My Chardon skirt

Hi guys! 

Thank you so much if you've voted for me for Sew it up.. Unfortunately I was eliminated from the competition.. At least this gives me more time to relax and sew at my own pace, I do perform best under deadline stress, but there's only so much stress you can take before it gets too much.. I did find something great as a thank you for one of you, so check back for that next week..

I still wanted to show you my Chardon skirt which I made to pair with my Bombshell swimsuit. I've had this pattern for a while but just didn't get around to making it. The fabric I picked comes from Paris and I originally wanted to make shorts out of it. It is cotton and the right side has a very soft (almost velvet like) feel to it. I'm super happy that I chose to make a skirt, since it's very wearable and a great wardrobe staple. 

My hip measurements put me between 36 and 38, so I cut a size 37. I either did something wrong with the pleats or I should have cut a size 38, since it was getting veeerrry snug around my waist. I let out the seam allowances as much as I could, but this does lead to the pockets creating slight drag lines. Which I don't really care about, but I'm going to add some cm's to the pattern next time. 

This was the first time that I actually made belt loops, don't know if I attached them correctly, since now you see two stitch lines on each side. But they work and I really like that you can add a a belt! I didn't interface the facings, since the fabric is already quite thick and sturdy and I didn't want to add extra bulk.

Chardon in action

 It travelled with me to Italy and I've worn it soo many times already! I love the way it looks with a tucked in shirt, def going to be a summer (probably a year round) staple! I actually went fabric shopping and found two gorgeous fabrics which I'm going to giveaway to one of you, as a thank you for being so awesome/voting for me! The fabric is currently still in Italy with my parents, but once it gets here (next week) I'm hosting a giveaway :)

I finally made a Bombshell! Sew it up week 3

For this weeks Sew it up challenge (you can vote here!) I made an outfit inspired by the artist Ted Parker. It was the perfect excuse to get my act together and finally make the gorgeous Bombshell swimsuit pattern from Heather at Closet Case Files.

First the video I made for you guys :) The water was still super cold!

And my inspiration:

www.ted-parker.com

I’ve had this pattern ever since it came out last year, but when my black lining fabric wasn’t delivered in time for our trip to Bali I kinda forgot about it (also because it was winter ofcourse..)

So when I read that we had to make an artist inspired outfit, I ran to the copyshop to get my Bombshell pattern printed!  I found some black and white (gingham?) swimsuit fabric, and it is actually more fabric like then your normal lycra. Which gives it a real 50’s vibe for me.

 It was a lot of fun to make, I followed the sewalong, which is super detailed! The only thing I messed up was when I decided to serge the back seam about 5 times, which made it really thick. After spending 3 hours to unpick everything it was smooth sailing from there on. I find that if I serge seams that get a little bit of strain on them the stitches really show on the right side. I guess it’s a tension thing with my serger, but so far I haven’t figured it out yet.. Any tips?

The dreaded back seam.. 

Fit wise I graded from a size 6 on top to a size 7 around my waist and hips. The first two times I put it on I actually heard a  very soft ripping sound, but now I don’t hear anything and I don’t see any torn stitches, so I’m hoping I’ll be fine!

  My skirt is the Chardon skirt from Deer and Doe. Which I will blog about a bit later :)

Do you have any specific summer sewing plans? I’ve been spotting Lladybirds new bikini on Instagram and immediately thought: I have some black lycra in my stash! I’ve been tempted to buy it right away as Papercut Patterns now also has pdf downloads..  But then there’s also the Nettie pattern, which I could make out of leftover fabric from this Bombshell.. Aargh the temptation!

Shane is getting tired of modelling

If I can be very annoying once again and please ask you to vote for me here? I’d be forever grateful!

Shane by Ted Parker

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!

Sew Bossy Challenge reveal..

After a little bit of delay from my side (anyone else have chronic deadline problems?) Hannah from Made With Hugs and Kisses and I are finally ready for the Sew Bossy Challenge reveal!
Hannah has already posted part 1 of her challenge, and I'm super excited to see what she comes up with next, it has to be a blouse! Why? Because I told her to make one!

Bossy me

The challenge that Hannah had in mind for me was the following:
"I challenge you to experiment with the fabric I have sent you and to create a really girly, possibly even vintage style dress that really utilises both the floral and plain elements of the fabric I have sent you... oh and to try out self covered buttons (obviously only if your chosen pattern calls for buttons :D )"

The fabric I was sent was a beautiful floral print bedsheet, blogged about in this post. The pattern I used for this challenge is the Deer and Doe Bleuet dress. Since this dress needs a lot of small buttons I wasn't able to use the fabric covered ones, but I'm hoping Hannah won't mind this..

Beautiful earrings that Hannah made!

I tried to play around with the border print, I've been wanting to make something with a border print for a while now and this fabric was great for that. Maybe I should have tried to match the print a bit better, but I could hardly squeeze the dress out of the printed part of the fabric as it was, so no matching prints this time. I didn't really love the back right panel as the flower ends quite abruptly but my boyfriend liked it, he said that it accentuates the bow, so I'm leaving it like this :)

The pattern was lovely to work with, it was my first time sewing it and I traced a size 37, next time I'll trace a size 38 as it was too tight in the bust area, and with a shirtdress this really shows. Also the sleeves were a bit too tight. The construction was very straightforward and the instructions were easy to follow. I had to look twice before sewing the sleeve bands, because I wasn't sure which side was the right side.. But I figured it out and it wasn't too hard!

I had minor problems with the collar stand not matching up at the ends and therefore it wrinkles when I close the top button.

See the wrinkle under the top button? And the gaping?

Oops

The buttons are small mother of pearl buttons which I'm really happy with!

Ohh and I learned something else from Hannah: bedsheets can be an awesome fabric source! So when I was in one of our local design shops and saw Hay bedsheets on sale I didn't think twice and took them home with me. They are super soft en have a great abstract print on them. The backside is solid in colour. I've already thought about skirts or dresses that I can make from them :)

The solid colour is a yellow/green lime colour

So thanks Hannah for making me try something new fabric and pattern wise!

What do you guys think about my make? Any tips for my collar stand next time?
I'm super curious to see what Hannah has made, if you're too, check out her blog!

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!