfacing at all in this dress, but I decided to apply interfacing to one side of the collar and one side of the front band.  The jersey I used is super soft, so I used Sew Exciting's Pro-Sheer Elegance, it's a barely-there fusible interfacing and was perfect for this project.  I also fused bias tape to the shoulder seams to prevent them from stretching out.

If you decide to interface the collar, it's important to use something that leaves the collar very soft and malleable.  The collar and the front band are both stitched to the bodice along the same stitching line, and the collar needs to be able to fold back over the front band.

The bell sleeves are fun, the perfect long length (on me, at least) as drafted, but they do have a tendency to slide and bunch up around your elbows if you lift your hand up (i.e. while sipping a cocktail, as one very well might be doing when wearing a dress like this).  In fact, while I wore this dress, I was thinking about the thumbholes that Trena added to her ballerina wrap sweater...

Conclusion
We had a babysitter booked for Saturday night, and I finished this just in time to be my date-night dress.  The v-neck of my dress isn't as low as me as it appears in the runway garments (all a matter of how much you cinch the dress I think), but I still needed a U plunge bra in order to not have to worry about exposed undergarments.  If I were to make this again, I would add some length to the skirt, since I personally think this would look best on me if it hit right at the knee.  And, I would love to raid Tany 's jewelry box for the perfect bling to accessorize this!

Italy trip - part 3 - sewing stuff

Of course I couldn't visit Italy without checking out at least one fabric store. A Google search led me to a NY Times article on Bassetti Tessuti, said to be Rome's largest fabric store. So that was my pick.

 

Conveniently the store was located just a couple of blocks from the flat we rented.  I saw it within my first hour of being in the city :)  I waited a couple of days to actually go in though.  They are doing some remodeling on the exterior, as you can see.  The main entrance was closed, but there was a boy hanging out whose job it apparently was to guide us to the side entrance.

 

Exterior window

Inside, the store is huge.  I think there are 7 different rooms, divided mostly by weave or fiber type.  Oh, the bolts and bolts stacked up to the ceiling of fine Italian shirtings and suitings would make any seamstress swoon!  It would be the perfect store to shop at when you have something specific in mind, they seem to have everything.  I didn't take any photographs inside because there were about 3 salesmen in each room, more sales staff than customers, and I didn't feel comfortable asking...

I spent close to 30 minutes looking through the various rooms to try to pin down what I wanted.  Frankly, the prices were higher than I expected.  Most of what I saw and liked, nice cotton shirtings, for example, were 20-30 euros per yard.  That translates to ~ US $28-42/yard.  This probably helped prevent me from going crazy buying up everything.  Also, it makes me realize that the Italian fabrics that are being offered at my local fabric shop or our favorite online retailers like Gorgeous Fabrics or Emma One Sock are priced very reasonably!

 

Ultimately I ended up choosing this animal print rayon jersey, it was 13 euros/yard (US $18/yard).  This is the teal colorway, and they also had purple.  Am I imagining things, or did EOS have this for sale recently?

Let me tell you about the sales process, because it was different than anything I've encountered before.  First you select your fabric, and one of the salesmen in that room will cut it for you on a counter in that room.  And when I say salesmen, yes, they are all men, I didn't see any women cutting fabric.  Then, he writes up a sales slip with your name, and escorts you down to the cashier area.  There are a few women sitting at a counter and they are separated from you by a glass partition (dangerous job?) and he gives the sales slip to one of the women and puts your fabric on a counter behind you.  She types the info in to a computer and then another woman calls your name and you pay her.  Then you get your receipt, and you take it to the counter where your fabric is, and another gentleman cross references your receipt with the fabric and bags it up for you.  Phew!

  

 I picked up the September issue of La Mia Boutique; like Burda and Patrones, it has a fashion-magazine type of layout with pattern sheets included to trace.

 

You can buy La Mia Boutique at any ordinary news kiosk like this one.  Can you imagine if it were that easy for us to find sewing magazines in the US?! 

Some pictures of the garments...

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

  

Maternity

 

Plus size

Italy trip - part 2

We spent the second half of our trip in the Amalfi coast area, it's about a 3 hour train ride south of Rome. Now I felt like our vacation was really starting!

We stayed just outside the town of Amalfi, one of the many picturesque towns dotting the coast.

View from one end of our hotel room balcony...

...and the other.

We had breakfast on the terrace in the mornings.

We sampled the local specialty, limoncello.

Bouganvilla grows everywhere. We tried to grow this in Seattle once but it died over the winter.

We spent some time sunbathing, the weather was perfect.

We saw several wedding parties, including this couple getting their pictures taken on the church steps.

It's fast and easy to take a ferry (or bus) to the other towns along the coast.

Our favorite town was Ravello which is nested high up in the hills...

...with breathtaking views.

While in Ravello, we visited Villa Cimbrone...

...and then bought some local ceramics. Then the rest of the day I was agonizing over the thought that we got ripped off, but Tim convinced me we weren't.

We kept seeing the city waste people in Rome sweeping with this style of broom, it reminds me of something out of a Grimm Brothers fairy tale.

All in all a great trip, but I'm always so glad to be back home too.

Italy trip - part 1

Well I've been back home for a few days now and just trying to get back into my normal sleep/work/relax schedule.

We spent the first half of our trip in Rome.

We rented a studio apartment, it was very cozy and had lots of art and books.


This is the small courtyard where our flat was located. It was in the Campo de Fiori neighborhood, if you're familiar.


This daily produce market was just a block away; we got fruit here in the mornings.


Piazzas everywhere.


A fountain outside Galleria Borghese; I thought it was going to be just another museum but the art and sculptures were spectacular, I highly recommend it.

 
No tourist trip to Rome would be complete without a trip to the Colosseum...


...and St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City.

 
Of course we ate gelato daily...

 
...and pizza a couple of times.



I just had to snap a pic of this - it's a shop that sells yarn and lingerie! I saw a couple of places like this.

Up next - the Amalfi coast, and sewing stuff!