Pages

Saturday, January 31, 2009

I think I might have brought a dud.

Pattern that is.
A friend and I have been eyeing off this Burda pattern, ever since it first appeared in the Burda Young collection a few years ago.
Happening to be in Spotlight on the last day of their "50% off all patterns sale" I felt quite lucky and smug with myself that I was able to pick it up (and that it hadn't been sold out like the other patterns I wanted).
So it sat next to my laptop for a few days and when I finally got around to looking it up on Sewing Pattern Review here is what other sewers had to say about it:

Jackie M found a few flaws with the pattern design, the biggest one being with an off grain pattern piece -
"The center front is on grain, but the side front is not, so the pant leg twists, because there's no way to straighten the grain on a pant leg once it's been stitched simply by folding over a piece of it onto itself. And as you pull and tighten the foldover to adjust to your figure, you pull the center front and center back seams out of whack."
"It's an interesting concept. Good intentions on Burda's part, but poor execution ..."

Cyclegal notes-
"When I tried to fit as I went the front didn't lay right. Just a bunch of trial and error, and rip-rip-rip, baste baste baste! The part on the front that folds over (inside part) needs to be just right or the front doesn't lay right, hard to describe, but if you make them, you will know what I mean."

Both rated this pattern as "Recommend, with Modifications ".

And here's a user comment direct from the Burda shop site itself (at least its good to see that they have left negative comments up, or maybe they haven't had time to remove it yet?) -
"This pattern is just awful. I spent a tedious hour or so putting it together (yes, it's tres facile) but it sits wacky on the hips and is just outright uncomfortable. Of all the people who voted well for this pattern, did anyone actually make it? It looks good but beware! It's a disaster."

Yikes!

On the plus side there were 2 more reviews, both of a more positive nature- on SPR here and here. While not exactly glowing with praise, one of the reviewers said that she would make this pattern again and the other said that she would recommend it to others. They also rated this pattern as "Recommend, with modifications".
In my mind having to do modifications to make the pattern work is not something that you would expect from a one dot "easy" pattern :(

I still plan to have a go at making this one up , despite the less than glowing reviews, and will post pics of the finished product here on my blog.
Having read all the information provided by other users I will (hopefully)be more aware of any potential pitfalls (most seem to revolve around the front lapping and off- grain pattern piece) and won't be too disappointed if the end result is not what I expected.
Thank goodness I only paid half RRP price - I would have really been kicking myself if I paid the full amount for this one!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think if I were in your place and still loved the pattern, I'd have a go at making it up myself - but with cheap fabric and large seam allowances, keeping the central portion of the trousers on grain despite whatever the pattern says! Good luck, and I hope you do post your results!