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!

Victory Patterns Simone, a lot of torn out stitches..

I've been working on the Simone pattern from Victory Patterns for a while now.

When I was in New York I bought some of this cotton at Purl Soho, they had it in two colours and I thought it would make a wonderful Simone shirt. But after cutting out all the pieces and sewing the front part (with the pleats) to the placket it looked horrible! The cotton is way too stiff for this kind of shirt, which needs some drape. Off course I forgot to take pictures, as I was rushing to get my seam ripper and took it apart again.

Finally!

Then I found some drapey silk in my stash which I was saving for the lining of Vogue 1207 after seeing Julia Bobbin's wonderful version. Then I messed up the pleating on the front, since I coudn't really figure out how it was supposed to be folded. I only noticed this after sewing the front piece to the placket  (again!). The bust darts were also very different in position, one ending 3 cm higher than the other..

First I tried to solve the bust dart issue by lengthening it, off course this didn't work and it looked quite sad. So after some deliberation (asking my boyfriend and sister for their opinion) I decided to cut out another front piece and eliminate the pleats all together.

No pleats!

I just retraced the front piece so that it fitted around the placket and then sewed it together. Much better!

I inserted an invisible zipper and used the wrong side of the silk so that it is less shiny.

But now I had another little issue, since the cotton is quite stiff and since I also interfaced it (like the instructions tell you to) I don't like the way the placket falls. If it moves outwards you get this weird looking effect. I hope it won't be too obvious when I'm wearing it (though my grandma did notice it, but she has the professional-seamstress eye)

The tab has the tendency to stick outwards..

The bust is a bit tight and I can't get the neck to close like it's supposed too, so for my next Victory Patterns make (which I've already started working on) I cut out a size 6 instead of a 4. Let's see what happens then!

Some weird gaping

Overall this is not a super succesful make, but it did teach me some things about drape and stiffness of fabric. I hope that I have enough left over cotton to make a fitted dress, which I think will work much better drape-wise.

I think I prefer to wear it tucked into something,
what do you think? 

Stashbusting count: 1.5/15 (just 0.5 for the silk)