Summer Tops: Burda 7486 and 06-2010-140

I bought this lovely Prada silk cotton voile and hunted for a loose fitting tunic top pattern to make it into.  I found Burda 7486 and thought it looked like it had interesting lines.  Although I'm a Burda magazine subscriber, I hadn't bought one of their envelope patterns in a while, and was surprised at how confusing I found it to be.

First of all, the printing was terrible- very, very faint, and nearly unreadable.  The type face is extremely small-  maybe like an 8 point.   There are three columns of instructions- a column each for French, English and Spanish, and then one column of illustrations.  Second, the illustrations were severely lacking, and weren't lined up with the instructions that they correspond to (although they are numbered, so you can figure that out).  There is an option to put this on the bias, as in the striped view, but no layout diagram to guide someone who would not know how to do that.  And when I saw both grainlines on the pattern pieces, I really had to scratch my head to figure it what they wanted.    For all of the flack that the American pattern companies get about their patterns, I have to say that this experience makes me appreciate all of the effort they put into their instructions a whole lot!

Anyway, enough complaining.  This is the top that I ended up with.  Not the best, but not the worst either.  I also made the same top out of a tiny lavender printed voile on a white background, that I will not show you.  My daughter said it looked like a nurses' smock on me, and she was right.  The fabric print was just way too small for my large frame.  I gave it to my oldest daughter who is teeny tiny, and it looks nice on her 21 year old figure.  If I can get her to model for a photo later, I will add it.

My next Burda experience is a good one!  I liked all of the Plus section in the June 2010 issue of Burda Style, and decided to try out this one for the off the shoulder peasant top- it is #140 and comes in sizes 44-52.  I had a hot pink silk linen blend that struck me as something that would work, and this is what it ended up looking like on me:

 
I'm really happy with it!  I added a couple of inches to the hem, and it is still a little shorter than I'd like, but other than that, I'd love to make it again.  The instructions in the magazine, although unillustrated, were perfectly fine!  I did shorten the elastic around the top by about 6 inches, because it just didn't look very gathered at all, at the length that they had recommended.  However, I may go back and add those 6 inches back in, as it wants to creep back up to my shoulder, and maybe if I had a little more elastic, it would stay on the arms as intended.  So, I highly recommend this pattern if you have the June 2010 issue.

Ann