2013 hits and misses

Wow, 2013 went by so quickly!

It's certainly been an interesting year, my 6 weeks in New York (which I loved!), my first long term-full time vet job and most relevant to this all.. I started my blog! I had been thinking about it for a while, but after meeting all the wonderful seamstresses at Lladybirds meet-up I knew I had to start blogging too! 

Some of my favorite posts to read are the Top 5 posts, so I'm going to join Gillian and post my Top 5 lists before this year is over.. I've been sick for the last 4 days (really nasty flu bug, thanks dad!) and I've been making lists in my head of hits and misses.. I've already noticed that the lists seem to change from day to day depending on my mood.. Hmm.. Fickle me..

Let's start with the misses.. Or actually they are the lesser-worn-items. (pfeeww that sounds much better!) I only have three of those from this year, which I think is quite a good achievement! 

(oh and one coat that never got finished, because at first it was just looking to goth instead of chic and then I chopped of the bottom part and then it became way too short. Now that I remember, I already made the most gorgeous silk lining for it, maybe I should dig it up and see if I can save it somehow, to be continued!)

1. Victory Patterns Simone top

 I think my face says it all.. When I look at the pictures I feel a slight pang of disappointment because I really like the fabrics together. I've only worn it once however, apart from taking the pictures. I think it's  two things adding up, one was the fact that I had so many issues while making this top. Which resulted in using my seam ripper a crazy amount of times for one simple top. The second is my interfacing/fabric weight choices. It just doesn't work. Shame..

2. Sew Bossy Bleuet

This is the dress I made for the Sew Bossy challenge. And I actually love the dress and the fabric, but it is just too tight across my bust and arms :( For the pictures I tried to choose the ones that don't really show the gaping, but trust me, it's there. I'm really sad that this didn't work out the way I planned, but I'm hoping to make a slightly bigger version next summer!

3. Drape Drape dress

Argh I hate that this dress didn't work out. It was a lot of work to get all the pleats right etc, but it is just way to big :(

 I wore this to a wedding recently and at first I thought I was very smart and that this dress could be saved with some boob-sticking-tape. Just like you think they do in Hollywood. Well.. Let me tell you, that does NOT work. When we arrived at the wedding I looked down and noticed that the tape had come loose from the dress and was just sticking to my chest out in the open. Looking really weird and wrinkly.. After a quick trip to the bathroom to remove the tape I ended up with red stripes on my chest and had to be super careful the rest of the evening to avoid any nipple-gate scenes.. 

Allright! Now the fun stuff, the hits!

1. Waterproof Minoru

I practically live in this coat. I even took it with me to Italy, despite the fact that isn't really warm enough for snowy weather. Can't wait for my next woolen-spring-Minoru!

2. Deer and Doe Belladone

This dress is the perfect combination of cute fabric and an awesome pattern! It fits like a glove (due to the slight stretch of the fabric, that is missing in my bleuet dress) and it even has pockets! Yay!

3. Sewaholic's silk Saltspring maxi

Made out of my favourite type of silk (crepe) and in a solid colour, this is one of my favorite makes so far! Can't wait to make more versions this summer (and then I will eliminate the back zipper opening :))

4. My second wiggle dress

The two things that make me really look forward to winter are: 

1. being able to wear my Watson jacket

2. wearing my wool wiggle dress again :)

5. Victory Patterns Roxanne

I love this fabric so much! I still wear this top a lot during winter, but now under my favourite oversized wool sweater :) 

Well, that was hard! Choosing just 5 favorites, but I guess thats what makes it an awesome sewing year :) 

I've got three other projects which I really really like, so I'm going to post them too, hah!

The portside travel set

These bags are just awesome! They've been to Singapore, Indonesia, Germany and Italy so far and every time I pack them I've been really happy. Even if I pack my duffel for an overnight shift at the clinic, I'm just happy :) 

Ohhh Lulu bikini

I made my own bikini! And it stays on even while diving, enough said I think :)

The knitted Pterodactylus

This little dinosaur is the reason I picked up my knitting needles again. I had been making scarves before this, but nothing with increases/decreases etc. Now I've almost finished my 3rd sweater (but the first one with shaping etc) and knitting is quickly becoming my second favorite hobby! Sometimes to the dislike of my bf, who jokingly pulled at one of my needles recently, only to discover that he made me drop 8 stitches on my first cabling project, which made me feel really nauseous! Luckily I was able to recover the stitches and my bf was really perplexed about it, he promised not to joke like that anymore :)

I also took an Itajime class while I was in New York this year and that was also one of my creative highlights of this year, can't wait to dye more silk this year!

I absolutely love this shirt.. 

Well, all in all it's been an amazing year and I can't wait to see what 2014 will bring! Hope all of you guys have a great new years eve and a very happy new year!

My waterproof Minoru and the give-away winner!

Hi guys!

Thank you all so much for the super sweet comments on my Watson jacket! It was awesome reading all your fabric ideas and plans.. So first things first, the winner of the Watson pattern is.... 

Drumroll please....

Lisette! She blogs at What Would Nancy Drew Wear and she was super sweet to let me borrow one of her pictures from the meet-up.. Please email me your details at Revesmecanique (at) gmail.com and I'll email them to Katie from Papercut Patterns!

And then, my next make, another jacket! I've wanted to sew up the Minoru jacket ever since I saw Lladybirds version in real live at the meet-up. I followed the Sew-along and it was super helpful.

Finished Minoru

I cut a size 6, even though the hip width is too wide for me. I figured I'd just try and see how I would like it. For my next jacket I will take it in a bit at the hips, as it stands out a bit right now. 

I used waterproof fabric that I got in Italy for 3.5 Euro's per meter, (discounted 50%) so that was super nice! I'm really happy with the colour, even though it might not be the best colour for me in winter..

To show you how waterproof it really is we did a little experiment this afternoon.. For once we had no rain in The Netherlands for a whole weekend, so we had to simulate some! (Which my sister was super happy to do) At first I was like, wtf aaarrgh! But then I realised that my jacket was actually waterproof and I could relax a bit.

Good result right? Considering she poured like 4 watering cans (gieters in Dutch) on me..

This jacket will mainly be used for walking the dogs (often in the rain), so I added side pockets into which the doggy-poo bags fit. I followed Amy's tutorial on how to add side pockets.
The instructions were easy to follow, especially with all the pics on the Sew-along. I noticed I was short on thread, and two sewing supply stores didn't have the same colour as I was using, so I switched to using the bobbin as top thread and use another close matching colour as the bottom thread. For topstitching I used the triple top stitching setting on my machine which worked fine. Another issue I had is that the zipper which was supposed to go in the collar didn't fit, it was too small, so I ended up using my front zipper and then having to go back to the store to get another long zipper. I still don't know where I went wrong, but in the end it worked out fine.

Marking the elastic casing

For the lining I used a cotton, only the sleeves were lined with a much more slippery polyester, which I still had in my stash. I changed the internal pocket size, so it would fit my phone. Here are some close-ups for the internal details.. 

Sleeve lining..

Velcro closure pocket 

Triple topstitching 

The hood, which can be hidden into the collar

Overall I'm super happy with my jacket and can't wait to bring it with me to Berlin in 2 weeks!

 My next Minoru will be a thin wool version, I'm thinking of adding some extra layering, so it will be more winter appropriate..

Silk Saltspring maxi dress, I love you!

I got very excited when I saw the new pattern from Sewaholic, The Saltspring dress! I haven't sewed any of Tasia's patterns before and I had been hoping for a good excuse to buy them. The Saltspring Sew-Along was my perfect excuse!

The gorgeous necklace is from AVP Design

I wanted to make the maxi version and then in a solid colour. Which was very difficult when I went to the fabric store in Italy and saw all their gorgeous printed silks.. But I stayed strong and bought 3 meters of beautiful black silk.
Thanks to the Sarai from Colette Patterns, I now know what kind of silk it is, it is crepe de chine.  She gave us a very useful fabric guide with swatches at the Mood seminar. I'm in love with this type of silk after using it to make my self dyed silk shirts with it.

As far as alterations go, I didn't make a muslin. I cut a size 2 for the waist and skirt (I actually could have cut a size 0 for the skirt, but I figured a size 2 would work as well). Then I graded out to a size 6 for the top. I'd read that the pattern is made for people who are 165 cm in height. I'm 170 cm, so I added 5 cm to the length. After hemming the dress with a narrow hem, it turned out a little bit short, so next time I will add 10 cm just to be sure.

After trying the dress on without a zipper I omitted the zipper. The only thing I'm wondering now is how to finish the back slit? I serged with pink thread, but I'm afraid it will show when the back slit falls open a bit. After thinking about it I decided to slip stitch the slit closed. It turned out beautiful, but in the pictures you see every little stitch showing...

I also think that I might have to lengthen the bodice next time, as the elastic sits a bit high. I did cut the straps a little short on purpose, so  that when they stretch everything will be fine. Maybe thats why the elastic sits a little bit higher. Or maybe I have a longer torso (I felt the same about my Belladone dress).

For the straps I wanted something else, so I braided three straps togethers, luckily they were long enough so there was no need to make six straps. Turning them right side out was a bit easier with the help of a bobby pin as Tasia suggests, but it still took me a whole episode of Australia's Project Runway..

Braiding the straps

Since these straps tend to stretch a bit it was quite difficult to determine the right length. I had my boyfriend help me, but he found it a bit difficult as well, so in the end I just sewed the front part of the straps to the bodice, then stretched the hell out of the straps and then pinned them to the back. I had to adjust them like 5 times and then it was quite difficult to get them at the same length.. Somehow the positions seemed to change when sewing, but in the end I got them at the same length :)

Bijschrift toevoegen

I messed up a bit on the first skirt piece, with lining up the pockets, so it was looking a bit sad and strange.. I unpicked the stitches and resewed them, very happy now! Yay!

Very uneven..

Ahh yes, the seam ripper..

I finished the seams with my overlocker and I used pink thread for a nice little pop of colour, however, now I think it looks kinda gothic, but who cares?

The Sew-Along was very good, there were a lot of nifty tips and tricks and it definitely made it easier to sew up this dress.. I also find it very helpful to be able to see photo's of the steps instead of only drawings. Overall I'm super happy with this dress, it feels super floaty when I'm wearing it!

I will leave you with this super cute pic of my dogs..

A very lazy saturday

Sewing with a plan, fall 2013

After reading Sophie's  post yesterday morning it felt like she had been reading my mind! Sophie talks about the fact that it is just much more exciting to buy and sew with prints than with solid colours. The only issue, offcourse, is that you can only mix so much print items together. A good solid item on the other hand can be worn with a lot of other items.. 

Lining with a print doesn't count right?

Two weeks ago I went fabric shopping while on holiday in Italy and I already knew that I had to buy more solid colours for my fall sewing plans. So I made a list.. 

The patterns I want to sew this fall are:

• The Robson trenchcoat by Sewaholic
• The Minoru jacket by Sewaholic (maybe even two): finished!
• Archer shirts by Grainline Studio: check them out, here and here
• a shirt from Drape Drape
• two Victoria blazers from By Hand London

And before I start working on those, I want to:

• finish the Sew Bossy Challenge, succeeded!
• finish my Saltspring dress from Sewaholic in time for the sew-a-long, one of my favourite makes!
• make my Anna dress from By Hand London, done!

My Saltspring dress, it is actually black silk

 So when I went to the fabric store I had a plan! I even made my boyfriend pay attention that I didn't buy too many fabrics with print, only the lining was allowed to be busy (and fun).. From the outside the shop doesn't look too promising, but when you go inside, wow! It is my fabric heaven and I can easiliy spend hours there!

Here you can see a bit of the wool suiting collection on the left. The first fabrics on the right are polyester, but the rows after that are all silk. Also the complete right wall is all silk. They have a lot of designer silks ( I got silks from Missoni and Max Mara last year) and most of their silks are around 15 euro's per meter (around 15 dollars per yard)! Not bad at all right?

This was the 50% off stash 

Knits in all sorts and patterns

 So what did I get?

• Two fabrics for my Archer blouse, the blue one with the small purple dots is cotton, and the other one is a polyester. I don't usually like polyester fabrics, but this one felt super soft and was only 2 euro's per meter, so this will be my wearable muslin.

Cotton

Cotton and the polyester

• Water repellent fabric for my Robson trenchcoat. This coat needs a lot of fabric! Around 4.5 meters if I remember correctly.. That's why I chose this fabric, it is slightly grey with a hint of a denim look (but nothing too much, trust me!) and the best part, it was on sale so only 2.5 euro's per meter! The Robson coat is unlined, so no excuse for prints here. 

The Minoru jacket on the left and the Robson on the right

•  Fabric for my two Minoru jackets, one in water repellent fabric (camel colour) and the other one in wool! At first I only got the water repellent one, but when I arrived home I wished that I had also gotten some wool to make it. So two days later I went back to the fabric store and found some lovely wool, which absolutely made my day!

Lining, yay!

The water repellent fabric and it's lining.

Wool in close-up

Another lining with print!

•  For my Victoria blazer I got a silk linnen, I didn't get a lining, but I'm sure I have something suitable in my stash. I also have some fabric I got in Paris in March which I want to use for a Victoria blazer, it is a gorgeous fabric with some shimmer in it!

Silk linnen

 My Paris fabric!

•  And then I got some black jersey to make this shirt out of, it is from the book Drape Drape. I also got some other black thicker jersey to make a sweater of some sort.. 

Overall I'm really happy with my choices and can't wait to start sewing my Minoru jacket! I think that will be the first one on my to do list :)

What do you think about my fabric choices? Do you have a fall sewing plan?