It’s not often that I call a pattern “genius”. In fact I’m a pretty discerning sewist, that often nitpicks little things that I feel could be better. But this Burdastyle button front skirt pattern from the May 2012 issue, is actually quite amazing. Everything from how beautifully it drapes to the clever pocket construction is spot on. To be honest I can’t find anything that I would like to improve. And it’s stylish in a slightly vintage/1950’s way, while still being incredibly comfortable to wear. Plus I feel it flatters my body, with the high waist helping to elongate my short lower body. And it’s fairly easy to make, which is always an added bonus.
The skirt has several godets and is quite flared. I was able to hem it 100% on the machine, using a combination of ease stitching and machine blind hem stitching (my tutorial on how to hem a flared skirt).
The original pattern has a hidden closure, but I wanted exposed buttons since, well, I love buttons! I had this vintage ones lying around and felt that they would be a really good match.
However my plan didn’t work out so well as machine stitched buttonholes on this fine linen suiting looked absolutely awful. And since I was under a lot of stress (was finishing this skirt the night before we went to Sicily) making bound buttonholes were out of the question. So I ended up using snaps, with the buttons just being for decoration purpose. Now snaps on a skirt is not the best idea, which I discovered at the airport when my skirt opened itself up after I had rubbed my suitcase against the buttons! Also snaps doesn’t keep the button placket as flat as real buttons do, so there is a little gaping here and there. That little mishap aside, I love the skirt, and with normal use, the snaps stay put.
The pockets have plenty of room and looks quite elegant I think, but are in fact super easy to sew, thanks to a very clever pattern construction.
This was my third and last garment from my Sewing for Sicily project. The first piece of clothing was a pair of Burdastyle swing shorts and the second garment was a silk Burdastyle Peter Pan blouse.
