Sew it up week 1, dreaming of Tokyo..

Hi guys! 

For the first challenge we were given a pattern that we had to work with. The pattern was for a Chanel style jacket. It was as if Caroline and Hanne (the organisers) had read my summer to-sew list.. 

But since it’s impossible to finish a proper Chanel style little black jacket in two weeks (for me at least as I wanted to use couture techniques) I decided to take a completely different approach for this weeks challenge.

I’ve been inspired by Japanese sewing and embroidery techniques for a while now. I think I made about 4 Drape Drape projects in the last 2 months.. So I knew that this would be the perfect opportunity to combine a couple of them.

My jacket is made out of a lightweight linen and I chose to add embellishments in the form of Sashiko embroidery. Sashiko means little stabs in Japanese and it is a form of embroidery that uses the running stitch to create geometric patterns. I stitched them onto the linen after sewing the shoulder seams together. For a clean inside I added an extra layer to disguise all the stitches.

Stitches? Which stitches?

For the pants I used my own drafted pleated pants pattern. It’s quite a simple pattern but I think that the pleats just give it that something special. I also added pockets, just because you never know when you might need them. The pants are made out of a very soft stretch cotton and they are so comfy that I don’t want to take them off anymore!

To complete my outfit I knew I had the perfect shirt. I’ve made this shirt from the silk fabric I dyed in the Itajime dye class while I was in New York last year. I really like the pop of colour that it adds to the outfit.

I hope you like my creations for this challenge and I can’t wait to show you what I’ve been planning for the other ones..  I do have some pretty cool ideas, can't wait! 

If you've got an extra minute (or seconds maybe even) please vote for me! Here's the link:

Sew it up

Oh Anna, you beautiful troubled one..

Tadaa, I present to you my finished Anna dress! I feel like I've been one of the last ones to make this super cool pattern, even though I've been sewing along with the sew-along.. I used my self dyed silk and I'm in love with how the colours turned out.  

I did have some issues with my dress, but those are completely my own fault.. First of all, my fabric was a bit too narrow and short, so I had to cut some skirt panels slightly off grain, which off course resulted in them stretching a bit while I was attaching the skirt to the top part.. So the darts don't really line up perfectly.

 Then.. I decided to use a shorter zipper because that was what I had in my stash.. After unpicking the zipper 4 times because the waist seamline didn't line up I got it perfectly alligned! But then, I tried to put the dress on and I couldn't get it to fit over my head! The zipper was too short.. So off I went to the store..

Thigh high split? Where?

When parking my bike close to the store I remembered my sister telling me something about bike-police  taking your bike when you don't park it in the right spot.. So I looked left and right, didn't see anyone and quickly bought the right zipper. When I came out of the store I saw three men and a pick up truck standing next to my bike! So I quickly ran there and they told me that they were about to take my bike cause I wasn't allowed to park there.. Luckily they were very kind and let my take my bike after I promised not to park there anymore.. Pfff!

Hand stitched split

All french seams

I used french seams throughout my dress, but at first I used a normal seam to attach the skirt to the top panel. When I had to unpick the zipper for the last time I decided to change the only normal seam to a french seam aswell. Glad I did that because it looks super neat now on the inside!

I hand stitched the split, which I'm quite happy with. My boss asked me if I could put on my deodorant using the split, since it's super high, haha! I wore this dress to a wedding and got a lot of compliments, even from the bride :) and some people told me that I could have been the bride.. I'll take that as a compliment too..

 And it looks great together with my Victoria blazer!

You can also follow me on Instagram now: @Revesmecanique, for more sewing/doggy pics!

Getting my hands dirty: Itajime silk shirts and an Anna dress in the making

When I was in New York I took an itajime class with Shabd Simon-Alexander which was amazing!

Dissolving the paint

She has just released her first book, Tie Dye, dye it, wear it, share it, which I really recommend. I haven't made any of the projects out of the book yet, but the instructions and the pictures are very clear and beautiful.

During the class I painted some silk and cotton which I bought at Mood during Lladybirds meet-up.

Silk painted with nickel and grey

Before washing it properly, the colours are a bit softer now

I made two shirts with the silk, and I'm thinking about what to make out of the cotton (it is pretty thin and see through) but I am a bit low on ideas for that one..

Any ideas for the cotton fabric? I have around 2.5 meters of it.. (around 3 yards).

Any ideas?

This shirt is made from a self drafted pattern which is a great pattern for loose fitting tops.

This robins egg blue one is made without a pattern and I arranged the pleats on my dressform and then sewed it together. This approach has caused the side seams to move a bit towards the back, but I'm calling that a design feature :) The armholes are a bit too large, but it doesn't really bother me.

Quite flowy, sorry for the crappy lighting

For the button holes I reinforced the fabric with a white cotton on the inside. I recycled the buttons by cutting them off one of my boyfriends old shirts and then using the wrong side, which was less shiny and has more colours than the right side.

Enjoying the French country side

Begging? What's that?

Both shirts have french seams and look really clean on the inside, which I really like.

This weekend my sister, Eef and me dyed some cotton scarves and some silk. At first my sister was sceptic about folding techniques, but look what she made!

Very concentrated workers

My sisters creation

I used a new technique from Shabd's book, which allows you to make polka dots and circles, how great is that?
I want to turn this piece of silk into an Anna maxi dress!

The green is a bit faded in the picture, but in real life it looks beautiful!

These photo's remind me that I should try and make a black skirt, since it is a very good staple piece to wear with all my new shirts. I was thinking this one from Pattern Cutting looks quite good to me..

Itajime gone wrong

While I was in New York I took an Itajime class at the Textile arts center in Brooklyn with Shabd Simon-Alexander which I will blog about later.

The napkins I made there turned out really nice and so I wanted to dye another set of napkins to give as a present. 

The fabric spent 24 hours in these bags, soaking up all the dye