Burda Skirt

Even though Burda marked this skirt only 1.5 dot in difficulty, being the slow sewer I am, it took me a whole three weeks to finish. But it’s finally done!

Burda July 09 Skirt 111 on my unfinished duct-taped twin Mrs. Hyde

The reason for the extra slowness is the fact that it has a lot of hand sewing. I slip-stitched the front facing down, the hem as well as the top facing (front and back).

Burda’s instruction is confusing as usual. The most confusing part is the front facing piece. So I decide to wing it. But this skirt is really not that complicated.

I am quite happy with the fabric. I bought it in downtown Los Angeles Michael Levine. Michael Levine has three stores downtown. One is a regular apparel fabric store, another one is a home decor fabric store, and the third one is fabric by the pound store. This piece is from the fabric by the pound store. So this piece only cost me $2 per pound for a total of about $6. I think I might have enough fabric left for a jacket as well. I didn’t do a burn test on the fabric, but my husband believes it is cotton and silk (he has some fiber experience from his past career life). I pre-washed the fabric, but going forward I would dry clean the skirt anyway.

The pattern doesn’t come with lining, but I decided to line it with a red polyester lining fabric I have on hand.

Red Lining

The buttons were purchased in the FIDM (Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising) Scholarship store in downtown. They sell things donated by alumni and other designer. The proceeds benefit the school. They have mostly out-of-season garments but also have some fabric and buttons. The clothes there are truly dirt cheap. I found Tadashi dresses for 15 bucks, but some are a bit damaged and the sizes are too big for me. But anyway, my shell buttons here are only $0.5 for 9!! Seriously good deal! I also sewed small buttons to the back of each big button to prevent floppiness.

Buttons from FIDM - small button reinforce front big button

You can see my hand stitching there. To tell you a secret, that is really not slip stitch. In the middle of finishing the skirt, I found that (from my Couture Sewing Techniques book by Claire B. Shaeffer) that I have been doing my slip stitch wrong all along. Next time I will use the “proper” method, so that the thread won’t show at all.

Another things I did for this skirt to add weights to the corner of the front to make them hang better. This is my first time doing such a thing. I think it works well. I used two nickels (5 cent coins).

Here are some more photos of the skirt.