A Linden party

 Hi guys!
Wow, yesterday I noticed that it has been almost six months since I blogged.. For a while I kinda lost my sewing mojo, my Vogue 1247 skirt isn't really working out (since the pockets are sitting on the widest part of my hip, it's not flattering at all..) so that bummed me out..

Last week I found my mojo again, I sewed 5 tops in one week! And I love them all :)
I made one new semi-cropped Linden sweatshirt , I've made two before and figured now was the time to blog them! Pictured above is my newest Linden, made in April Rhodes Arizona knit fabric, which is gorgeous! This fabric has been in my stash since last year, so I was happy to finally use it. I lengthened the crop version slightly, since I have a long torso.. I omitted the neckband, since I wanted to give it a slight less sweatshirt feel.

My other cropped Linden has been finished since December, and has been in regular rotation since then . It is made from a simple grey knit fabric from Italy.

Always happy when seams line up.. 

 My third Linden is the long version, which I made out of striped merino knit which I found at The Fabric Store in Los Angeles. At the sides the stripes match up perfectly and at the front seam I had to pick one to line up, since it's a Raglan sleeve. I picked a stripe slightly too low, so next time I'll keep that in mind.. I took it in slightly at the side seams since it was a bit too baggy for my liking.. I ordered ribbing from Ottobre design on Etsy, they ship from Finland, but it was super fast! I ordered the rainbow ribbings 1x1 which is the perfect weight for this. You can mix and match colours until you have 1 meter of ribbing, so I got some other colours as well :)

Bijschrift toevoegen

The other three shirts I made are from a self drafted pattern, which gives me the perfect slouchy tee. The right fabric is a knit which I also got at The Fabric Store and the other two are from Mood Fabrics. Which means that they have been in my stash for over 2 years, so I was very happy to finally use them!
The left fabric is really thin and see through, so I doubled the front, which helps a lot. The back is quite see through, but I actually like that every once in a while :)

Close up, there are a lot of different colours in this fabric

I have also finished my Rigel bomber, which I'm wearing quite a lot already! I'm hoping to get some proper pics this weekend so I can show you guys what it looks like!

Rigel welt pocket.. 

Named + Grainline Studio give-away!

Hi everyone!
As a thank you for being such awesome readers I've come up with a very cool give-away! (At least, I think so..)

One lucky person will win a Named pattern of their choice and also a Grainline Studio pattern of their choice!

Ailakki jumpsuit

I haven't tried any of the Named patterns myself, but I've got the Shane pleated top ready for some summer tops. I do think that their new collection is amazing and I would love to sew up every one of their patterns!

Kielo wrap dress

I've got more experience with the patterns from Grainline Studio, and they are just as awesome! I'm actually wearing my red plaid Archer right now and my Portside travel bag is stuffed with all the things I need for a weekend at my parents..

Archer shirts

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment below, letting me know which two patterns you would pick! The give-away closes friday the 28th at midnight, after which I will announce the winner..
(If you win I'll contact you to check if these patterns are really the two you'd like)

Portside travel bag

Plaid Archer sisters

I've made two more Archers! 

When my sister travelled to The States this september I knew it was the perfect chance for me to order some Mood fabrics :) So I ordered some of their gorgeous flannels, since it's almost impossible for me to find nice flannels over here. The only thing was that she made me promise to sew her a shirt with one of the fabrics.. I was hoping that my Archer would fit her too, since it would save me having to tape together another one.. Luckily it fitted her perfectly! 

After sewing my first Archer the construction went way faster and now it only takes me about 2 days of relaxed sewing here and there to finish one, yay! I used Lladybird's tutorial for plaid matching, which is super easy to follow and then it's even fun to do.. I did cut the inside yoke on grain, to prevent any stretching that might occur.. 

After making two plaid shirts I'm noticing mismatching plaids everywhere! Sunday at the movies (Wolf of Wall Street, great movie) there was a girl with a shirt whose plaids were so mismatched, it wasn't even funny anymore! 

Anyone else checking all the rtw plaid shirts for plaid mismatching or is it just me?

Nicely lined up.. 

I got really angry when I managed to fuse the interfacing to the right side of my collar twice, and then only noticing it after I've started sewing it, twice! Hmm maybe I need more sleep? So this is me taking it out on an innocent collar..  

  I ordered metal snaps from Cowgirl Snaps on Etsy. The snaps are really cute and the colours are great! The only issue was that they were being held captive at the Dutch customs office, (no idea why), so it took me about 4 weeks before they finally arrived.. All that time my Archer was just lying there, waiting to be finished. I actually checked with my bf if it was ok to wear a shirt without buttons, but he just looked at me strangely, so I decided it was a no-go..

 I had to think twice when I sewed the cuffs and plackets, to make sure I didn't end up with two left sleeves again :)

My sister is really happy with her shirt, I also made her another sweater for her christmas, so she is happy with me sewing at her desk and making a general mess of it.. Well, I did clean out my left over fabric stash and donated two big bags of scraps to Goodwill :) Now there's just the rest of the mess... 

 On another note, saturday there is a big sewist meet-up in Antwerp! So if anyone wants to join, just let Anneke from Annette Tirette know! I'm already looking forward to it!

Another love story, my first Archer..

Wow, I feel like I've been living under a rock, for not making an Archer sooner.. After seeing all the super cool Archers that you've all made I finally joined you and made one myself! Perfect timing as well, as december is Archer appreciation month!

Usually I don't really like button up shirts, but since I finished my Archer this sunday I've already worn it twice.. And I really like the style and fit. This is supposed to be a wearable muslin, and it is super wearable indeed, but I did make some small mistakes which I will show you later.

I really like the view from the back

I cut a size 4 (or 2? can't remember right now and I'm at work.. sorry!) and added 1 inch of length to the pattern pieces. Since I've come to realise that I have a longer upper body then most patterns are designed for. I followed Jen's tutorial which made it super easy. I really like the length now. For all the other assembly steps I also followed the Archer Sew Along, because I find that seeing the photo's really make the construction process much easier for me.

Since this was intended as a muslin version I used a not-too-expensive cotton, which I still really like. It has small red/purple blocks on it, which have a darker spot in the middle. My next version will be a flannel (which I ordered from Mood) version, kinda (or really) similar to Lauren's super cool one. And for summer I can't wait to make a black silk one with some coloured details..

So now for my screw ups.. I cut the pockets slightly off grain, which doesn't really show, but I still need to keep this in mind when I make my plaid version.. I also folded and sewed the pleats wrong at first, but luckily I found out before I attached the yoke.
The bigger screw up however are my cuffs.. I folded one of the sleeve plackets to the wrong side, so that resulted in me also sewing on the cuffs slightly wrong, so now my two cuffs face the same side.. Ahh well, leason learned!

Look at my cuffs, all coordinated..

I also have some other finished objects and some fabric shopping photo's from Singapore and Bali, which I will share with you soon, I promise!

Three more bags, the Portside travel set!

Whoohoo, it's almost time for another trip! Tonight I'm flying to Bali, with a stopover of two nights in Singapore :) I had already seen a sneak peak of the new Portside travel set from Grainline Studio, so when it was released last week I knew I had to try and make them before I went away! I think my Weekender bag is perfect for roadtrips, but I didn't really want to bring it with me to Bali, just in case it ripped or something.. 

Super happy! As is my crocodile, which I got last time in Bali

This was the first time I went to the copyshop to get my pattern printed. And I was super happy with the result! No more wonky cutting/pasting lines and all the pieces are nice and firm. It cost me 3.90 euro and I think it is money well spend.

Look at how great this is!

 I had this canvas fabric in my stash, they're leftovers from other projects. The white/beige was just enough for the contrast fabric, lucky me! And I had enough fabric left over from my Minoru lining for this lining.

At first I wanted to use silver hardware, but the D-rings they had at the market were way too big. After looking at it again, I decided that bronze coloured hardware looked way better, so I changed it. That meant removing the straps for the second time, because the first time I'd sewn them on completely wonky. One tip: measure everything! I didn't at first and it doesn't look good when the straps are leaning towards the left..

Silver and bronze, I prefer the bronze!

Nice and straight

 I also added an interior pocket, because it makes finding small/important things in my bag so much easier.

Interior pocket

 One thing that I was super happy to be able to do differently then the pattern instructions say is the lining.. The instructions suggest handstitching the lining in to the zipper, but I did this with my Weekender bag and wasn't super happy with it. I just don't like handstitching things to zippers I guess. But with my duffel, I was able to use my machine! YAY! I used the cream coloured thread on top, black thread on the bobbin and all worked out perfectly :)

 I did break two needles in the process, but that is completely my own fault, for not paying attention where the zipper ends.

 The pattern also includes two smaller bags, the dopp kit and a smaller travel pouch. Which are both super cute! The travel pouch comes together really quickly and is super versatile and its size is perfect!

The dopp kit is also super useful, as I could squeeze in all my toiletries. Which means a lot, cause I always bring a lot of stuff with me. The only mistake I made is that I didn't add the contrasting piece on the backside, instead I just cut it out of one piece. I didn't do this on purpose, but I don't really mind now. The only thing is that I didn't interface this piece, so it's a little bit softer than it's supposed to be.

Ooops..

Jenn also added a small zipper pull which you can make out of leather, super cute!

Overall I'm super happy with this pattern and my new bags! I've packed everything and am ready to go travelling tonight! I also packed some new and unblogged makes (one of them is a bikini!), which I will photograph in Bali, so that will come soon :)

The final days of summer, my second pair of Maritime shorts.

My sewing space 

After my muslin (with leather) version of the Maritime shorts turned out a bit too small (and sexy) for every day/comfortable wear I’ve made a second pair! I used some blue linnen, the same fabric as I used for my Chloe dress. So they do have a tendency to wrinkle, but I don’t really mind that.

Gorgeous view.. 

I went up from a size 1 (my actual measurements) and cut a size 4 this time.

They fit waaay better! I still took a bit out of the center back seam to avoid some gaping.  The second time I made this pattern went way quicker than my first try, also because I didn’t have to worry about plaids matching up etc. 

No plaids to match..

On another note.. I won something!! Yay! It was actually the first time I’ve won something through my blog. Inge from Ingemaakt was hosting a give-away to celebrate her blogs birthday and I won! I won the lovely Edith Pattern from MariaDenmark! 

I’m super excited to make this in a wool version perfect for winter. How beautiful is the collar?

But first I’ve got two finished garments in red that I want to show you guys, here are some sneak peaks…

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?