Burda World of Fashion Circular Skirt - A Hit or a Miss?

I actually have been doing a tad bit of sewing but I just haven't had time to post any of my toils! But today finds me in jury duty with a little time to spare!

For this month's Lounge we have chosen a Burda World of Fashion circular skirt pattern - billed as an easy beginner project – a necessity for the Lounge’s pattern inventory. As always, we "test" drive the project/pattern before we unleash it on the "Loungers". Here is my finished garment (please excuse the resolution of the photos - my digital camera was MIA and these are taken with my Blackberry).


It looks cute as a button on the Burda model/designer/sewist and it is really EASY PEASY to make (despite that fact that the project immediately presents you with a math problem – not my strong suit but I am quite proud that I was able to channel a little geometry). But that said there are a couple of issues that need to be mentioned before you dive into this project!

The pattern and fabric yardage as designed assumes that we all live in a 26 inch waisted world, that we prefer to wear our skirts at our high natural waist, that we are all under 5’6” and wear our skirts at 21". I am not quite a 26 inch waist, am 5'9", and do like to wear my garments slightly below natural waist so I needed to add about a 1.5 inches to the waist measurement and I wanted to add an inch to the length to assure that the skirt would be long enough. The pattern is built on the premise that you cut the whole skirt on the fold as one BIG circle. These small adjustments, though, push the measurements past the 45 inch width of most fabrics – so unless you have 60 inch fabric you need to cut a couple of bias panels to assure that you have adequate “coverage”. Not a huge deal but it detracts from the “circularness” of the design, adds a seam disrupting the bias fall, presents more math (ugh!) and may require some fitting. All this adds up to shifting this cute, easy, breezy skirt from a beginner project to a “more than beginner” project.

So I finished the project and tried it on and, whereas it is cute and breezy and (relatively and theoretically) easy – it just didn’t look that great on me! If I can swallow my vanity (and can find five free minutes)I will post a photo of me modeling it soon.

So now for the good news – it is really easy to make once you figure out the yardage and fit. The bias cut makes hemming the skirt a breeze and the ‘D-ring’ closure is a “cinch” for the beginner. I cut the waistband on the bias because I ran out of fabric due to the increased yardage required but, as it turns out, the bias cut made attaching the waistband to the tight waist curve uber easy!

I am test driving a super simple wrap skirt tonight as an alternative to the circle skirt for the Lounge on Saturday! I’ll let you know how I do!

Come on down to the Lounge this Saturday and test drive these patterns for yourself!!