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!

Ciao bella, my first Belladone..

Update: I completely forgot to add the Sew Weekly Reunion facts for this post, so here we go!

The Facts

Fabric: Cotton with a little stretch from Schreuder in Rotterdam

Notions: Green invisible zipper, pink bias tape and fusible tape to prevent stretching

Pantone Challenge colors: Vivacious, Emarald and Mykonos Blue

Pantone colour chart

Pattern: Deer and Doe's Belladone

Year: 2012?

Time to complete: About 5 hours

First worn: To dinner with friends in Italy

Wear again? Yes! I already have twice :)

Total Cost: Around 30 euro's excluding the pattern

Some of you already guessed it, but I made a Belladone dress! This has only been my second Deer and Doe pattern which I made, but I’m amazed by how beautiful and easy to sew their patterns are! I finished my Belladone dress within a week, and it was mostly done in 15 minutes of sewing after work/while my bath was filling/before bedtime.. 

Small bits but I’ve been enjoying those more and more recently.

At the same time I was knitting like crazy trying to finish my sisters bday present, (I didn’t finish it in time, but it is finished now!). 

Knitting the sleeves..

And the Belladone sewing was proving to be very relaxing. The pattern instructions are very well written and I hardly had to use my seam ripper, Yay!

The fabric is cotton with a little bit of stretch, so I stabilised the edges of the dress. Offcourse I forgot to stabilise the back pieces and did so after I stitched them (not sure if this will hold up, but I don’t want an extra thick line of stitches on the back.. )

The armholes and the neckline are finished with bias tape, which I folded to the inside, so it isn’t visible from the outside. It still makes me very happy when I see it however :)

Since I got my new sewing machine in January my invisible zippers haven’t excactly been invisible. I was getting really fed up with this, so I invested in an invisible zipper foot for my Pfaff. I bought the foot after sewing this zipper however, so it is not super invisible, but good enough to be allowed to stay like it is.

Semi invisible zipper..

 I’ve gotton loads of compliments on this dress, also in the fabric store in Italy they really liked it, which is always nice! My grandma said that she thinks that the armholes might be a little bit too tight, but when I look at the pictures I’m not sure I agree.. Also when wearing it, it doesn’t feel too tight all the time, only when I make strange arm movements..  

Yay! Pockets!

The only thing I will alter for a next make is to lenghten the bodice by 1-2 cm, now it ends just a bit above my natural waist, nothing too bad, but something I will fix next time.

This will also be my entry for the first Sew Weekly Reunion challenge, which is to use the Pantone fall 2013 colours. When I saw this fabric I thought the pink is like the Vivacious colour, the green resembles Emerald and the blue colour made me think of the Mykonos Blue.. Great fabric for this challenge!

Next up are some fall sewing plans which I’ve made (and I’m hoping to stick with them). For most of them I already bought fabric in Italy and I’m curious to see what you guys think!

Lovely suprises from the mailman

Look what I found in my mailbox after two days (and one night) at work?

I had ordered three patterns from Deer and Doe, the Airelle blouse, the Datura blouse, and the Chardon skirt. I am really excited to try out the lovely patterns from Deer and Doe. I already have some fabric cut out for the Datura blouse, it is the cotton fabric that I painted last week while making the napkins-gone-wrong.. Luckily the fabric came out better looking than the napkins!