Finally, the Rigel Bomber

There are so many gorgeous Rigel Bombers popping up everywhere, that I couldn't resist and made one myself! My sister gave me this pattern for christmas, thanks Mieke for the amazing present! (Even though it is a bit of a selfish gift, as she already had one on her wish list as well.. 

So when I went to the Antwerp meet-up I was only looking for Rigel fabrics.. I spotted this fabric at  Moens fabrics, it feels like a suede, but I actually think it is a fake suede (price and thickness wise). 

I cut a size xs and only lenghtened the sleeves an inch, which is a normal adjustment for me. At first I also lengthened the body with an inch, but after seeing other finished ones, I decided that the length would be perfect if it was just a bit shorter.

After reading about how most of you preferred to line their Rigel I decided to follow.. I had a silk panel from Italy in my stash.. I really liked the print, but it was too much for a shirt, so perfect lining material! I really had to squeeze it in order to be able to fit all the pieces onto the silk, so no perfect pattern matching unfortunately.. Ahhh well, I can live with that, I'll even show it to you..

 I also made this shirt I'm wearing, I love the print on this silk! And I've got 2 more meters..

I topstitched the lining at the bottom, not the prettiest, so next time I will follow Elizabeth's tips!

I made version 2, which has a cool geometric detail on the shoulders. It felt like a small puzzle putting it together, which I really enjoyed..

 It was my first try at welt pockets, I ended up using the Craftsy tutorial, which I found quite helpful. The only small issue I have is that the neck ribbing has the tendency to wrinkle and stand away from my neck a bit.. Anyone else have this? Or any suggestions how to prevent this next time?

Because there will be a next time for sure! My sister keeps hinting at the fabric she has, which will make a perfect summer Rigel..

I've hardly taken it off since I finished it last week.. I even had a girl asking where I got my jacket from and after telling her that I'd made it myself she said: Ahhh I was afraid of that, since I didn't see a label.. And then she asked me if I was studying fashion or something similar :D
I really do have to get some nice labels though..

A sneak peek.. And lots of wildlife photo's!

Hi guys!

Just wanted to let you know that we didn't get eaten by a lion, but almost by a leopard.. We were having g&t's outside the safari vehicle when all of a sudden our guide spotted a leopard watching us from about 60m (about 200ft)... Needless to say I got into the car quicker than you can blink your eyes.

After coming home I have been sewing, just haven't had time to photograph it yet. So for now some sneak peeks of my Rigel bomber!

And I've made some spring sewing plans. Just waiting for my fabric swatches from Linton Tweeds to arrive.

I've made a small selection of some of our pics, if any of you are interested!

I've been working on my Crash sweater

She was standing right next to our (open) safari vehicle, quite thrilling!

 We went camping.. And it was amazing! There were only two tents and it was super luxurious.. We had an elephant walking right next to the tents one afternoon.

 After she almost had us for dinner..

 You see the most gorgeous birds! Using those colours for an outfit would be interesting.

We also took a Mkoro boat ride, it's like a canoe but then with hippo's and crocs.. And some dragonfly's, frogs and lots of spiderwebs in my face!

 I absolutely love zebra's!

Unbelievable sunrise.

 Having more g&t's, this time with a big elephant bull in the background! Crazy!

Next up will be my finished Rigel, promise!

Winter Anna and the giveaway winner!

My internal clock is lagging behind a bit.. When the spring crocuses start blooming I  I finally finish my winter Anna and a woolen sweater.. Hmm.. 

This dress was made from stash fabrics, I only had 1.4 meters of grey wool and knew that I would love a solid dress, so I could wear it with necklaces/belts etc. It was a super tight squeeze to get everything to fit, but in the end I even cut of another 10 cm of the skirt panels, so it worked out perfectly. 

 The By Hand London girls have a great tutorial in the Anna sew-a-long on how to add sleeves to your Anna and also how to fully line your dress. 

The lining is a silk coupon with a geometric print, which I liked, but not enough to wear it on the outside. I really like it as a lining, it makes the dress super soft and comfy when I wear it! 

Fully lining this dress is quite easy. Basically you cut out another dress from your lining fabric and then attach it by machine to the zipper and the neckline and by hand at the sleeve openings. 

 At first I had sewn the lining fabric to close to the zipper, so every time I zipped it, it got caught in the zipper teeth (pic on the left)..
To prevent this, I took everything apart again and first stitched the lining to the zipper (I put the zipper right side up on the right side of the lining), but I made sure to leave enough room for the zipper to work (about 1 cm).
You also have to make sure to leave about the same width of seam allowance on the other side, otherwise your lining will be bigger then your dress (right top in the pic).

Then I had to think for a while.. I couldn't really figure out how to sew the wool to the zipper and make it invisible.. I ended up lining up my wool (with the right side up) with the side of the zipper (wrong side up) and then using my invisible zipper foot to stitch it together (right bottom pic).
I started at the top, which was a bit of a struggle as you have to make sure not to stitch the front as well, but I'm happy with the result!

I'm not sure if this makes any sense, but it did work for me, so if you have any questions just let me know!

Also at first my darts didn't line up at all, but on the second try I paid more attention and now they line up perfectly!

Hmm doesn't line up at all!

Much better..

 And now, the winner of the giveaway is:

Kriston Lion! Do you go for indulgent of practical? I'm curious!

"ooh what an awesome giveaway ! The indulgent side of me would choose the Lakeside pajamas and the Kielo wrap dress. But I think the practical side of me would choose the Archer button down and the Jamie jeans"

 Thanks everyone who entered! I had a lot of fun reading all your pattern wishes, really want to make more from Named too!

 Tomorrow we're of to Zambia and Botswana for a two week safari trip, super excited! It's always a bit sad to leave our doggies behind, but my sis will take good care of them :)

See you in two weeks!

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

Ready for work, my Lola sweater

I've been wanting to make a Lola sweater for a while now, since I needed a nice and warm sweater (with short sleeves) to wear under my white coat at work.  I had major procrastination issues going on,  but when I saw the Lola on Mad Mims blog I knew I had to get started so I could wear mine asap. 

The fabric I used is a very soft-non-stretch fleece, which gave me some issues when I attached the neck ribbing (using self fabric) since there is nooo stretch at all. It stood up straight, which I liked as a 'design' feature, but it wasn't strong/stable enough to look good.

My strange stand up 'design' feature

I wanted to remove the whole piece and replace it with some other ribbing, but since I had stitched, overlocked and then stitched it down I really didn't want to take out all those stitches.. In the end I just folded the neck part over and stitched it down, which makes it smaller and nice and sturdy, but still cool enough as a design feature.

Nicely folded over

I measured my back length to determine how long I wanted it to be and then measured the pattern pieces and folded them where they should end. For the pockets I traced the side piece and then just cut the top part off.

At first I serged everything together, but the seams were a bit too loose, so you could see the stitches. So I stitched just a couple of mm inside from the overlock seams and even though I couldn't press the seams nice and open I'm still happy with the result.

 I'm really happy with my sweater, not my best work ever, but super wearable and really comfy under my white coat. No more need to roll up my sleeves when things get dirty! (which they always do, every day..)

 The weather has been super rainy and gloomy here, we are really hoping for some snow, Shane would love to play in the snow and she really hates rain...

Waiting for snow..