Burda WOF - May, 2009 - Skirt #104

I joined a local sewing group, "The Sewing Fashionistas" late spring. The first series of meetings were to acquaint ourselves with the Burda World of Fashion magazine patterns. I've actually been sewing with BWOF since 1989; but I'm always game for learning something new and honestly, I needed a jump start kick in the behind to get back to sewing these patterns. Boy, am I glad I did. We were tasked to finding and sewing a 2 or 3 dot difficulty skirt. While I could have easily gotten lost in the sewing room for days going through all my back issues, the spring issues were still on my living room coffee table. I picked up May 2009 and found #104 (2 dots: "Easy to sew, but more time-consuming") on page 7. It's a classic jeans-styled straight skirt with front slant pockets, single pleat on either side of the fly front zipper, perfectly placed back darts and front walking slit. There is also a shorter version, #105 on page 22.

One of the many good things about this sewing group is the feedback and expert fitting help from everyone. Many of these ladies sew for a living and they spotted in a second a little bit of fitting tweaking I needed -- taking out the back side seam curving which was causing the side pooching I kept wanting to slap down. My first run-through in an Asian linen print became a keeper, thanks to these ladies.

The directions were pretty basic and easy to follow, especially for a BWOF. A newly-minted beginner may want to get a few skirts under their belt or have Sandra Betzina's books next to the sewing machine for construction techniques. For instance, the things we do automatically -- interfacing the waistband, stay-taping the pocket edges, and using Sandra's great fly front zipper application.

As usual, Burda's great fit and styling were evident in this pattern. I now have a great skirt and am excited to make it again and again in other fabrics - including denim!