Burda 8680

After my last two sewing flops (more on that later) I've been more than a little discouraged. Thankfully, I have a ridiculous supply of fabric on hand, and decided that I need to invest some time in muslin's, rather than cutting into "the" fabric.

First, you should know that I'm a huge jean skirt girl. Wait, that doesn't sound right. I'm a huge FAN of the jean skirt! I tend to wear a well fitting one to death. So I felt that getting a well fitting pattern in my collection would be an essential to my wardrobe building.

I've had Burda 8680....hmm...probably at least 5 years, if not longer. I'm not finding it in Burda's online pattern catalog so I'm guessing it may be OOP. If you can find it though, it's definitely a great pattern to have! Anyway, I've also had this corduroy for 5-7 years. Being self taught, I get discouraged when I make things that don't fit right. Fit is my main issue in life when it comes to sewing. I SEW admire people who can work out fit issues, and I read just about everything I can get my hands on to help me overcome this hurdle. So I decided to use this caramel colored corduroy (it's photographing much lighter than it is in person) to do a muslin. I wasn't going to worry about interfacing or anything, since it was just a muslin.

So of course, 3/4 of the way into it, I realize that this is really turning out well!!! Quickly re-thinking the "I'm not going to wear this" track, I start really thinking about the details. I wish I hadn't sewn the entire thing in a thread color that matched so well, but I certainly wasn't going to do all that top stitching for a muslin!

A few changes I made: First, the pattern calls for all the pocket pieces made from the main fabric. Now I know this corduroy has a softer hand. I can't even imagine a stiff denim pocket! Looking at my favorite ready made skirt, it had all cotton pockets, so this is a change I made. Also, the largest size, a 20 (I am not a number, I am not a number...) didn't leave me much room for ease, so I reduced the side seam allowance to 1/4. I'm cutting back on the soda now, because while this fits, 5lbs. extra, and it won't! But I digress. I had to increase the waistband to accommodate my seam allowance changes. Overall, I still shorted myself a tad, but it's workable. When I add a shirt, no one else is going to know that the tab for the button doesn't extend quite as long as it should. But because the rest of the skirt fits so well, I am certainly not going to quibble about minor details that no one but myself will notice. Also, I had to re cut the waistband because I didn't have the fabric lined up correctly when I cut it the first time and it was messed up. When I re cut it the second time, I have the nap of the corduroy upside down. Again, no one but me knows this, so I've decided i can live with it. :)

I'm noticing in the photo that it appears that my center slit doesn't match up evenly on each side. When I'm wearing it, it matches perfectly, so this is just the photograph (big sigh of relief!).


I'm definitely going to be using this pattern again. I made note to mark on the pattern that I used 1/4 inch seam allowances instead of the 5/8 given. I don't have any denim in my stash at the moment (I know, go figure!) but I have some lovely dark olive green stretch twill that I think would make up beautifully. I'm seeing denim skirts embroidered. I'm picturing using my Kandi Kane to embellish other skirts. Needless to say, I see myself using this pattern a LOT. LOL, I may go down to office max and have it laminated so it doesn't get shredded with repeated use!