Burda Style 01-2011-102 Pre-review

I spent most of the day yesterday working on Burda Style 01-2011-102, otherwise known as the Flutter Sleeve top. Here it is in it's not quite finished glory.
The side seams are only basted, and it still needs a hem and buttons/buttonholes. (The front is pinned closed.) I doubt I'll finish before next weekend- I need to make a run to the fabric store for suitable buttons. Nothing in stash is even remotely appropriate.

It was done enough to try on, however, and I thought I'd go on and share my thoughts on it before I forget. I am not in love with this blouse like I thought I would be.

First let me just say that in my opinion, this thing runs huge. I made a muslin using the size 44, easing out to the size 46 for the peplum. That's my "usual" Burda size and the top simply swallowed me. So I went down to a size 42 and a 44 for the peplum, thinking that would solve the problem. The new blouse is better, but still too blousy for my taste. I could probably go down one more size and be happier with it. If you're thinking about making this, make a muslin! You may find that you need to go down at least one size, maybe two.

Maybe it's supposed to be large and blousy. Who knows? Burda only provided a pin-up picture to judge from; you can't really tell from the photo in the magazine.

One thing that really bothers me about this blouse, and you can kind of tell from the photo at the top of this post, is that once you stitch the waist darts, the center front no longer hangs straight. See how the edges of the peplum want to swing out to the sides? I have it pinned in the photo, and I suppose once I get buttons on it it may look better, but when I put it on and pinned it closed, the peplum wanted to flare out at the bottom. That, combined with the loose fit, just made the top seem sloppy to me.

I had planned to wear this top loose and untucked over a pair of grey slacks. I just don't know that I'm going to like it now. On the other hand, I think it might look nice tucked into my high waist pencil skirt. But it just seems like a waste of time and energy to have made those waist darts and done all that gathering and sewing on the peplum in back just to wear the darn thing tucked in. (Although now that I've wasted all this time on it already you can bet I'm going to wear it, even if I have to tuck it in!)

And speaking of time and energy, this top is not an easy sew. As I mentioned in a previous post, you have the gathered waist darts, the four (count 'em) inset square corners where the sleeves are set in, and all that gathering around the yoke. And you really need to use a fluid fabric to make this romantic little top look right, so you get the pleasure of doing all that tricky sewing on difficult fabric.

I do plan to finish this and post pictures of the final results. Maybe I'll feel better about it then. In the meantime, I've cut out that sweet high waisted pencil skirt with the unusual back darts and the godet from the February issue. I hope it turns out to be a more satisfying project.