Burda blouse

Spring is finally here. And for me that means buying a Burda magazine and pulling out my sewing machine. Burda easy F/S 2012 has a cute dress that I fell in love with. Don't know why, it's not really my style. I probably just like the fabric and the color. 

Source: burdastyle.de

These Burda patterns always come in different views, so I decided to make a blouse first, before I ruin a meter and a half of expensive fabric. 

I was a good girl, I took my measurements and made a muslin version first. According to the size chart, I'm a size 38. Now, I realize that this blouse/dress is supposed to be roomy, but the first blouse I made looked more like a tent. So I went down a size. And then once more. And then I finally sewed the real thing, because size 34 is the smallest one on the pattern. Basically, I traced the pattern 3 times, cut the fabric 4 times and sewed the same blouse 4 times. A super simple blouse, but soooo time consuming with all the muslins and seam finishing. It took me four days. 

And here's the finished version. The fabric is... crepe? No idea really, I picked it because to my shortsighted eye the pattern looked like little watermelons. It's somewhat stiff and probably the wrong choice for a blouse but whatever. 

It looks a little lame if I wear it like that, but when I tuck it in, I get a parachute effect on the back. But I take comfort in the fact that the model in the magazine seems to have the same problem, so maybe it's supposed to look like that? 

Too weird to wear like this?

From the magazine, her back is also inflated

Cardigan to the rescue!

Now I don't know if I should make the dress or not. I've got some flowery blue batiste - it's very soft and should fall better than this blouse, but I don't want to look like one of those inflatable wind dancers every time the wind blows. Decisions, decisions. 

And obligatory 'how's my knitting going' update: Finished the front, the back and one sleeve of the Eastlake sweater. I'm about 10 cm into the second sleeve. I should probably leave this Burda business aside and finish the Eastlake first.