My Chanel-inspired bell-sleeve boucle top

I wanted to to do bell sleeves in a top and I wanted to have a boucle top because it looks so fancy and sophisticated. So this is what I made last year in May (for my son's First Communion). And I did my signature style - a chiffon ribbon down my back. Just an extra touch when you turn your back for others to see.

Honestly, boucle fabric is really elegant. I should take photos and showcase my collection of garments made from boucle fabric, if I think carefully I have (I had) about 5 pieces (hmm ?!) to show. It's not a lot but I regularly come back to boucle (pink, black'n white, mustard, blue). It can be a difficult fabric to sew because when you cut pattern pieces they start falling apart so you have to serge them fast.

I took pattern from Burda 7/ 1994, size 40; mod. 113; a simple T-shirt pattern but if done in a beautiful fabric it is elevated from simple to beautiful. I think that the neckline is too wide and deep so I could make it narrower but I forgot to do that. I changed the opening to a side invisible zipper. I made front and back darts to make it fitter.

I would love to make a skirt to go with it but I don't want to look old or older. I hope I won't look like and old lady in this. I have grey hair so ... 

I bought the fabric in this online shop (it's Croatian): https://mattex.hr/
I don't know how much it cost me but I took everything they had - maybe 3 m or 3.6 m of this fabric - I'm not sure. When you see a nice boucle fabric for a decent price just take a lot of it, don't skimp.

Oh, and I love my new sandals. I got them from Spartoo, they are Pikolinos (a Spanish brand) and worth their money - 119 EUR. They are made of real leather, golden and very soft to wear. I'm a very thrifty person because I plan to use them for trousers, shorts (bermudas) and, of course, for dresses - one for all.

My aquarelle spring-time blouse

I actually made this blouse around Christmas time. I love this fabric. It reminds me of aquarelle = watercolour technique. I love bold colours.

I bought it online in Driessen Stoffen https://driessenstoffen.nl/de/ . It's 100% viscose. It cost me 7.90 EUR for 2 m of fabric (so 3.95 EUR for 1 m of fabric).

It is a very busy pattern so I wanted to make something between a dress - a tunic and a shirt. So I made this pattern from Burda 1/ 2008; mod. 125, size 40.

I have mixed feelings about it. The frill/ ruffle stands a bit weirdly. I'm not sure if it fits my body nicely because it is not a dress (it's too short for a dress) but it's too long for a shirt/ blouse.

I took the sleeves from this blouse Burda 10/ 2023, mod. 101, size 40.

I always prefer a stand-up collar because I just don't like standard shirt collars. And I think that there is less work for this kind of collar.

I was scared of buttonholes as usual. But my machine Elna excellence 680 is quite good. I used just four buttons (2 white, 2 yellow) because it was difficult to find any at home. 

Well, I tried something new. I love viscose fabric but I hate ironing.

The ruffle is a bit weird in my opinion: at some places it stands up, then it almost falls down. I tried ironing it up, then down, then up again. I can't decide and it looks like it can't decide how to stand either. I might just sew another row of stitches around the existing one - to keep the frill up. 

I like trying out different Burda patterns - I think I have around 500 burda magazines - I don't dare to count them. I have (almost) all from 1992 up to now. And a couple of them from earlier years. I have also some special Burda editions and some Diana Moden and Nahtrends. Oh, and some La Mia Boutique Magazines (Italian). It's fun to go back in time. The magazines were different in the past than they are now. 

Some pictures of the process: