The Naked Seamstress

Man Tees

2012-01-15T15:11:00.001+01:00

He absolutely wanted to be in the picture :)

I made two t-shirts for my boyfriend for Christmas that were inspired by 1970s t-shirt illustrations on pattern envelopes. In particular this one here:

Source

This t-shirt is adorable. I wonder if it's the raglan-sleeves or the contrasting cuff and neck finishes or the little pocket that make it so old school? Or is the bright yellow? Or the close fit? What do you say?

At first I was planning to buy this raglan-sleeved men's t-shirt pattern or a similar one but then I thought: "Hey, what could be simpler than making my own pattern out of an old t-shirt?"

And I was right. I had an old t-shirt my boyfriend didn't wear anymore and I chalked in some raglan-sleeve lines and cut up the shirt along these lines resulting in 3 simple pattern pieces: front, back and sleeve.

It was super fun to make these shirts. A little addictive even. And doesn't he look cute in his new seventies style?!

If any of you would like to make their own raglan-sleeved 70's inspired men's tees like these here and would like clearer instructions to follow, let me know and I'll put up a little tutorial.

My Favourite Crafty Christmas Projects

2011-12-20T19:44:00.000+01:00

In thelast couple of weeks my blogreader has fed me with numerous wonderful craftyChristmas ideas, particularly in the decorations department. And if I only hadthe time, or were in need of more Christmas decorations, I'd probably becrafting all day.

I'm so inlove with these fun ideas that I thought I'd share my favourite Christmasdecorations projects with you. Perhaps you still have an evening of cookieeating and crafting to spare before the holidays start. And, of course, I'malso throwing in some crafty Christmas decorations that are traditional in myfamily and that I have been doing myself over the years.

Firstoff, I love this Cardboard Gingerbread Man by papernstitch. He would look great on ourChristmas tree and he looks so edible :)

Source: papernstitch

I also lovemaking Christmas cards and would make some every year if I only had the timeand if I didn't already own too many Christmas cards to ever be able to use.These retro-inspired cards byJessica Jones from How About Orange arereally pretty. This link here hassome more great holiday card ideas.

Source: The Inside Source

Theselittle Christmas tree tags are also supercute and so simple to make; shared by Kat from KraftyKat on the Crafty Christmas Club Blog.

Source:Crafty ChristmasClub

Thenthere are these cute needle-felted mittenornaments with tutorial found on MegaCrafty,although I fail to understand what needle felting is, but I'm sure they canjust be cut out of anything felted.


Source:MegaCrafty

Anothersuper cute Christmas decoration are these fantastic little Cork Reindeers Carolyn showedus on her blog. I have completely fallen in love with them and want to makesome for myself.

Source: Handmade by Carolyn

Andof course my favourite Christmas ornament of all times: the Paper Snow Flake.

Source:Michele Made Me

Thesecool paper snow flakes madeout of junkmail by Michele Made Me have reallyinspired me to not throw away the toy ads we keep getting in the mail in therun up to Christmas but to recycle them into many, many of these:

It'saddictive! Of course, snow flake making can really be turned into an art formas evidenced in these Star Wars-themed snowflakes, this skull snow flake, orthese really professional-looking ones (with tutorial!) by How About Orange.

Source:How About Orange

In fact, How About Orange has a whole array of coolChristmas paper folding crafts that I would all love to try making for myself,like paper balls, striped spaceshipornaments or this 3D snowflake:

Source:How About Orange

A fulllist of How About Orange's Christmassy tutorials can be found here. Anotherfun Christmas paper folding project are these stars, aka German stars:

We triedthem ourselves as you can see and it is fun but takes some practice andpatience. A tutorial for how to fold them can be found here on the CraftSanity blog or also on youtube. A little easier to make arethese festive hearts that are very traditional in Norway and in our family,also known as Julehjerte. We hang them on our tree every year and fillthem with chocolate and other sweets.

There areseveral tutorials for these hearts online, for example here, here or here. Andlast but not least, who doesn't love baking cookies and decorating them or evenbetter making a gingerbread, "pepperkake" or "Lebkuchen"house.

Theresults of having friends over for baking :)

However,if you want to take you Christmas baking to a whole new level, check out thismad Gingerbread Brownstone oninstructables.com.

Source:instructables

This hascompletely blown me away and, yes, it is entirely made out of Gingerbread!Unfortunately there just isn't enough time to make something this intricate forthis Christmas, but, hey, there is always a next Christmas. You just wait andsee :)

I hopeyou enjoyed my little display of my favourite Christmas crafts this year. Doyou have any other simple crafty Christmas decorations project to share? I'malways eager to learn more. Please do share!

X-mas Present #2: Sock Monkeys

2011-12-14T18:43:00.000+01:00

My boyfriend and me made these cute Sock Monkeys for my boyfriend's little nieces. I did the sewing bits and my boyfriend stuffed the monkeys with ripped-up pieces of batting. We had great fun seeing how the monkeys came alive out of ordinary pairs of socks.

Hi, I'm John-Joe!

I used some buttons from my stash for the eyes and embroidery floss to put a smile on the monkeys' faces.

Hi, I'm Wallace!

There are many, many tutorials online for making Sockmonkeys. I used this tutorial combined with this cutting diagram:

Source: Making Martha Proud

The monkeys are really easy and fun to make (although the sewing on of the limbs can be a bit tricky) and I hope the little nieces will like them as much as we do.

The Imperfect Perfect Turquoise Top

2011-12-12T09:00:00.000+01:00

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a turquoise top from a charity flea market. The top was fine as it was and fit me great so there really wasn't any need to refashion it. But somehow I thought the top looked boring, factory-made, and a little too shop-bought - in other words I had an irresistable urge to imperfect it. Yes, I did not want it to look perfectly machine made, but I longed for that handmade look.

I cut up one of my mum's old cardigans she didn't want anymore and framed the neckline and made long ties with the fabric harvested from the cardigan. Then I took off the offensively matching buttons (how dare they match!) along the sleeves and replaced them with two different kinds of black buttons, half of them also retrieved from said cardigan. The result: perfect bliss!

mismatched buttons

I agree wholeheartedly with Zoe's arguments that we are somehow brainwashed into thinking that store-bought is best and factory-made is perfection. Even in some of our own homemade clothes we (or I at least) often mimic the factory look, even in cases when we know that the garment in question would become more durable or look better if we used a technique that makes the garment look handmade, like a hand-picked zipper or a lining attached by hand to a dress. Somehow handmade and homemade are dirty words and are only acceptable if they perfectly resemble and are indistinguishable from the store-bought.

wonky neckline sticthes from the inside

Obviously a professional dressmaker will get results that are better than mine but even professional dressmakers won't necessarily make clothes that look like they were made in a factory but like they were made by a professional dressmaker because they were. But somehow I think our tastes have changed over the years to preferring factory-made over anything else because this is what we see the most and have come to accept as good and normal.

Oops! Slightly wobbly edge

But I'm not a factory and if I want to keep being happy making my own clothes it may be wise to accept - or even love - the way my clothes look over clothes that are made in a factory. I think this top is an example of how my tastes have changed to preferring homemade, as if the lack of homemade 'flaws' somehow signalled imperfection. Luckily, my top is now perfect!


imperfect homemade photo of me not paying attention to the camera

Any thoughts on homemade vs. factory-made, anyone?! Would love to hear them.

X-mas Present #1: Reindeer Shrugs

2011-12-10T20:19:00.001+01:00

This year - as most years - a lot of my Christmas presents are handmade. I often don't like to share my x-mas presents on my blog, or even on the Crafty Christmas Blog, before Christmas. It just takes away the magic a little as if the presents were unwrapped before Christmas. (Oh, no!).

But in an effort to inspire more people to make their own handmade presents, I've decided to share some of my presents either here or on the Crafty Christmas Blog before Christmas so that other people might get an idea for a last minute Christmas present of their own.

So, first up, is this shrug I made two of for my boyfriend's sisters. Both sisters are practically grown up but I know that they love wearing special Christmassy things during the holidays and I thought these shrugs make an ideal extra warm cover for sitting around in your pyjamas at Christmas time. I used a free Hot Patterns shrug pattern I found online* but had to shorten the shrugs a lot because I had too little fabric. The shrugs are still pretty long, so I guess the original shrug would reach all the way down to the hips.

The fabric is a cream white fleece with red reindeers printed on and I found it in a shop in Norway last summer and was immediately inspired to make Christmassy shrugs with the fabric. For the edges I used ordinary cotton jersey rib in a matching color.

The shrugs are super simple to make, especially if you have a serger. So it's not too late to make one for Christmas!

*There are plenty more free patterns where this one came from!

Look, I won!

2011-12-04T13:33:00.001+01:00

A couple of weeks back Debi hosted a giveaway sponsored by Fancymoon Fabric on her blog and I won it! I got to choose two meters of any of the lovely fabrics in their online shop and although I had originally eyed one of their many pretty florals I ended up settling on a butterfly print.

The description read that "touching this new cool crisp cotton you might think you're handling silk", which sounded so lovely. When it arrived in the mail it was the tiniest of packages because the fabric is truly very lightweight, slippery and sheer like silk. I originally intended to make a dress out of the fabric, but unfortunately the fabric is only 112 cm wide, so two meters won't be enough. I think I'll make a blouse for spring instead but waiting for Christmas hasn't put me in a springy-blouse mood so the sewing has to wait until the weather shows signs of sunlight, flowers, and, well, butterflies again.

Thanks again Debi for hosting the giveaway and thanks Nancy at Fancymoon Fabric for the nice fabric!

Retro Self-Drafted Jeans

2011-11-25T16:28:00.001+01:00

Why am I so slow at sharing my sewing projects? I used to upload photos of my sewing projects to burdastyle or my blog practically as soon as I finished them back in the good old days. These days I finish a project and often don't even take photos until many weeks of wearing (or abandonment in my closet) have passed.

I made these jeans almost a year ago and have been wearing them loads in the colder seasons. I drafted them myself, slightly modifying my other pants patterns, all drafted following Joseph-Armstrong's instructions.

The jeans have a side zipper and four pockets - two at the back and two at the sides. It took me ages to figure out how to create an inseam side seam pocket while still using a side seam zipper. It works but you need to make tons of small drawings and really wrap your head around it until you figure out the mechanics and sewing steps involved.

The jeans also have cuffs and I made a matching belt and fabric-covered belt buckle to go with them. I really like the fit of the jeans, the only thing I don't like about the jeans is that they are mad heavy. The fabric is a really heavy-weight denim, which is sometimes a little, well, cumbersome to wear, but on the plus side keeps me warm in the winter. I have been thinking of chopping off the cuffs to make them more light-weight, but this may only be a drop in the bucket of the problem. I would love to make similar pants, perhaps even the same pattern, but in a more light-weight fabric, which may also add less bulk to my hips ;)

All in all, I have concluded that retro jeans are definitely the shit. I mean who wants to wear these tiny, bum-displaying, super skinny jeans, when you have the possibility of covering your entire bum securely for the whole day while still being able to breathe and move. Beats me. ;)

Embroidery Sunday

2011-11-18T15:46:00.001+01:00


My first matrioshka

In October I organized a Sewing Sunday at my place. Three of my friends came to my house on a Sunday afternoon and together we spent the day sewing a Buttercup Bag each. Sewing Sunday was a lot of fun and an overall success so I wanted to organize more events like this.

The beginnings of a colorful unicorn and rainbows and unicorns on a t-shirt

Last Sunday I invited a couple of people over for an Embroidery Sunday. Let me tell you it is difficult to find people who don't give you a funny look when you invite them for an Embroidery Sunday. The usual answer was "Embroidery?!" with a raised eyebrow followed by a politely hesitant "No, thank you" -- still not sure whether I was joking or not.

So I had to enlist the help of my best friend and so far most faithtful attendee of the needle-and-thread Sundays to find some more sewing and hand-made enthusiasts in her wide network of friends and facebookers. With her help we managed to get a "crowd" of five people together, two of whom I'd never met before but was assured were very nice (yes, indeed they were!).

A flowery cushion cover

We had a lovely afternoon of embroidery with copious amounts of tea an coffee consumed and everyone seemed to have seriously fallen for this ancient granny needlework, not being able to put down the needle and ending up staying in my house until way past ten o'clock.

Our stitching table

We used two Sublime Stitching patterns, which are very easy to use and a lot of fun to embroider. I mean who wants to embroider boring flowers and leaves and flowers and leaves in the same old colors when you can embroider unicorns and matrioshkas.

Our fastest 'embroideress' made this unicorn dancing on a rainbow

Although I have embroidered a little here and there previous to last Sunday -- all taught to me by my grandmother, an expert embroiderer -- I have never considered picking it up as a hobby. But I have to say I really liked spending a whole day embroidering and am hatching more embroidery plans as well as more Embroidery Sundays in the new year.

My finished matrioshka pillow case

Embroidery is very meditative and calming. Sewing is a much more full-on activity where you have to cut and iron and fit and iron again and and cut more and fit again and operate heavy machinery and sometimes really get sweating. Of course, that's also what I like about sewing but if you are in need of a calm, relaxing activity every now and then to unwind from a tiring day, try embroidery. It works.

What about you? Have you ever embroidered before? What patterns do you use? Are there any other fun patterns online for embroidery enthusiasts or is Sublime Stitching the only mecca?

Tutorial: Gaping Necklines

2011-10-22T14:40:00.000+02:00

A little while back (. . . eeehmmm, like 3 months ago . . .) Anna asked me if I could post a tutorial on how to avoid gaping necklines. Well, I've finally gotten around to it....

Gaping necklines are my absolute pet peeve. I find them so annoying that most of the time I do a preemptive neckline alteration before even trying on the muslin. I just know my neckline will gape, as anyone with an above average cup size will know. Even after an FBA your neckline will still gape. So you can either tape down your neckline....

Click for source

.... or just make a super simple, very tiny neckline alteration to shorten the neckline. So what will it be? Fashion tape? Neckline alteration? Fashion tape? Neckline alteration?

Well, here is what you do if you decide to alter your neckline:

Lengthen the bust dart of your pattern to reach the bust point. Then draw a dart from the neckline to the bust point. You can find out where your bust point is by either tissue-fitting or fitting a muslin to yourself. Mark your bust point and move and/or lengthen the dart to meet the bust point. You can determine the size of the neck dart by fitting a tissue pattern or muslin to you as well. Simply pinch away as much as you need, secure with a pin, mark the dart and then measure it and transfer the measurements to your pattern.

Once you have marked your dart, slash the bust dart and fold away the neckline dart. Your bust dart will increase in size and the neckline will look oddly misshapen. Add some tissue paper to your dart (and accept that it is now even bigger and more unwieldy than before) and redraw the neckline. (If you only need to shorten the neckline by a tiny bit you can simply fold away a tiny the dart and squash the paper a little, without actually cutting up the pattern and shifting the dart around.)

Voila! You are done!

For other styles, like princess seams, you should be able to shift the neckline dart into a seam. Sometimes you can also easily pinch away fabric directly at the seams so there is no need for shifting at all.

I hope this helped some of you big-busted and hopelessly neck-gaping ladies out there. As you can see there's no need to despair. Neckline gaping has easy remedies. Good luck with your alterations!

Mrs. Columbo

2011-10-20T22:09:00.000+02:00

I don't know what came first Columbo or trechcoats but I l-o-v-e both. I've had a trenchcoat for many years but have sadly outgrown it. As much as I would like to try my hand on making a trenchcoat from scratch one day, I could not pass up the opportunity to refashion my mum's old trenchcoat from the 1980s.

Why sew a completely new trenchcoat when you have an oversized Burberry coat at your disposal? What could be more luxurious than a vintage Burberry coat? Their trenchcoats are far out of my price tag and range anywhere from £600 to £5,000 (gasp!) on their website. So, snipp, snipp, out come the scissors and needle and in no time my trenchcoat was transformed from sad, baggy and shapeless to more fitted, shorter and with an all-important belt.

I opened up the whole shell and lining at the side seams and along the sleeves and shaped it to make it more fitted. Then I cut off some of the length and pieced the leftovers together to make a belt.

I bought sew-in interfacing to replicate the way the hem that I had cut off was sewn and then neatly replaced all the top-stitching on the coat. I left the lining intact as there was no need to replace it and I like the iconic check anyway.

I really love the way the coat fits now and am happy that I can have what feels like a completely new trenchcoat for the price of a belt buckle and some interfacing. The only problem is that my mum likes it too and wants her coat back. No way! Sorry, mum! :)

Me-Made-Mittwoch #2

2011-10-19T21:07:00.000+02:00

Hello, for my second installment of Me-Made-Mittwoch, or should we say Me-Made-Sonntag in disguise of Me-Made-Mittwoch, because truthfully I wore this outfit on Sunday and not today. Hey, what can I do?! Wednesday is my work-from-home and therefore lounging around the house in non-me-made pyjamas and loungewear day. Not an outfit I want to share online.

Hallo zu meinem zweiten Me-Made-Mittwoch Beitrag, der ja eigentlich ein Me-Made-Sonntag Outfit zeigt, das nur so tut, als wäre es auch tatsächlich heute getragen worden. Aber was soll ich bloß machen?! Mittwoch arbeite ich von zu Hause und schaffe es nur selten aus meinem nicht me-made Pyjama-Jogginganzug-Ensemble in präsentable Kleidung zu wechseln. Und das Heimarbeitsensemble ist nun wirklich nichts fürs Internet.

The outfit I wore on Sunday (to celebrate my step-sister's fifteenth birthday) is dress #4 from the June Summer Challenge. The dress is sleeveless, the fabric is very thin and only the bodice is lined, so not an ideal choice for mid October. But a little bit of layering can go a long way: I wore wooly tights, a long-sleeved turtleneck, a me-made slip and a cardigan. Not only was I warm and cozy but I also like the layered look and think the mustard yellow cardigan goes well with the dress. For more of today's Me-Made-Mittwoch outfits, click here.

Das Outfit, das ich euch zeige, und am Sonntag (zum fünfzehnten Geburtstag meiner Stiefschwester) getragen habe, ist Kleid #4 von der June Summer Dress Challenge. Das Kleid ist ärmellos, aus sehr dünnem Stoff und nur das Oberteil ist gefüttert, also keine wirklich ideale Wahl für Mitte Oktober. Aber ein paar Zwiebelschichten drunter und drüber gelegt und sogar das Sommerkleid kann im Winter recht warm sein. Ich habe Wollstrumpfhosen, einen Rollkragenpulli, einen selbstgemachten Unterrock und eine Strickweste mit dem Kleid kombiniert. Mir war nicht nur super warm und angenehm sondern mir gefällt dieser Schichten-Look sogar ganz gut. Für mehr Damen (und Herren?) in ihren heutigen Me-Made Outfits, bitte hier klicken.

Zoe's Re-fashioned Kilt: Passing on the Self-Stitched Love

2011-10-15T19:55:00.000+02:00

A little while ago I found a package from Brighton in my mail box containing the very, very first blog give-away I have ever won. Do you remember when Zoe hosted a give-away for her re-fashioned kilt over on her blog? Well, I am now the proud new owner of this very generous gift. Look, the skirt has traveled all the way from Brighton to Vienna:

I really appreciate this give-away (Thanks again, Zoe!) because I think it's a wonderful idea for recycling self-stitched clothing that you know you are not going to wear yourself.

Think about the many, many times we pour hours of work into a sewing project, experiment with a new pattern, a new style and then, when it's all done, realize we will never actually wear what we've just made. Or think about the many things you have sewn and worn but no longer wear, because you are bored with them or don't fit into them anymore. What to do with these clothes?

I have hung onto some self-stitched clothes out of sentimentality, like the very first dress I made all by myself. I have also brutally binned things that were either simply shoddily made, no longer suited my tastes or at some point didn't fit me anymore. I have refashioned some items into new wearables, like this dress that turned into this blouse; and the things I felt could perhaps still be of use to other people I have given to charity.

But I have never ever passed my self-stitched clothes on to friends, family or other self-stitched clothing enthusiasts in the blogosphere. Why? I suppose I've never thought that what I sew is sewn well enough to be appreciated by other people. Also, I make my clothes to my very specific measurements and feel that others may not get any use of my idiosyncratically shaped clothes.

But I really like the experience of getting another stitcher's clothes, being able to see another's self-stitched clothes in reality, see how they are made, look at the details and then, of course, getting some wear out of them myself. It's a lovely experience, which also sort of brings this whole online sewing community in contact with each other beyond the computer screen.

So, as you can imagine, I'm already wracking my brains to see what I could pass on to someone else. Before I bin my clothes next time I will have a little think and try to convince myself that perhaps someone out there would really appreciate what I have made despite its little flaws and idiosyncrasies. I certainly appreciate my new skirt.

What about you? Do you pass your unwanted self-stitched clothes on to others? And if not what keeps you from doing it?

Sewing Sunday: The Buttercup Bag

2011-10-12T20:25:00.000+02:00

Last Sunday I organised and hosted a Sewing Sunday in my home. Three of my friends plus me met up in the early afternoon in my apartment to each sew our very own Buttercup Bag. Two of my friends that attended have never really sewn a lot before so I thought it would be nice if we all worked on the same project so we could help each other more easily along the way.

One uf us made the Buttercup Bag as intended in the original pattern with strap and magnetic snap and the rest of us made the zippered version Tilly introduced us to last Christmas on her Crafty Christmas Club blog (which, by the way, has been reignited for a new fantastic season of prezzie crafting. Thanks, Tilly!). Do you remember her fun little pouches? I've made several since and gifted them as birthday and Christmas presents but never kept one for myself. Well, since last Sunday I own my very own Buttercup Bag. Here is a close-up of three of our fantastic bags: a purse version in a fantastic lobster print, a cute flowery version with a red bow and my retro apple fabric version.

Unfortunately, my friend Ritsya had to leave early so we didn't get to include her awesome bag in our final photoshoot. If you would still like to see cute things made by her, check out her fun little etsy shop, where she sells her own leather handcrafted purses and accessoires.

The day was really fun and we ended up sewing for a whole seven hours.We had coffee and tea and I made muffins for the occasion. I was truly exhausted afterwards, as I'm sure we all were. Still, it was so much fun that I definitely want to host another Sewing Sunday. Next time around we are thinking of getting together for some embroidery. The good thing about doing embroidery together is that we don't have to worry about having enough sewing machines and don't need as many tools and supplies, which might make it easier for people to attend.

Do any of you host or attend any sewing or craft meet-ups? How are they organized and what projects do you make? Does everyone bring their own project ideas or do you work on something together? I'd really love to hear about your experience and ideas on sewing and craft get-togethers!

Me-Made-Mittwoch #1

2011-10-05T19:55:00.001+02:00

Phew, I've had a long blogging break! I am back with a new bilingual installment in both English and German. I've recently discovered many interesting German language blogs and am trying to connect a little more with the blogosphere on the homefront. Sometimes it's nice to read about things happening near me for a change (well, kind of...Berlin, Hamburg, et al. aren't necessarily around the corner) instead of longingly reading posts about bloggers meeting up for fabric shopping and pattern swaps in far away places like New York. Sigh! So from now on I am planning on writing some posts, particularly those that may be of special interest to people living in my corner of the world, in both German and English.

Ich habe eine lange Blogpause gehabt bin nun aber wieder zurück mit einem ganz neuen zweisprachigen Format in English und in Deutsch. In letzter Zeit habe ich im Internet viele neue interessante deutschsprachige Blogs entdeckt, die mich dazu inspiriert haben auch mal mehr mit der deutschpsrachigen Blogosphere in Kontakt zu kommen und dazu beizutragen. Es ist ja auch mal schön, was von Bloggern zu lesen, die nicht im fernen Amerika oder Australien zu Hause sind, sondern schon fast greifbar nah sind. Daher plane ich in Zukunft einige Beiträge, besonders diese, die lokalen Bezug haben, sowohl auf Deutsch als auch auf Englisch zu schreiben.

Today's post is my very first contribution to a quickly growing community of Me-Made-Mittwoch bloggers. Me-Made-Mittwoch, obviously inspired by Zoe's various Me-Made challenges, is a way of sharing your self-stitched outfits with your readers on a regular basis year round, namely every Wednesday (Mittwoch means Wednesday in German). The challenge was started by Catherine from the blog Cat-und-Kascha and you can read about it (in German!) here.

Mein allererster zweisprachiger Beitrag ist gleichzeitig mein Einstieg in Me-Made-Mittwoch. Ich denke, dass ich der deutschsprachigen Community wohl gar nicht mehr erklären muss, was es mit dem Me-Made-Mittwoch auf sich hat, solltet ihr aber tatsächlich noch nie davon gehört haben, schaut euch diesen Beitrag auf Cat-und-Kascha, der Initiatorin von Me-Made-Mittwoch an, der alles erklären wird.

My first Me-Made-Mittwoch outfit features two self-stitched garments I haven't blogged about yet, because despite my blogging absence I have been sewing lots, so there are many new things to show. The grey-black semi-circle skirt is my own pattern and the purple t-shirt is made using Onion 5035 but I modified the t-shirt slightly to make the neckline drape deeper and more voluminous. To see what the other participants of Me-Made-Mittwoch are wearing today, click here.

In meinem ersten Me-Made-Mittwoch Outfit hab ich gleich zwei Teile an, über die ich noch nicht gebloggt habe: meinen grau-schwarzen Tellerrock und mein violettes drapiertes T-shirt. Den Tellerrock habe ich nach eigenem Schnitt gemacht und er ist eigentlich nure ein halber Teller und das violette T-shirt ist Onion 5035, aber etwas verändert, sodass die Falten tiefer in den Ausschnitt fallen. Um zu sehen, was die anderen Me-Made-Mittwoch TeilnehmerInnen denn heute so tragen, klick auf diesen Link.

I'll show you more pictures of both in a future post. That's me for today, have a nice week and happy sewing!

Ich werde von beiden Teilen noch mehr Photos machen und darüber in einem zukünftigen Beitrag bloggen. Das war's von mir für heute, bis bald und fröhliches Nähen!

From the Vaults: Port Elizabeth #2

2011-08-07T20:10:00.000+02:00

Bye, bye July! Hello, August! How time flies! July went by in a whizz with holidays in Norway, visitors for a week and a couple of new freelance jobs to keep me superbusy. So, July ended up being a complete no-sew month. Yesterday I finally had some time for sewing again and was so happy when I could feel how I was back in the zone - the sewing zone, if you know what I mean! That time and space when nothing else matters. I made a quick Sorbetto Top to ease me back into sewing but haven't taken any pics. So nothing to share with you yet. Sadness.

In the meantime, I thought I'd show you one of the other many, many projects I have yet to share with the blogging world. I'm the absolute laziest when it comes to taking photos (see Sorbetto above), so a lot of my projects end up being photographed months after finishing them. This kind of spoils the spur-of-the-moment, real-time blogging feel but nevertheless I like to make an effort to share all my creations online at some point.

So, this issue of From the Vaults features my second attempt at a Port Elizabeth blouse (first attempt here), made circa March 2011:

This time I experimented with a scalloped Peter Pan collar and a keyhole opening with a tiny cute button in the back:

I do like the collar and keyhole but think the scallops are not very noticeable on this busy pattern.

This type of design may have been more prominent with a solid color fabric. Maybe I will make it again in a different fabric. I used to wear the blouse loads but have recently become annyoed with how short it is. I really do recommend to lengthen this pattern, especially if you want to tuck it into your trousers or skirts. Hope you like the blouse and it inspires more Port Elizabeth creations. This is a wonderfully easy and wearable pattern. I have also blogged about how to do an FBA and add tucks to the pattern to add more shaping if need be. The tutorial can be found here.

Hope you are all well and enjoying your summer. Will be back soon!

June Challenge Review: 33 Dresses in 1 Month

2011-07-15T20:39:00.000+02:00

Don't fret! This is not a new challenge but the amount of dresses all June Challenge participants have made collectively during the month of June. Isn't this great! You can have a look at all the creations on our flickr page or browse through the participants' blogs (all listed in the right-hand column of this blog ->). Here is a little photo summary of my contribution:

I'm really glad I set myself this challenge because not only do I have four more dresses to wear this summer, but it also made me reconsider my sewing style. Here is what I learned:

1) Trust your instincts! It is sometimes good not to second-guess yourself all the time. With most of the dresses I made I went with my first instinct and just started sewing, because there simply was no time to reconsider pattern and fabric choices. Nevertheless, I'm really happy with the outcome of my dresses. So, quick decisions made on instinct are not necessarily bad.

2) Use your stash (yes, also the really, really special fabric at the very back of your stash which you've saved for years)! Sewing four dresses in one month also forced me to eat into my fabric stash. Every dress was sewn with fabric from my stash and some of it had been lying there untouched for years. Mostly because I didn't want to spoil it and could never quite decide what pattern would match each fabric best. I don't know if the choices I made where the best, but I have finished garments now instead of just fabric collecting dust in my stash and that is good.

3) It is okay to take sewing short cuts! I also learnt that going quickly can have its merits. Sewing should be fun and rewarding and sometimes a quick dress is just the thing I need. I made only haphazard muslins for my dress bodices, tried to minimize hand-sewing and made no full linings. Still, I'm happy with my dresses and might use one of the dress patterns to re-make it more carefully with lining, hand-sewing and all that jazz in the future.

4) A well-fitted sloper can go miles! It is quite possible to use one pattern again and again and again with only slight modifications for completely different looks. Dresses #1, #2 and #4 (my favourites!) were all sewn using only one bodice pattern. The skirts of dresses #1 and #2 are shirred rectangles of varying widths and for dress #4 I drafted a simple A-line skirt.

All in all, I'm really happy to have challenged myself to make four dresses in one month. Still, I'm also glad to be sewing a little more leisurely for the rest of the summer, taking my time with each piece and going back to a little more musing and pondering over farbic and patterns before jumping right into another project. Although, of course I have plenty in mind. I recently made a little list with tiny drawings attached for all the projects I have on my mind and would like to sew and, phew, let me tell you, that list is scarily long. It's like a five-year plan! What to do next?! We'll see...

I hope you all enjoyed the June Challenge as much as I did. Thanks for joining me! It really motivated and cheered me up to see your sewing progress and finished projects. Hope you are having a relaxed sewing summer (or winter). See you!

June Challenge Summer Dress #4: The Beach Dress

2011-07-04T13:37:00.000+02:00

Here are the photos I promised you of my final June Challenge Dress. My mum took them this morning on the beach. This is me with a rusty old bike we found yesterday by the bins. Now it's mine and it's very tough to cycle. I need to give it some more oil and a good clean.

My final dress was once again made modifying the trusted bodice pattern I used for the June Challenge dresses #1 and #2. Only this time I didn't use a rectangle as a skirt but actually drafted an A-line skirt. The front bodice bit was designed with lots of experimentation and improvisation.

The dress also looks very pretty and a little more dressy with a belt. I'd like to make a red belt for it, which will go with a pair of red shoes I have. The dress has already been worn to a job interview with a dressy jacket and at the beach, so it's very versatile. Probably my favourite dress of the dresses I made in June.

I wanted to write a little June Challenge review post while on holidays as well, but I don't think I will be posting anymore before I get back home. The internet is so very slow and it takes ages to upload anything that I may as well be sending you these pictures by snail mail. I'm not a very patient person so this is not working for me. Well done everyone for making so many pretty dresses in June and keep uploading them to our flickr group. See you after the holidays and have a nice week!

June Challenge Summer Dress #4: Preview

2011-06-30T14:51:00.002+02:00

I am finished with my fourth dress but haven't had the time to take decent photos yet, because I'm off on holidays to Norway. However, I didn't want to leave before giving you a little preview of my dress before June is over:

I will have internet in Norway but may not be able to respond to all of you as quickly. I hope to get up some nice pictures of my fourth dress, a June Challenge review post and some more related stuff at the weekend but will be posting from our little cabin by the sea. The internet will hopefully be up. Fingers crossed. Hope you get lots of sewing done and perhaps some final June Challenge dresses. Keep filling up our little flickr group with photos!

Do You Need Motivation?!

2011-06-29T14:00:00.002+02:00

June Challengers, there is one more day to go! Do you need some motivation and a quick dress fix?

I have lately been inspired by a couple of youtube simple dress making tutorials. The dresses require no pattern and only basic sewing skills and can easily be made up in an evening. In many of these tutorials the fabric required is very little and often it's some sort of jersey. So, if you need a quick dress fix and have some jersey lying about you could give one of these dresses a try. I have already completed my four June Challenge dresses, but there is always July....and more sewing!

This video is by RebbSew. She has a lot of sewing videos on youtube. She shows you step-by-step how to make very simple dresses and tops with a hand-held camera and absolutely no talking. But her videos are so clear that no explanation is necessary. My favourite one is this little stripey dress tutorial:

I also discovered GiannyL's video stream. She also has no-talk sewing videos but she poses in her dresses. Her videos are really cute but some of her dresses are a little too much on the sexy side for my taste. I'm more of a flat granny shoes, vintage cardigan and below-the-knee dresses type and think showing off my bare shoulders is already pretty daring. But this dress is really cute:

And then there is ThreadBanger's video stream with lots and lots of different dress tutorial videos. My favourite is this shirred dress tutorial although I'd probably only wear this sort of dress on the beach:

What I find so refreshing about these videos, especially the two ladies who sew up their own simple dresses, is that the apporach to sewing is so much more casual than my own. A sort of cut-and-go style with lots of experimenting. Whenever I sew I'm much more careful about taking measurments, thinking about what patterns and what size to use, making muslins, cutting properly or even truing seams. Their style is pure DIY: a sewing machine, some fabric, pins and go! I have made very few projects that I have appraoched this way.

What about you? How do you sew? Do you often sew patternless? Do you just take a piece of fabric and see where it takes you? I think I want to try making more projects with a more freestyle approach. Anyways, I hope the videos have given you some inspiration should you still want to make a last-minute June Challenge dress. Cut, Sew, Go!

June Challenge Summer Dress #3: Purple Swing Dress

2011-06-28T11:20:00.000+02:00

Finally, I have pictures of my third June Challenge dress. Sorry, the pics are not great. My boyfriend snapped them quickly before I left the house to meet with some friends yesterday evening. I used the Swing Dress pattern available over at Sense and Sensibility Patterns. I used the e-pattern version and had to print and tape all the pattern pieces together. Still better than paying and waiting for shipping.

I had to make almost no changes to the pattern. I only let out the side seam a tiny bit in the waist and shortened the skirt. However, if I make the pattern again, I will shorten the bodice slightly and add a little width across the bust to prevent the front from pulling. Also, I'm not in love with the way you have to hold the front overlapping pieces together with a brooch. I would prefer if they were sewn shut and would not gape and the brooch was only decorative. Still, I might make the dress again with some minor changes and a popping, colourful fabric to modernize the style of the dress.

with hand-knit flower brooch bought at a handmade market in Norway

June Challenge Dress #4 has to be hemmed today and then it's all done. I see that some of you are getting close to finishing your four dresses as well. Well done! Nommh has already completed more than four. Check them out on our flickr group. We'll all be dressed in style this summer (or winter down under)! See you!

A Word of Warning: Seam Finishes and Scallops

2011-06-21T21:10:00.000+02:00

First off: love how more and more dresses are added to our June Challenge flickr board! Check them out here if you haven't seen them yet. I'm finished with June Challenge Dress #3 and will share pictures soon. One more to go! I hope I'll make it in time.

In other news: my black shirt waist dress has been saved! I spent some time at the weekend encasing the raw edges of the dress with grey bias tape and zig-zagging the others properly. I clearly didn't do a good job finishing the seams when sewing the dress, as the raw edges came out of the washing machine all frayed and tangled up. Now the dress looks a lot neater from the inside.

Sadly, what also happended is that the corners of the scallops at the hem started to fray and unravel on the outside. The corners of the scallops have to be clipped very close to the seam so they will lay nice and flat when turned. But since the dress is made of linen (which frays a lot) the scallops didn't hold up in the wash, but the raaw edges came through to the right side at the corners. Disaster!

I solved the problem by zig-zagging neatly around the edge of the scallops from the outside. The stitching is hardly visible when the dress is worn but the scallops have a neat finish again and will hopefully survive more machine washes.

How do you sew scallops? Has this happened to you before? Any tips and tricks on sewing and clipping scallops correctly so that they don't fray?

A New Day, A New Dress Inspiration: The Swing Dress

2011-06-17T11:36:00.001+02:00

First off, thank you all so much for your lovely comments on my black shirt waist dress. I really appreciate it! I have since washed the dress and discovered that I have done a terrible job on the inside seam finishes. The dress looks like it has tangeld-up seaweed inside. Oh, I so wish I had a serger. But I don't, so I'll spend the weekend with a roll of bias tape getting those seam ends nicely tucked away before the dress unravels completely.

Also, after finishing my black shirt waist dress I went through a few inspiration-less days with no desire or urge to make a dress at all. Sometimes your mind just goes blank and you forget about all the ideas you've had. That's why it's good to keep a notebook or sketch book you can turn to when your mind is numb and uninspired. I have one but don't use it half as often as I should. But, luckily, I have plenty of online and offline inspiration folders to carry me over the dry spells - and from whence comes this inspiration: The Swing Dress.

Click for inspiring pictures of finished Swing Dresses

Not long ago, I'm sure you remember, Casey hosted a 1940s swing dress sew-along. I couldn't participate but stored some pictures as inspiration for the future in one of my many folders. And now the right time seems to have come: it's a summery dress, I have farbic I can use to make it and I could buy the pattern as an e-pattern instead of waiting for shipping until July :)

I've already assembled the pieces for a muslin and I'm in love with the fit. It seems too good to be true, but as far as I can see from my muslin, the only alteration I need to make is add a little more width to the waistband. I don't think I've ever used a pattern where I only had to change one tiny thing. It must be a good omen and sure is welcome in a month of sewing four dresses. Also, the sew-along tutorials on Casey's blog, which can all be found here, are very helpful and will certainly speed the sewing along. So, June Challenge Dress #3 is on its way....

Tutorial: Adding a Button Extension to a Bodice

2011-06-16T14:29:00.000+02:00

Following my recent shirt waist dress project I thought I would write (and draw :) a little tutorial on how to add a button extension to a bodice pattern. A button extension can be added to any bodice back or front as long as the bodice is not too tight (gaping!). In this case a little ease added on to the bodice will help to prevent gaping. There are two different ways of adding a button extension to a bodice. First:

FOLDED BUTTON EXTENSION

For this extension you add onto the bodice center front (or back) the required amount for folding over the edge for a button extension. In this drawing you can see the button extension that needs to be added on to a bodice front. The broken line is the center front line. You want to place your buttons along the center front line, therefore you have to extend the bodice on both left and right side so that they can overlap at the center front.

The part that is filled in red is the extension you will see at the front when the garment is finished. The blue part matches the red part exactly, only mirror reversed, and folds back. The last bit is the seam allowance you need to add on. Especially with smaller button extensions I make the seam allowance as wide as the extension itself. So this means that for a button extension that is 3 cm wide you will need to add 1.5 cm (half the front extension from CF) + 3 cm (full extension for folding) + 3 cm (or less - for seam allowance) = 7.5 cm. When you fold your extension it will look like this:

You won't see anything at the front and you can either just fold the extension without any sewing or fold it and sew the extension shut along the edge (shown in pink). I usually choose not to sew the edge. Once the buttons and buttonholes are sewn into place the extension will no longer unfold but stay put.

SEW-ON BUTTON EXTENSION

Another method for adding a button extension to a bodice is by adding a sew-on extension. This is useful in case you have already cut your garment and decide later that you would like buttons along the front, or if you have too little fabric to cut the whole piece in one. This method is also useful for refashions. Any old t-shirt or sweater can be made into a blouse or cardigan by adding a sew-on extension.

In the drawing you can see the sew-on extension. It is twice the width of your desired extension plus seam allowance on either side. It is folded over your center front or back and then sewn at least along the inside edge (pink), and optionally along the outer edge, through all layers.

DETERMINING THE SIZE OF THE BUTTON EXTENSION

Before you draw your extension onto your bodice you have to decide how big the buttons you will sew on will be. The size of the buttons will determine the width of the extension. I sometimes forget to calculate what width I need beforehand and just go with whatever width I fancy for the style, but this sometimes ends up in uncentered buttons. So, I generally recommend to decide on the size of buttons beforehand. This diagram shows, what I consider, the correct placement of buttons on a buttonhole extension:

The button should be placed excatly in the middle of the extension and should be half a button size away from the side edge. So, if say, your button is 2 cm in diameter your extension should be 4cm wide. This way you can place your button right at the center and with half a button width away from either edge of the extension. I don't have a hard and fast rule for the distance between the top edge of the extension and the button, but I would say it should be no less than half a button width and no more than the full width of the button.

PLACING BUTTONS AND BUTTONHOLES CORRECTLY

Buttons should obviously be spaced evenly and sit right at the center of the extension. Depending on the style of the garment and the size of the buttons the distance between the buttons can vary. However, always consider that a button should be placed where the apex of the bust is to prevent gaping. This is really important, particularly for the more busty among us. Threads has a great tutorial on button placement.

For buttonholes, have a look at this drawing:

I used to sew my buttonholes so that the middle of each buttonhole would macth the center of the button, but this is not the correct way of doing it. Your buttons will be centered and the center fronts (or backs) will match up if the center of the button corresponds to the inner corner of the buttonhole in a horizontal buttonhole and to the upper corner in a vertical buttonhole. It makes sense if you think about it, because when wearing you will naturally stretch the front apart and/or the blouse will hang, pulling down. Naturally the buttons will come to rest at these points of the buttonholes.

One last note: Don't forget to interface your extensions before sewing!

I hope this tutorial was helpful to some of you and inspired you to make yourself a shirt dress for the June Challenge. Happy sewing!

June Challenge Summer Dress #2: Shirt Waist with Scallops

2011-06-15T22:07:00.000+02:00

My camera is working again. Yeah! So here is my second June Challenge Dress for your viewing pleasure :)

It's surprisingly difficult to get good pictures taken in full sunlight :)

This dress is on the extreme opposite of the colour scheme to my first June Challenge Dress: it's black and only black. Black may not be a very summery colour but it sure makes for an excellent wardrobe staple.

I used the same pattern as for the Ghana Dress for the bodice. I only took away the cap sleeves and added a button extension to the front. Again, the skirt is only a rectangle but a much smaller one this time. The scallops at the bottom are faced and I used an invisible zipper on the side seam.

I love the dress for its versatility and easy wearing. These pictures were taken on a trip to our local river for swimming and the dress is perfect for such trips. The simple black can be combined with fun belts, cardigans and shoes to make it a little more colourful and when the weather cools down I can use it as a jumper and wear t-shirts and blouses underneath.

I'm planning to take some more pictures on how the dress can be worn. These pictures just don't do it full justice.

I love how our little flickr group page is filling up with lovely pictures of all your dresses! Keep up the sewing, we'll make it! It's only half-time, lots of sewing time left....Happy June sewing!

June Challenge Summer Dress Inspiration: The Shirt Dress

2011-06-13T20:50:00.000+02:00

I'm finished with my June Challenge Dress #2! Only I cannot show it to you. As I was taking pictures of it today my camera suddenly shut itself off and I haven't managed to turn it back on since. I hope it is not broken! I hope it will recover. No! I might be able to get pictures done on a borrowed camera some time this week. I really, really hope so. What will I do without being able to take pictures??? Nooooo.

In the meantime, I will share some summer dress inspiration with you about a style I really love but have never worn or sewn before (Well, until June Challenge Summer Dress #2 came along): Shirt Dresses. I think shirt dresses look really smart and can be worn and styled in so many ways. Here are some of my favourite versions:

1. Electric Blue Shirt Waist Dress (Source unknown); 2. Hello, Nostalgia Dress by ModCloth; 3. Afternoon Sweets Dress by ModCloth; 4. 60s Chiffon Shirt Waist Dress (Source unknown)

The green chiffon dress with the collar and bowtie is so pretty. All these dresses can be made using a very simple pattern, like the ones I posted about here by adding a button extension to the center front of the pattern. Alternatively, there are, of course, numerous beautiful patterns available, in which the work has been done for you already. Vogue 8613 is a nice pattern and would work well to recreate the electric blue and stripey red shirt dresses above:

This Vogue 8577, which looks like a Vintage Vogue pattern but isn't, is also very pretty. The polka dots are gorgeous:

One of my favourite shirt dress patterns is this one from Butterick. It has a Peter Pan collar. Go Peter Pan collar!

Burdastyle has a ton of shirt dresses as well. Remember the Jonny Dress from way back when burdastyle patterns were still all free and the site had a small but manageable selection of patterns (Sigh...the olden days):

I've been wanting to make this dress for so long. I especially like their version with transparent sleeves. But maybe this is something for the colder months. And then, of course, you could take any shirt pattern and just add a skirt and, voila, you have a shirt dress. Should be simple enough. Are you planning on making a shirt dress for the June Challenge? Which patterns are you using or are you going to modify a dress or shirt pattern? Any shirt dress favourites or are you anti-shirt dress?

Quick Update before Bed

2011-06-10T00:18:00.003+02:00

So cool!

A few quick updates from me before I have to go to sleep after a long evening of sewing:

Thank you all so much for your lovely comments on my Ghana Dress. This is so encouraging! My dress has even been included as a featured project on the burdastyle front page. I don't think this has ever happended before.
I'm really excited to see how everyone is getting on with the June Challenge. A few lovely dresses have already been completed: The 1am dress by Dibs, Burda 101 dress by Freya in a lovely swiss dot, and a pretty flowery dress by Shawnta. Did I forget anyone?
My second June Challenge dress is almost done....almost...
I'm in the process of switching from Bloglovin' as my blog reader to Google Reader, although I don't really like using all of Google's services (can they look inside my brain?), but what can you do? Their stuff is just good. My decision came after seeing this great video found here:

Google Reader Tricks for Craft Bloggers from Diane Gilleland on Vimeo.

Did you know about all these features? Hope you are all having a great time stitching up your summer dresses. See you soon...

June Challenge Summer Dress #1: The Ghana Dress

2011-06-06T00:17:00.000+02:00

Tada! My first June Challenge Dress is completed. This dress was already finished on Thursday but the weather was terrible so I didn't get a chance to wear it straight away to get nice pictures taken. The dress is called the Ghana dress, because the fabric I used was brought to me from Ghana by a friend who visited there last summer. Unfortunately, neither of the lengths of fabrics he brought were long enough to make a complete dress, so I decided to combine both fabrics into one dress. It didn't look like the two fabrics would go together at first, but surprisingly they do!

I used one of the lengths for the bodice and skirt part and the other one for the tie at the waist, all the facings, the in-seam pockets and for lengthening the skirt - because it was too short and looked silly.

It looks as if the pattern I used is this one from burdastyle magazine 02/2011 I posted about last week, but it isn't. I would have liked to use it but I'm very weary of using commerical patterns these days. I use them for inspiration but often use my own slopers to make the actual patterns. This is mainly because with almost all commerical patterns I use I have to do a labourious, very large FBA, which requires several muslin fittings and more alterations resulting from the FBA.

So, the way I solved the problem for this dress is that I used the bodice of Vogue 8615 - which is a custom fit pattern with separate pieces for A, B, C, D cups - which fit me perfectly cut out in the D cup. I then altered the bodice the way I wanted it to look, moving the dart around, cutting a deeper neckline and adding cap sleeves.

The skirt is simply made of three rectangles (one at the front and two in the back - to allow for the back zip) and I also added a long tie that can be tied in the back or front.

This dress is one of these dresses I wasn't sure I was going to like at all. I made it with fabric I've had in my stash for almost a whole year and never dared to cut into - because it's not like I can go buy more in Ghana anytime soon. Inspired by the June Challenge I put an end to procrastination and hesitation and just went for it. And I love it!

I'll probably use a similar pattern for my next dress to keep it simple. I already have some ideas but haven't started yet. Go June Challenge!

Design Inspiration: Sika Designs

2011-06-02T20:48:00.001+02:00

It's the second of June and I have finished one dress already! Woohoo! I don't have photos of it yet. I want to take some in the sun and, of course, as soon as June came around the rain did too, so I cannot even wear my dress. Sniff. The weekend should be a bit sunnier so I'll get photos done then. Hopefully. In the meantime I'll leave you with some more summer dress inspiration which will give you a little clue to what inspired my dress....

I've been wanting to post about this fabulous designer for ages: Sika Designs. Sika is a UK-based label who draw their inspiration from West African prints and designs. Their fabric is all sourced from Ghana where it is made using traditional methods, such as tie dye and wax prints. I love the way their collections are inspired from traditional African prints and colours but with modern and quirky designs and styling. My favourite Sika collections are kaleidoscope, wonderland and fusion. Here are some fun pictures from the kaleidoscope and wonderland collections:

Sika: Scope Wrap Dress

Sika: Wonderland Shirt Dress

And some more versions of these pretty dresses in various farbics:

The fusion collection is a bit more subdued than the kaleidoscope and wonderland collections but nevertheless beautiful:

Sika: Fusion Empire Line Dress

Sika: Bow Shirt Dress

Sika is a wonderful place for June Challenge summer dress inspiration, especially if you want to bring some colour into your summer wardrobe. By the way, three new people have joined our challenge: Dibs and the Machine (love the name of your blog!), two hippos, and Shelly. You can join our little Flickr group too: info here. I have also added a list of participating bloggers underneath the June Challenge badge in the right-hand column of my blog. Let me know if I forgot someone! Keep up the sewing and have a nice June evening or day, wherever you are...

June Challenge Summer Dress Inspiration: The Simple Pattern

2011-05-31T22:03:00.000+02:00

One, if not more, of my June Challenge summer dresses will most likely be made from simple dress patterns. Why? Because I am lazy? :) No, because simple patterns often make for more wearbale day-to-day dresses, which are exactly the kind of dresses I want to have sewn up by the end of June. Nothing that I feel too fancy in or have toiled over for so many hours that I think wearing it demands a special occasion of some sort. Just plain summer dresses, like the dress in this Lisette pattern:

It looks so simple and still so cute and versatile. The pattern is similar to the infamous Heidi dress on burdastyle which I have been wanting to make for ages:

I like some of the member projects a lot more than burdastyle's futuristic Heidi. Another nice pattern and very simple is this Vogue pattern. It looks a bit uninspiring as a fashion drawing but the line drawing shows a very pretty shape and yet a simple dress:

Another cute dress is this burdastyle magazine empire waist dress. I love empire waist dresses:

Sans bubble skirt the dress is even prettier like in this beautiful member creation.

I hope I get to make some similar dresses in June. Once I have a good simple pattern to work from I might actually - yes! - use it again. I have never ever used a pattern twice! Really! I somehow always get inspired by difficult and challenging projects I never make again. Wearability or ease of construction are rarely the reasons that get me sewing. This may make for interesting sewing but leaves me with very few everyday garments and an ever-increasing shelf of fabric. A well-fitted and simple dresses may actually make me use a pattern twice for a quick dress fix in the future. What do you think?

Have you used patterns more than once? Are they simple or difficult patterns? Do you like working with simple patterns? Or are you like me and tend to pick difficult and never-ending projects?

I hope to post some more dress inspirations this month to get us all motivated for June summer dress sewing. Tomorrow will be my first day sewing a dress for the challenge and I don't even know what to sew yet. It's decision-making time!

4 x 1 June Challenge Flickr Group

2011-05-29T22:16:00.000+02:00

As suggested by nommh I have created a June Challenge Flickr Group for us to share pictures of our progress or finished projects more easily with our group. You can join the group by heading over to our Flickr group page here. This is my very first time on Flickr - yes! - so please let me know if I have forgotten to set up something important or if you have problems joining the group.

As it stands now, only members of our group should be able to post pictures and join in on discussions, but the group is still public so anyone can view pictures and discussions on our group site.

Hope you are all gearing up for our challenge! New members are very welcome! Just drop me a line.

Our Little June Challenge Group

2011-05-27T14:48:00.002+02:00

I'm so excited and also a little nervous (will I manage?) about the June Summer Dress Challenge. I was so happy to see that some of you have decided to join me. So far, Freya from Handmade by Freya, Gry from ~~From the Stash~~ her new blog Books and Black Wool, neighbourhood.gal from Sewing Up the Neighbourhood, nommh from Textile Eskapaden, Jennifer and KC from The Sewcratic Method have decided to join me in the June Challenge. Camelia Crinoline, are you in too? Of course, you can make winter dresses instead of summer dresses.

Freya is putting me to shame by already having come up with a plan of action for her four dresses, including patterns and fabric. I wish I was that organised! I love her pattern choices. I'm definitely thinking of using the Burda pattern from burdastyle 02/2011 Freya is planning to use:

This dress pattern is also available with cap-sleeves. If you don't have the burdastyle magazine, the pattern can be downloaded from burdastyle online here and here.

The dress seems so simple to make, only a bodice front and back and a rectangle for a skirt. Heaven!

But Freya's pattern choices are also quite ambitious including boning, pattern adjustments and piping details and this beautiful Eclair dress from Colette patterns:

I haven't decided yet which way to go. Will I challenge myself even more by making difficult, labour-intenisve dresses or will I go the easy way? My inclination is to steer on the side of simplicity for easy to wear, simple summer dresses. But then again a dress with boning....? Sigh! How are you planning on approaching the challenge? The simple or the difficult way? Have you decided on patterns already?

I'm looking forward to seeing all your ideas, progress and finished projects. Please, blog-less Jennifer, do share some pictures with us! Maybe via flickr or photobucket? I can share links on my blog. And to anyone else who wants to join our little group: please do! Just leave me a comment.

June Challenge

2011-05-25T19:06:00.001+02:00

As you may have noticed I never partake in any of Zoe's fabulous Me-Made and Self-Stitched challenges. I just cannot be bothered to take photos of myself every single day. That's a chore! Also I feel like I'm already wearing mostly handmade, second-hand and hand-me-downs every day. There's nothing I want to change about this. I don't really shop for clothes anymore except second-hand and underwear, shoes, etc. So I somehow feel it's not really a challenge for me.

However, as intended with the Me-Made/Self-Stitched challenges, I also want to make myself sew more and be a little more productive with my sewing. I often fall into a state of sewing limbo between projects where dreaming about sewing takes precedence over any actual sewing and nothing ever gets done. I'm a very slow sewer and do not live by my self-imposed sewing mantra of Cut fearlessly!. Instead every new sewing project is ushered in by a long period of hemming and hawing over what fabric to choose with which pattern and how to execute it.

Therefore I have set myself my own little sewing challenge for the month of June:

Sew 4 summer dresses in 1 month!

Now for some of you this might not seem like a big challenge, but it is for me. Not only will I have to stop procrastinating and doubting my decisions but I will also fill a gaping hole in my wardobe: summer dresses!

It would be great if any of you want to join me in my challenge. Just leave a comment on this post to let me know. It may be fun to share our experiences and for all you Me-Made-Juners it might give you some more Me-Made-June variety. If you want to join me you can copy and paste the html code below on your blog to display the June Challenge badge:

Five more days to go before the challenge begins. I will keep you updated on my ideas and progress. So long, happy sewing!

Beware the Moths

2011-05-04T00:07:00.000+02:00

I wrote this post for the ReFashion Co-Op blog this week and thought I'd repost it here on my blog: Beware the Moths! Or my tips on moth prevention and control. A sinister topic.

When I posted my Sweater Refashion Tutorial on my blog some time ago and wrote about how I love bringing home old, wool sweaters from thrift stores to refashion, one wise reader asked in the comments: "But what do you do to be sure you aren't bringing moths home with the sweaters?"

This is a good question. As refashioners we all find ourselves scouring for new refashionable materials in thrift stores, so I thought I'd share my tips on moth prevention and control.

What to look for

When picking up garments made of natural fibres, particularly wool or fur, but also silk and other natural fibres, it is good to inspect them carefully before taking anything home with you. Little larvae feed on fabric and chew little holes into it. So any little holes in the garment could be a sign of suspicious activity and mean that the garment is possibly infested with moths. Any good thrift store should know how to prevent the little beasts themselves and should not have infested garments hanging about, but you never know, so it's always good to check. If a garment smells clean and is not stained it is less likely to be infested as larvae mostly feed in areas where there are food stains or sweat. So the cleaner the garment looks to you, the less likely it is to be infested with moths.

Getting rid of moths

There is no sure way of telling if a garment is infested or not, so if you happen to bring home moths with your new thrifted sweater, either toss it or put it in the freezer. Yes, the freezer! I like to put all woolen garments I pick up in thrift stores into the freezer for 72 hours or more before I let them anywhere near my closet. 72 hours of freezing will kill all pests that may be lurking in your sweater. It's a safe and environmentally-friendly way of treating moth-infested sweaters. Some people even suggest microwaving but I have never tried this before and would be very cautious of putting precious woolens into a microwave.

Caring for your woolens

Once your new refashioned woolen garment hangs in your closet take good care of it, so it doesn't attract any moths in the future. Keep it clean! Before storing any woolens away for the winter they should first be cleaned. I also like to throw a couple of drops of lavender oil in with each cycle of laundry or when hand-washing my woolens. It makes my clothes smell nice and it is a natural moth deterrent.

So, beware the moths, but don't let them scare you away from thrifting and refashioning woolens. If you have any other moths tips to share, please do!

The Royal Engagement Dress

2011-04-25T22:04:00.000+02:00

I'm not really one for keeping up with celebrities' lives and rarely know who is wearing what designer to which event, but when I saw this dress I just had to post about it. I'm a little late in the game, I guess, since the royal engagement was months ago already. But hey, the wedding is this week, so I'm still not too late.

Isn't her dress beautiful! The color is gorgeous and I love the way the silk jersey drapes. The layered detail across the midriff is stunning. The designer is Issa and the dress can still be gawked at from all angles on net-a-porter although it has long been sold out. The dress in net-a-porter features a knotted and tied-up version of the midriff section of the dress, which is pretty too.

Within a week of the royal engagement all sorts of high-street chains started selling their own replicas of the infamous dress. Chica Boutique sells one for £100 in different colors and it really does look very similar. Only it's not made of silk but viscose. Less classy.

Even Tesco had a knockoff of their own for less than £20. But, oh no, not glamorous at all! Nevertheless it apparently sold out within an hour.

And there is even a Barbie doll avaialble of Kate Middleton wearing this very dress.The Barbie doll may look something like Kate Middleton, but the dress has certainly lost all its glamour in the Barbie version. No royal blue and certainly not silk jersey.

So shall we go and sew up our own knockoffs? How about using this McCall's pattern. I really like this pattern and it's eerily similar to the Issa dress:

M5974

Or this very summery version sans sleeves from DKNY at Vogue. This one is pretty too and even without sleeves it looks kind of similar to Kate's dress from the front:

V1235

Ahh, sigh! If only I had more sewing time. And the guts to get working with jersey. Since my recent jersey disaster (that's a story for another time) I like to stay away from jersey. Well, but you skilled jersey seamstresses out there could certainly give these dresses a try. What do you think? Is the Issa dress worth replicating?

Port Elizabeth Alterations

2011-04-20T17:15:00.001+02:00

A reader asked me to share a photo of my Port Elizabeth pattern piece with my full bust alteration (FBA). So, I decided to make a quick little tutorial. I'm also including a little drawing on how I marked my waistline tucks. My illustrations are not great but I think they make the process clear.

FBA

I did not do a classic FBA because I did not feel the need for extra width across the chest, instead I added only length to the front pattern and made the neckline smaller to prevent gaping. Here is a drawing of the un-altered Port Elizabeth front pattern piece.

The first step is to check if the bust point on the pattern matches with your actual bust point. If you need an FBA it probably doesn't match. You can hold the pattern up to your body to do a quick tissue fit to establish the new bust point; or you can measure yourself from shoulder to bust point and check if the measurements in the pattern are the same. I had to lower my bust point by about three centimeters.

Then I slahsed the pattern along the lines shown in the illustration and shifted the pattern slightly. I folded away about 1-2 centimeters at the neckline. This makes the neckline tighter, prevents gaping and automatically creates room for a side bust dart.

I also discovered that I had to add length to the pattern piece. So I slashed the pattern along a line from the bustpoint perpendicular to the center front and spread the pattern about 3-4 centimeters. I filled the gap in with paper and drew a new dart. The tip of the dart is a couple of centimeters away from the bustpoint, exactly between the two slash lines.

And there you have it. That's it! In a little pre-fitting I discovered that I had to lower the dart a little more but that was no problem. Darts can easily be lowered if you discover you marked your bustpoint too high.

Waist Tucks

To give the Port Elizabth a little more shape and to define my waistline I added simple waist tucks to the back and front patterns. I determined where to add them by drawing a straight line from the bustpoint to the hem. Along this line to the left and right I drew the tuck lines. I repeated the same on the back piece, drawing the tucks along a line approximately 9 centimeters from the center back. The tucks end just above the waistline. How much to tuck away is a matter of experimentation. I sewed the tucks up last, pinning them first and trying on the blouse to see if I had pinned too much or too little.

I hope you found this little tutorial useful. I really like how my Port Elizabeth turned out and find the tucks very flattering. It's a really nice pattern to work with. Have fun with your alterations!

Port Elizabeth in Silk

2011-04-13T18:19:00.000+02:00

Working with silk was a first for me so I wanted the project to be as simple as can be. The Port Elizabeth blouse from Goldfinch and Eagle was an obvious choice for this. There are only two pattern pieces to this pattern, a front and a back. The pattern can be downloaded for free on burdastyle.

I absolutely love this pattern for its simplicity and versatility. The blouse is easy and simple to wear, alomst like a t-shirt, sews up like a dream, and uses very little fabric. It's an ideal evening or weekend project to use up some leftover yardage.

The simplicty of the design also makes this an ideal pattern for variations. My Port Elizabeth version has buttons down the back. They are only there for aestehetic reasons since I can easily slip in and out of the blouse without using them.

I also modified the pattern slightly to accommodate for my larger cup size. I made an FBA and added a small bust dart. Additionally, I added tucks at the front and back to cinch the blouse in at the waistline, which looks so much better when you have a large bust.

Both alterations were super easy to do and I now have my very own Port Elizabeth master pattern from which endless variations could spring. Have you tried this pattern yet?

Liberty of London

2011-03-28T17:27:00.002+02:00

On my recent trip to London I finally had a chance to visit the famous department store Liberty of London. My main reason to go, of course, was to see their fantastic collection of fabric. I was amazed at their luxurious fabrics and trimmings but the entire department store is a wonderful place to walk around in. I have taken some secret photos to share with you (although I was a little embarrassed walking around with my camera so I tried to take them as secretly as possible :)

This is their fabric, trimmings and haberdashery deaprtment:

I loved the little tables on which they displayed trimmings and buttons in glass jars:

... and some kitchenware:

Unfortunately, their farbic and particulary their trimmings and notions are on the pricey side and as I was scrimping my way through London, I walked away with nothing. I saved the little money I had for a trip to Goldhawk Road. Helene (aka carottesauvage) recommended Goldhawk Road to me as a place to find a great choice of reasonably priced fabric and I was not disappointed. Melissa from Fehr Trade has written a little review on fabric shopping on Goldhawk Road, so if you are planning a trip to London I definitely recommend you read her review.

And, of course,what would a visit to London be witout visitng the Victoria and Albert Museum. Unfortunately I missed the Yohji Yamamoto exhibiton by only a few days (so annoying!). It started at the beginning of March and will be on until July, so perhaps I'll make it back until then. I still saw a lot of nice things in the museum and even bought a fat quarter of one of their limited edition cotton prints. I love it and plan to make myself a little sewing bag with it.

My Favorite Front-Fly Zipper Tutorials

2011-03-17T21:18:00.000+01:00

It's Paddy's Day here in Ireland and I've got the day off work. I was looking forward to doing lots and lots of sewing today but ended up being just tired and lazy all day, watching movies, eating mussels (mmmh) and not even getting dressed. Well, some days are just like that...

Anyways, I did want to share my favorite front-fly zipper tutorials with you today. I learnt how to do front-fly zippers properly during my pants sewing binge and I love the tutorials I found. Front-fly zippers are so easy to do! Who would have thought?

The first tutorial that got me started on doing front-fly zippers is this great video tutorial by Sandra Betzina posted on Threads. This video tutorial is very easy to follow and leaves you with great results. The only thing I don't like about it is that it doesn't show you how to attach a zipper shield, which in my opinion is a must, if you are sewing pants. I mean who wants their zipper lying right against the skin on a front fly? Trudy from HotPatterns shares my opinion on this and therefore created her own video on how to insert a front-fly zipper the Betzina way but with the all important zipper shield.

Her video is very easy to follow too and I've used both hers and Sandra Betzina's to insert my zippers. I think the easiest thing about doing front-fly zippers is that you don't need to be all that careful and baste everything first. You feel like you are being sloppy by just flapping your zipper over, like Betzina shows, without aligning everything but it works. If you have ever had troubles sewing front-fly zippers I encourage you to watch these videos and front-fly zippers will no longer be a problem. Do you have any favorite zipper tutorials? Invisible zippers, anyone? Still struggling with these. So long and happy Paddy's Day to you all!

From the Vaults: The Coral Polka-Dot Blouse

2011-03-15T21:32:00.000+01:00

Do you remember my Quest for the Perfect Sloper? That time when I tried to make myself a perfect set of slopers I could use again and again to make wonderful patterns with? Well, for some reason I have only used the bodice pattern once so far and that was last summer. I think I just haven't been making tops or dresses recently. Strange. Well, here, finally are the long promised photos of the first blouse I drafted using my...well...almost perfect sloper.

The blouse is a little on the tight side these days, but better days will come. (Reminder to self!). I drafted it by converting the bust dart into gathers that come out of a shoulder yoke. The sleeves also have a gathered sleeve head. I added black piping around the edges and made self-cover black fabric buttons to match. I also made bound buttonholes using all sorts of different tutorials around the web to improve my method, but still they kind of ended up looking as if a gerbil had chewed a hole in the fabric. Luckily they disappear almost completely behind the big buttons and the busy fabric. I still like my blouse very much and am in love with the color. I already bought some more farbic in a similar color for a dress. Yeah!

So, now the sun only has to start shining again, my body going back into fit and trim summer mode and the blouse will be let out for an airing once again....ahhh, summer!

On Drafting Trousers

2011-03-13T15:56:00.002+01:00

As you know I have recently drafted two pairs of pants: my Marlene Trousers and my Denim Slacks. These were the first pairs of pants I have made drafting my own patterns. Most people seem to be scared of drafting pants and find it very hard to fit them. I didn't have this experience but did have to go through several pants drafts until I found what I liked.

I started off drafting my first pattern using Winifred Aldrich's Metric Pattern Cutting for Women's Wear:

This book includes a classic tailored trouser block and a very close fitting jeans block. I went with the classic tailored trouser block but found the options for variations on this block and its fit lacking. Now, I'm the kind of person who isn't happy to just get something done even if I don't entirely understand how it's done. I like to know everything and understand every how and why and Aldrich's book may give you practical pattern drafts but fails to give a good understanding of why or how something works the way it does. So, I ended up finding the trouser draft didn't give me the kind of trousers I wanted and wasn't able to change the fit because I didn't know how.

So I started researching a little and found the book Patternmaking for Fashion Design by Helen Joseph-Armstrong in my local library. Armstrong includes a chapter on the "Analysis of the Pant Foundations", with these excellent drawings included:

(Sorry, this is not a good copy)

She doesn't just show you one draft but how to draft for different trouser fits. My Marlene trousers were drafted using the trouser block in the book and the fit turned out well and only needed a little tweaking here and there. My Denim Slacks were done using the modified slacks pattern, which is a variation on the trouser pattern and is drafted with the trouser pattern as a foundation. This pattern worked out really well and the fit was great.

Since then I have been coveting this somewhat pricey book because it seems to be a very thorough and detailed book aimed at fashion design students. But I'm still hesitant because a lot of people have commented that this book is not very good. Only recently I received a comment on one of my earlier blog posts on Pattern Drafting Books by Jennifer Lynne, a fashion instructor:

"[...] I can actually comment on the Helen Armstrong book. I'm an instructor in one of the big fashion design schools. I am not a fan of this book. Even thought this book is updated every other year, it is not rewritten and is still nearly identical to the 1987 version I bought while in school. I have a call out to individuals everywhere to write a better pattern book. - oh wait, maybe I should write one."

Yes, please do! Because I still have not found anyone who can brag about and absolutely recommend a very, very good pattern book. Well, until a better book is available, I might have to go with this one. What do you think?

Refashion Co-op

2011-02-24T22:38:00.000+01:00

Have you heard about the Refashion Co-op yet? If not, here is the scoop: The Refashion Co-op is a collaborative blog around the love of refashioning. Much like Sew Retro is dedicated to vintage lovers, the Refashion Co-op is for the refashionistas among us. The blog is only a couple of weeks old but has already attracted a lot of readers and contributors. Today I've joined the Refashion Co-op as a contributor myself and have written my first introduction to the blog. I plan to contribute to the Refashion Co-op on a regular basis, which will hopefully inspire me to blog more in general and of course, to refashion more. I'm ever so excited about some new refashion ideas I have had and hope I get arond to sewing them all up soon!

Denim Slacks

2011-02-22T12:44:00.001+01:00

In my second attempt to draft my own trousers I used a sort of very light-weight denim fabric to make a pair of jeans-trousers.

This is the original sketch I made for them but they turned out to look quite different. I might make another attempt at sewing trousers that look a little more like my drawing some day but for now these trousers will do.

I used the same pattern as for my Marlene trousers and modified it so they would be more closely fitted and not as wide in the leg. I also made some minor fitting changes, having noticed that my previous pair needed some improvement. The fit worked out wonderfully and I'm really happy with them. I drafted a separate waistband which closes with three buttons in the front and added two slant pockets.

Unintentionally I also added a tiny pleat at the front because the top front turned out too big to fit into the wiastband. Although I originally wanted to make some sort of back pockets, I chickened out in the end, thinking I would only ruin my pants and just left the back as it was.

I hardly ever use back pockets anyways and with the lowered waistband there is enough going on at the back.

But next time I will certainly add some pockets. Promise.

The Secret Life of Trousers

2011-02-19T16:10:00.000+01:00

A while ago I posted about my first pair of self-drafted trousers. I thought I’d show you not only the outside but also the inside life of these trousers, as these were the first pair of trousers I made focusing on the details that go into constructing a proper pair of trousers. For this purpose I bought David Page Coffin's book Making Trousers. I wanted to challenge myself to different and possibly more sophisticated ways of constructing a pair of trousers.

The first thing I leanred is a new way of construcing a waistband. Coffin suggests lining your waistband in lining fabric or using petersham ribbon instead of just doubling up on fashion fabric (which I always used to do and most patterns tell you to do). So I cut one waistband out of fashion fabric and one out of lining fabric and added some cloth allowance to the outer waistband so that when turning the waistband over you have the lining neatly tucked away and it doesn't show on the outside. At the front extension where the lining could be seen even on the inside I used a piece of fashion fabric.

I really liked this method because this way the more comfortable lining material lies against your skin. Most importantly, however, to Coffin is that this method reduces bulk. And reducing bulk is all Coffin is about. He believes that in order to create a well-constructed garment the “transitions from thick to thin” should be “as imperceptible as possible”, even if that means that the inside of your garment does not look as nice as the outside. In fact, this is his whole philosophy:

"The main goals for inner construction are, simply, to keep the outside looking great and the overall thickness as minimal and supple as possible-- even, if necessary, at the expense of what the garment looks like on the inside."(13)

Now that's a crazy idea, eh? I always believed that a well-constructed garment should look as nice from the inside as it does from the outside. And here Coffin suggests that it does not matter what the garment looks like from the inside as long as the garment looks its best from the outside. Now what do you think about that?

The same philosophy is followed thorugh in Coffin’s construction of pockets. I followed his video on the accompanying DVD on how to construct slant pockets.


Outside

Inside

I like the way the pocket turned out and have already used some of these techniques in another project I made. However, I have also modified his method to suit me better because as so many of his methods in the book this method too seems overly complicated and finicky. Watching his videos is like watching an artist at work. He treats fabric with so much precision and love you can really see how he enjoys sewing.

I, on the other hand, am all about stream-lining my techniques. The best techniques I think are those that are fast and efficient and still leave you with beautiful results. I don’t like toying around with a pocket until it is absolutely perfect if that means that it is also way too complicated to do. I believe there are methods out there that simplify while still not losing sight of good quality construction and these are the kind of techniques I’m looking for.

a belt loop

Making Trousers is definitely a good companion if you are planning on exploring different ways of constructing classic trousers. However, it is a highly eccentric and idiosyncratic book, as Coffin himself is aware of, in that he only presents the methods useful to him and the projects he is interested in. Looking to make yourself some jeans, fitted trousers, stretchy trousers, trousers with funky waistband designs? This book will not help you make them. Nevertheless I find some of the chapters in this book very fascinating and useful, and Coffin’s enthusiasm for the intricacies of construction techniques is unmatched.

So, overall, I learnt quite a bit from making these trousers and am more confident to go on to doing more trouser projects. Also I’m still baffled by Coffin’s bulk-reducing philosophy. What do you think? Should a garment look as beautiful from the inside as it does from the outside or is it more important to make your garment look the very best from the outside even at the cost of a nice inside finish? And what type of techniques do you like most? The efficient, stream-lined ones? Or are you more of a David Page Coffin type? Please share!

Sweater Refashion Tutorial

2011-02-13T16:59:00.000+01:00

I love refashioning old sweaters. I often scour my mum's wardorbe for old and unused sweaters that are still in a perfect condition but have an unflattering shape, are boring or simply too big on me. I also often find sweaters in second-hand shops. I'll pick up anything that is made out of cashmere or wool or some other fancy material and lends itself to a refashion. Often I come away with a nicer sweater than I could have afforded for only a couple of euros and a small sewing session.

So I thought I'd put together a little tutorial for those of you who have not yet dared to cut into your old unflattering fancy cashmeres. This tutorial is based on my most recent refashion. I picked up a nice, practically unworn black wool sweater in a second-hand shop and made it into a simple scoop-neck sweater - just the thing I'd been looking for to wear with my arsenal of skirts for which I can never find a matching top:

So here we go. First off get yourself an old unflattering sweater as pictured.

The first thing we will do is make the sweater fit your body. Turn the sweater inside out and put it on. Stand in front of a mirror and pinch the sweater at the side seams to see how much you will want to take off. Pinch equally at both side seams with the seam at the fold. Either remember how much you pinched in (that's the way I like to do it) or stick a pin or security pin into the sweater. Then continue pinching away fabric all along the side seam and under the arms. Big, bulky sweaters usually have huge armholes and matching wide sleeves. So pinch away on the sleeve as well.

When you are all done take your sweater off carefully and lay it flat. Iron if necessary. The sweater should lie down perfectly flat with side and sleeve seams meeting at the fold. Then start basting your sweater at both sides along the pins.

Once you have basted your sweater go over to a mirror and put it on again, inside out. Does it fit? Do you have to take in more or less? Make changes until you are happy with the fit. At this stage it is still a little difficult to see how exactly it will fit as you will have big bulky wings along your side seam from the material you have basted away. But don't worry too much about getting it perfect, you can always make it tighter later.

Once you are happy with your fit, bring the sweater over to your sewing machine and start sewing along the basting stitches. Ideally you would use a serger for this, cutting away the excess fabric as you are sewing. I don't have a serger, so I like to use the stretch mock-overlock stich on my machine. Alternatively you can use any stretch seam or a zig-zag seam, but make sure that the seam is strong enough. The sweater will be stretched in these areas so you don't want it falling apart on you. Once you have stitched both sides, cut away the excess fabric, turn your sweater to the right side and try it on to see if you like it. Happy?

Let's move on to the next stage: fashioning a new neckline. Measure how far down you want your neckline to go while you are still wearing the sweater and stick a pin in to mark the spot. Then take your sweater off and lay it flat right side out. Measure to see if the pin is at an equal distance between the two side seams. Then stick pins in at the shoulder seam, always meauring to make sure the left side matches the right. Stick in as many pins as you need to mark out your new neckline.

Then baste your new neckline, making sure only to baste through one layer of fabric. Repeat the same steps for the back neckline. Once you have basted the neckline all around try on your sweater again to see if you like the result. It helps to do your basting in a contrasting color so it is easier to see you basting stitches.

Before cutting out your new neckline it is important to secure it, so it won't unravel or stretch out of shape. Bring your sweater over to the sewing machine and sew a non-stretch straight stitch line all along the basting stitches. Then sew along the basting stitches again using a zig zag stitch. This way you can be perfectly sure that your neckline will not stretch out of shape once you cut it. When you are all done stitching, cut out your neckline about a centimeter or less awaay from the stitching line.

Now all that is left to do is finish the neckline. There are many ways of doing this. Since I wanted my sweater to be very simple I just folded over the edges, making sure to fold the stitching to the inside and used a double stretch needle to finish off the neckline. And tada! You have a new sweater!

Of course there are many, many other ways of refashioning a sweater and the possibilites are endless. For this sweater I added cuffs and a peter-pan collar in a contrasting fabric. For another one I added bias strips to the neckline along with a bow and shortened the sleeves and finished them with matching fabric.

Here are a couple more links with inspiration and tutorials for sweater refashioning:

Embellish Knit Month at Grosgrain is full of inspiration for creative refashionings.
Sarai wrote a lovely tutorial on refashioning a cardigan (with lots of pictures) over at her blog Sweet Sassafras.
Through burdastyle I found a video tutorial by eSewingWorkshop.com on how to alter a sweater for a better fit. The full video tutorial has to be purchased but the first part can be viewed for free. I have only watched the free video and not tried this method yet because it seems overly tedious, but maybe some very bulky sweaters would need more elaborate recutting/resewing. The video also shows how to deal with those low, hanging shoulders a lot of bulky sweaters have. I dealt with these in a different way refashiong this sweater.

I hope you liked my little tutorial. It's my first photoshopping experiment and, wow, it is difficult to photoshop illustrations. As always if you have any questions, feel free to ask away. Happy refashioning!

Self-Drafted Trousers

2011-01-26T18:17:00.000+01:00

I have always wanted to draft and sew my own trousers because there is nothing worse than going shopping for trousers. They are either too tight here and too loose there, too long, too short, not the right style and low-cut, skinny jeans are definitely not my thing either.

So, finally I took the plunge and worked on developing a pants pattern in a style I really like. My first pair is a simple black high-waisted and wide-legged Marlene-inspired pair. I tried to keep it simple with a front zipper, side pockets and belt loops and no other embellishments.

I have come to love these trousers and wear them to work all the time. I'm already having a second similar pair in mind with some slight improvements in fit here and there, especially after I have been following the trouser sew-along that has been going on over at The Cupcake Goddess. I'll try to post again soon. Happy sewing to all of you!

Sewing for a Changing Body Shape

2010-11-29T22:09:00.000+01:00

"Waisted Effort" (1950) by Gil Elvgren

As someone who sews my own clothes I am very aware of my own body measurements. I have a little handy chart on which every useful length and angle on my body is recorded. I look at these figures with the eyes of a mathematician. They are only numbers. Well, that is, until they change....

Recently, I sewed a skirt using my trusty chart of measurements and, behold, the skirt did not fit. I measured every possible length on the skirt, compared it to my chart. Where did I make a mistake? Where did I go wrong? Did I forget to add seam allowance? No, I didn't. I didn't make a mistake. My trusty meaurements changed.

Again, it doesn't really bother me. They are only numbers - but not when I open my closet and see a whole wardrobe full of clothes based on precisely one set of measurements, which my body does no longer want to fit into. Disaster! It's not a good experience for anyone not to fit into their favourite clothes anymore but when you have made them yourself, it's just that little more painful. Over the years I have had to sort out a number of clothes that I made simply because they didn't fit me anymore.

Aren't our favourite items supposed to stay with us for many, many years. Why do I bother spending hours on perfectly fitted clothes made out of the finest materials if one year down the road I can barely even squeeze into them. How can I make my clothes last me longer despite natural changes in body weight and size? I have thought about this problem and come up with some ideas to think about for future sewing projects that might reduce the number of unwanted wardrobe culls. Here is what I came up with:

1) Leave generous seam outlets. One way of making sure that my garments will fit me for a long time is to leave generous seam outlets in the areas where my body is most likely to change in shape. This way I can make a garment smaller or bigger when necessary and keep my favourite home-sewn garments for longer. Tailored garments often have seam outlets to allow the wearer to have the garment changed in size when necessary. This is rarely the case in RTW, where all seam allowances are serged, saving fabric in the making and forcing the customer to buy new clothes sooner.

2) Have a seasonal wardrobe. I don't really have a seasonal wardrobe but in terms of weight fluctuation it may be clever to have a summer and winter wardrobe. My summer skirts and blouses always feel a little tight when I put them on around this time of the year but if I wait till the warmer months come around I will have no problem fitting into them. So, to avoid disppointment when getting dressed in the morning it may be wise to stash my summer pieces away for the winter.

3) Don't overfit. I have a tendency to overfit my clothes when I'm sewing, pinning away every little centimeter of farbic that doesn't hug my body to perfection. Most of the pieces I have sewn and overfit were worn very little because they inevitably ended up being uncomfortable very quickly. I'm trying to learn from these mistakes and accept that a generous amount of wearing ease is a good thing.

4) Use fabrics that stretch in tight-fitting clothes. I'm beginning to think that it may be a wise idea to sew all clothes that are meant to be body-hugging in fabrics that have at least a minimum amount of stretch. This would make close-fitting garments more comfortable and last longer despite some minor weight fluctuation here or there. After all, our generation is used to the comfort of jeans and t-shirts and the feeling of wearing a fitted dress in a non-stretch woven fabric can sometimes be too much. Gertie has been praising the usefulness and comfort of double knits for a long time and gives a little introduction on how to sew with double knits on her blog. I might give double knits and other stretchy fabrics a try as they may make tight-fitting clothes just that tad more comfortable and easy to wear.

That's all the ideas I came up with and that I'm going to try to stick to in my future sewing projects. Do any of you have the same problem when making your own clothes? Do you have any more ideas on how to deal with weight and body change as a dedicated home-sewer? Please share...

Vintage Sewing Magazines

2010-11-10T14:05:00.002+01:00

A while back I bought a few vintage sewing magazines from a local online second-hand site. The seller and me met at a subway stop and exchanged money vs. magazines. She only wanted a couple of Euros, so it was a real steal and very exciting. Here are some of my favourite images from the magazines.

Astra Mode 1970

Love the flowery one in the picture below and look at the kooky way the scarf is tied into the white dress on the right:

Petra 1968

The 70s school girl chic editorial. Love it!:

And some hot 70s dresses to dance in:

Hope you enjoyed these images. There is more to come!

Banana Skirt

2010-11-08T15:19:00.001+01:00

Here is another one of my summer projects I promised to share with you: the Banana Skirt! I made this skirt while I was on vacation in a hut in Norway, with little to no sewing equipment, far away from fabric and notions stores but with a strong urge to make something. So I converted one of my grandma's old tablecloths into a very, very simple summer skirt.

I cut out a rectangle for a waistband and a huge rectangle for the skirt part and gathered the skirt into the waistband. I made the waistband stronger by cutting two layers of fabric since I had no interfacing at hand. I had no zipper so I used some snap buttons I found in my grandma's sewing box for the side closure.

The skirt was a very quick and satisfying project. I didn't even need to hem it as I cut it so the original hem of the tablecloth became the hem of my skirt. Yeah!

All New!

2010-11-07T23:19:00.001+01:00

via ArtByChrysti

The Naked Seamstress has a new design! I've been thinking of getting a new design for a long time but I am not exactly a whizz kid when it comes to graphic design, so every little change in design takes a while. This weekend I finally got around to playing with my design a little and this is what I came up with. What do you think?

I also added an email address to my right sidebar at which I can be contacted: thenakedseamstress AT gmail DOT com. So if you have any questions or comments for me, feel free to send me an email any time. Looking forward to hearing from you!

The Knitting and Stitching Show

2010-10-31T19:04:00.000+01:00

On Friday I went to The Knitting and Stitching Show here in Dublin. (Yes, Dublin is where I now live) It was my first time ever on a craft and sewing related trade show. The average age of visitors was well over 50 and when I come to think of it I did not see one single man visiting the show. Also a lot of them seemed to be regulars, travelling from far to all of these shows.

The show is originally English and exhibits in several places in England every year. So most of the sellers were English, except for a couple of Irish businesses thrown in for good measure. I particularly enjoyed the book stalls, which were jam-packed with sewing and craft related books I can normally only browse through on amazon. Unfortunately the show was mainly geared towards knitters, crocheters, quilters and card-makers with only one stall selling sewing patterns, none selling tools and accessories specifically for dressmakers (disappointing!) and only two stalls selling fashion fabrics. The show was still a good laugh and I loved browsing books and looking at some of the art exhibits they had on. I even got to try out a variety of sergers! Oh, I soooo want a serger...

The only thing I ended up buying was one meter of a lovely yellow wool and poly blend, which I plan to make into a pencil skirt and a meter and a half of a wool and poly brown fishbone fabric for pants.

I bought both from M. Rosenberg & Sons, a family fabric business. The son of the original founder and his son and daughter were running the stall and I have never seen such impeccable customer service before. They knew everything about the fabric they were selling, were very helpful and friendly and gave you advice on how to treat and sew your fabric. If you want to buy from them too you can find their travelling fabric show timetable here. They will be at lots of shows this autumn all over England.

Other than visitng The Knitting and Stitching Show this week I have been sewing a pair of pants to wear in my new job, which I'm starting tomorrow. I just have to sew on some buttons tonight and I'm good to go. Pictures to come soon!

Curduroy Kasia

2010-10-20T13:38:00.000+02:00

Thank you all for welcoming me back! I really appreciate it. In my absence I have – as frk.bustad spotted correctly – made my own version of the popular Kasia skirt. I have wanted to sew a Kasia skirt for a long, long time but was never quite sure what fabric to use. In the end I decided on a versatile black corduroy paired with large, metallic buttons. The skirt is elegant but can still be dressed down because it is made of corduroy and goes with a lot of tops and blouses.

For the photoshoot earlier this summer we went to see a friend who had just moved to very interesting looking apartment buildings, called Wohnpark Alterlaa, in Vienna. I love the sort of retro sci-fi feel these buildings have despite their ugliness. This is the way futuristic and modern was imagined in the late 70s and 80s and I absolutely wanted these buildings in the background paired with my retro-looking Kasia skirt. For a full view of these spaced-out buildings look at this picture on a website, where this housing project is listed as number two of "15 housing projects from hell".

Okay, back to my skirt construction: I lined the front flap with a viscose lining I found on sale and have loads of. I made a facing for the pocket openings, because I didn't want the lining to show at the edges. I also sewed on a snap button at the top of the flap, because the flap kept sliding down, revealing the zipper behind it. This is a bit of a problem with this pattern. Does this happen to other Kasias out there too? Any solutions?

And now for my absolute favourite part of this skirt: the buttons! I'm absolutely in love with the buttons on this skirt. They are big and metallic and have the eagle of the Austro-Hungarian Empire on them. Really! I mean there couldn't be anything cooler than that, right?! I'm so happy I found them.

I’ve worn this skirt a lot. It’s very comfortable and easy to wear. If I made it again I would just make it a tad less high-waisted and figure out a slightly better construction of the flap. Are you a Kasia fan too?

After a Long Hiatus...

2010-10-18T14:37:00.000+02:00

...I'm back!

I've had a very eventful and busy summer after which I relocated to a different country. Moving from one country to another is exciting but it has also sapped a lot of my time and energy, so my blogging and sewing have had to take a back seat for a while. I've still been eagerly following all your blogs and have been trying to keep up with my blogroll to vicariously sew along with you.

And despite having been all-consumed by my big move, I still managed to squeeze in a little sewing here and there. Here is a little preview of the humble fruits of my summer sewing. I will show you more details and pictures soon.

I haven't sewn anything in weeks now but I finally feel just a little bit settled and more organized and hope that I will be able to get into the swing of things as soon as possible. To help me get out of my sewing coma I have enrolled into a fashion design evening class at a local fashion design school, which is starting today! I am very excited about this and hope to learn new skills, make some sewing friends and get new inspiration. I will keep you posted on my sewing adventures. Talk to you all soon...

Fabric from South Africa

2010-07-07T23:02:00.001+02:00

My friend went to South Africa for a week for the World Cup and came back with lots of gorgeous fabric for me. I am very lucky to have such a good friend who is willing to lug meters of fabric across continents just to indulge my passion. Look at all the nice things she got me:

She brought me three meters of this gorgeous pink very African-looking fabric, which I definitely want to make into a dress:

She also got me two meters of this orange print with a border pattern. I think the symbols in the border are shields like the Massai shield in the Kenyan flag. I don't know, however, if this particular shield design means anything, or whether it's just a generic shield or whether it's a shield at all.

With this fabric I will need to think of a way to incorporate the border into the design. I think a skirt would be the most obvious choice, but I don't know if that's really what I want to make out of this fabric.

And then (yes, there's more!) she brought me two meters of this striped cotton print, which I'll probably convert into some sort of blouse:

Well, now I only need the time to sew all of these things. It's not going to happen soon, but it will.

Literature and Fashion

2010-07-02T00:07:00.004+02:00

J.H. Fragonard, "A Young Girl Reading," 1776

I've already expressed my fascination with ModCloth's copywriting in an earlier post. A couple of days ago I found out (via A Dress A Day) that ModCloth is planning to publish an anthology of prose, poetry and non-fiction, which explore the way style and life interact. In their own words, their goal is to publish "an innovative collection that gives voice to those who share our love of literature and fashion!"

Literature and fashion! I don't think I've ever come across any anthologies or publications that aim to bring these two together. In the public eye fashion and literature are all too often seen as opposing forces. One deep and philosophical, the other shallow and lacking intelligence. People interested in fashion or style are often seen as merely superficial, stupid and consumerist. In my own experience I know that I have often been sneered at by people for my interest in sewing (Are you depressed, sweetie?! You should go out more!). Sewing is considered a shallow and petty hobby. Sewing has almost as bad a reputation as pottery and quilting (almost - I'm sure potterers and quilters have to take a lot more slack). Somehow emancipated and self-respecting women are not meant to dabble in such brainless and insubstanital hobbies. I can still clearly remember a scene from Sex and the City, in which Carrie threatens to pretend not to be Charlotte's friend anymore if she ever finds her signed up to a pottery course.

Looking at all the sewing and fashion blogs I'm reading the women (and men) behind them are anything but brainless and shallow and they definitely know how to write. Susannah from cargo cult craft provides the most detailed and well-researched insights into austerity fashion. Gertie does not only know how to sew the most perfect bound buttonhole but also writes brilliantly about many interesting topics of fashion and sewing. And surely you have to have your wits together if you can figure out corsetting the way Julia from MarmaladeKiss has or decipher weird Japanese sewing instructions like Karin from Ancien Nouveau or Carolyn from Handmade by Carolyn. The list could go on.

Their inaugural issue will be published in February 2011 as an online publication. At the moment they are accepting submissions to their publication. Will anyone be up for this? Their submission guidelines and mission statement can be found here and the deadline is August 1, 2010.

Whether or not this publication will feature any of the bloggers I know or not it should be a fun and interesting read if it's anything like ModCloth's copywriting. Maybe we should create our own Sewing and Literature publication?!

A Case of Copycats

2010-06-28T21:08:00.001+02:00

I have my hands full these days and just can't get around to sewing anything for summer. But since temperatures are up near 30 degrees these days I had to resort to drastic measures despite little pangs of guilt: H&M. I came home with one pair of linen shorts and this blouse:

As I was trying on this blouse in the shop there was something eerily familiar about it. I couldn't make out what it was but had a hunch on my way home. I scoured my saved pictures when I got home and indeed there it was:

This blouse was sold at ModCloth a couple of weeks ago but is no longer available on their site. It is the exact same blouse: the same ruching under the bust, the same tie collar, the same sleeves. Except for the fabric these blouses are identical. And guess what else I found on ModCloth sold at $41.99:

Salon Day Top, ModCloth

And here is what H&M currently have in their stores for €24.95:

Blouse, H&M

If that is not a copy I don't know what is. Sure, all the shops these days sell roughly the same: some ruffles here, some bows there, empire waists, skinny jeans, etc. but this is not just the same fashion inspiration. These two blouses are identical. Yes, and I think I found even more copies, only I cannot present any photographic evidence at the moment since neither of the shops are currently selling these items online. Still, what is going on? Is this normal? Who is designing this stuff? I am confused. Answers?

Norway

2010-06-18T13:02:00.000+02:00

Dear readers,

As you may have noticed it has gone awfully quiet around this blog in the past few weeks. I have not forgotten about this blog but have been isolated in our little family hut in Norway for the past week. I'm here to work on a thesis for university which has been hanging uneasily over my head like the sword of Damocles for quite some time. I needed to give myself some room to write, plenty of fresh air, good food, nice walks and above all peace and quiet. I also have neither sewing machine nor internet at the hut (yes, that's right, no internet, these places still exist, who would have thought?!). So, blogging about sewing is pretty much impossible.

I will be back next week and have a couple of new posts to share with you. Also I will be replying to all your comments when I'm back and will hopefully have some time to read up on all the posts I missed from you.

Happy sewing to all of you and see you next week.

QPS - Muslin No. 2 - Ease, Ease, Ease and Wonky Sleeve Heads

2010-05-27T21:09:00.000+02:00

In Quest of the Perfect Sloper continues into Round 2. Thank you all again for your excellent suggestions on my last muslin. I made all the necessary changes to my sloper, sewed it all up again last week and ended up with this. It looks a bit clownish, since I tried using various scrap fabrics of approximately the same weight.

All in all, I'm happy because my sloper fits like a glove. The only thing that is bothering me are the sleeves. Where do these wrinkles come from? Is the sleeve head too short? Or are these wrinkles supposed to be there? It just doesn't look right to me. Any suggestions?

Also, as Sherry already suggested in my previous post, my muslin is a little on the tight side. I made the sloper according to my measurements following Winifred Aldrich's Metric Pattern Cutting for Women's Wear and ended up with about 2"-3" of ease at the bust and about 1"-2" at the waist. A nicely fitted cocktail dress? Sure. A blouse or dress for everyday wear? No. I would like to add a little more ease all around but without having to draft the whole thing again. Aldrich does have a draft for an easy-fitting block in her book too, but that would mean starting all over again. Shouldn't it be possible to simply add ease to this sloper?

I have four different drafting books and none of them tell me how to add ease to a block. I also checked the internet and only found some information on VintageSewing.info, where this alteration for extra ease to the front bodice is suggested:

I tried it and it didn't work. All I ended up with is fabric surplus in the chest area, suggesting I could fit in a third boob. No, no, no. Do any of you have any tips? How can I add ease to my bodice? Is it possible to simply grade up one size? What do you think?

Red Sweater Refashion

2010-05-20T12:26:00.002+02:00

Thanks for all your help on my first sloper muslin. I'm still working on its perfection. In the meantime I thought I'd share this sweater refashion I did recently. No sloper required!

I made this out of an old sweater my mother didn't wear anymore. I was wearing the sweater around the house for a while but then decided it would be much better suited for another refashion than just lazy lounging. It's excellent quality and a silk and cashmere blend so light enough to be worn in spring and summer but still decidedly unflattering.

This refashion was a bit more complicated than my last because I decided to change a lot more. First I cut off the sleeves. Then I made the sweater a bit more form fitting by taking it in at the side seams.

Next I opened the sleeves up completely and cut them into a new shape giving them a proper sleeve head. I fiddled around with this quite a lot and eventually ended up using the sleeve pattern from the Burdastyle Lydia pattern. I also made the shoulders on the sweater shorter so that they wouldn't hang off my arm like they do on oversized sweaters. Then I re-inserted the sleeves making them into little puffed sleeves.

I also cut the neckline deeper. I marked the new neckline with the sweater on my dress form and basted along the new neckline while it was still on the dress form. Then I stay-stitched along that line on my machine to make sure it wouldn't stretch out of shape once I cut it. I made bias tape out of a cheap cream white polyester (not the best choice but it worked) and applied it to the neckline and shortened sleeves.

As you can see I'm enjoying the sun quite a bit in my new sweater. The sweater is really comfortable and I wear it a lot. I'm always sad when I see it in the wash basket and quickly run off to wash it so that I can wear it again and again.

P.S.: Photo credits go to my little stepsister, who excitedly exclaimed "I want to be a photographer when I grow up. This is so much fun!", when we were finished with the shoot.

17th of May

2010-05-17T23:19:00.000+02:00

Today I went to the Norwegian embassy in Vienna to celebrate the Norwegian National Holiday, also simply known as the 17th of May. We stuffed ourselves with lovely food from the buffet and had wine and fun Norwegian conversation.

I like the Norwegian National Holiday because it always gives me a chance to wear my Norwegian National Costume, also known as bunad in Norway and I thought I'd share some pictures with you.

My bunad was handed down to me by my mother who wore this very dress herself for many years. It's a traditional costume from Buskerud, which is a county in the south of Norway close to Oslo.The bunad is worn with lots of silver jewellery and a handy matching bag, which is clipped onto the belt.

The embroidery is very elaborate and detailed and depicts the fauna and flora of the region. All the embroidery on my bunad was done my own grandmother many, many years ago. She loves doing embroidery and is very good at it.

I wish you all a nice week and "Gratulerer med dagen" to all you Norwegians out there.

In Quest of the Perfect Sloper - Muslin No. 1

2010-05-13T19:42:00.000+02:00

I haven't been sewing much lately. This is partly because I don't have a lot of time at the moment but also because I have no patterns to work with. I have stopped buying patterns because I'm repeatedly disappointed with the fit and the many alterations I have to make. So, I have decided to make my own patterns. I have done this before but all my attempts have been very haphazard and entirely unsystematic.

This time around I want to do things in a slightly more orderly fashion. I want to start with a sloper that I can actually keep and use over and over again for all my patterns. So, at the moment I'm on a quest for this elusive perfect sloper pattern. Does it exist?

This is what I have come up with so far. I'd really love to get some help from you on what alterations I still need to make. Is there anything I don't see? So far, it's better than most slopers I've come up with in the past but a few alterations are still necessary.

At the front I have some major fabric surplus at the neckline. I can easily tuck away 3 cm there. But how? What went wrong? The bust darts also look a bit funny at the side. This may be normal as my bust/waist dart is huge. I'm unsure about changing anything in this area. What do you think?

The side view shows clearly that I have to make the back darts a lot bigger than they are but other than that I think it looks fine.

The back looks good to me too, except for the gaping in the back.

Any other suggestions? What do you think? Should I proceed with this sloper once I have changed the neckline and back darts? It's almost too good to be true.

Sencha FBA

2010-05-12T21:07:00.000+02:00

When I posted pics of my finished Sencha blouse in April, Rachel asked me if I'd be willing to share how I did my FBA on this blouse. I didn't think people would be interested in this, since most people seem to struggle with the exact opposite problem with Colette patterns. Although I appreciate the curvier and more generous C-cup sizing of Colette patterns it still isn't quite enough. If you find yourself in the same situation, this tutorial might help.

The FBA I did on Sencha is really just a fairly regular FBA. To make things a bit clearer and easier to understand I made little hand-drawn illustrations of the pattern changes, which I edited in Paint. Yes, Paint! My graphic design skills and tools are rather limited.

STEP 1
Choose the right pattern size. For bigger than B-Cup it is best to choose all patterns by upper chest measurement rather than bust measurement. This way it is easier to get a good fit at the shoulders and neckline. Cut out your front and back pieces.

STEP 2
Tissue-fit* the back and front pieces to your body. The tissue-fit doesn't have to be particularly accurate. Mine never are. When you have tissue-fitted the pattern to your body, mark your bust point on the pattern and determine the difference between the pattern's CF and your body's CF. In my case, the difference was considerably less than it usually is on other commercial patterns I have used.

* For a tutorial on tissue-fitting you can check out Gertie's vlog on tissue-fitting.

STEP 3

Take the pattern off again and remove all pins. Measure your shoulder length plus 1.5 cm seam allowance from the neckline. Mark a point anywhere along this line on the shoulder seamline (1.5 cm from the pattern egde). I drew my point at the end of the line, but anywhere else along the shoulder is fine too.

STEP 4

Draw a line connecting the point at the shoulder with the bust point and then continue the line as shown in the picture.

Alternatively you could draw a line straight down from the bust point to the hemline. This would, however, move the tucks to a different position after the cut and spread. They would then have to be redrawn to their original position. Spreading around the tucks eliminates this extra step.

STEP 5

Cut and spread the pattern by the amount determined in STEP 2. Leave the seam allowance at the shoulder as a hinge.

STEP 6

To add length to the pattern not only horizontally but also vertically draw a line perpendicular to the CF starting at the bust point.

STEP 7

Cut and spread the pattern. I spread the pattern about 2-3 cm. This can be checked and corrected in a muslin. For some this step may not even be necessary.

STEP 8

Redraw the hemline.

STEP 9

The FBA is now completed. If you have a big bust but still a rather smallish waist it is necessary to remove some of the room in the waist that was created by the FBA. For my Sencha I simply redrew the side seam. I determined the amount by measuring the pattern and by checking the fit on a muslin. If a lot of waist reduction is necessary it's probably a good idea to reduce the waist not only at the side seam but also by making the dart tucks deeper.

STEP 10

This is the finished pattern!

I hope this tutorial was easy to follow. If you have any questions, just leave me a comment, and I'd be happy to clarify. Good luck with your Sencha!

Hello, Vernal Equinox Enthusiasts!

2010-05-08T01:56:00.001+02:00

ModCloth sure has some pretty clothes on their site, but what I seem to be even more entertained by is the funny names and descriptions they come up with for their clothes. This is the "Hello, Dahlia!" Top and its description is one of the most hilarious and elaborate pieces of copy I have read in a long time. Much better even than labels on the back of wine bottles.

Hear what the people over at Modcloth have to say about this top and enjoy:

"This top is one that you'll enthusiastically welcome into your spring wardrobe! Greet the sunshine, warmer temperatures, and effervescent flora by wearing this flowing, sleeveless, pink top that features a cream, blue, and mint floral print, and you'll feel as buoyant in the dewy breeze as a butterfly foraging for nectar. Its rounded collar ends in streamers of fabric that tie into a flirty bow at the neck, which will attract the attention of other vernal equinox enthusiasts. Find one that you fancy, and frolic together through a meadow wearing this top with skinny jeans and flats. It'll feel so nice to be back where you belong!"

Yes, I sure do want to feel as buoyant in the dewy breeze as a butterfly foraging for nectar, because this is one cute top and a great sewing inspiration.

What about you? Feel like frolicing through a meadow in the effervescent flora? I somehow can't stop wondering about the copywriter. What did he or she do before writing this piece? Skip to work in the sunrise, hand in hand with a loved one, while sharing a heart-shaped ice cream cone with a cherry on top? Hmmm...

Fleamarket Finds

2010-05-01T18:51:00.000+02:00

Vienna has a sad selection of second-hand clothes shops. We have a number of those super-stylish but ridiculously overpriced small vintage boutiques and also a non-profit chain of second-hand clothes shops which often seem equally overpriced. Sometimes I can find a couple of nice and affordable items there, but the majority of real vintage clothes in these shops are still expensive and often not worth the trouble.

This is why I love going to fleamarkets in Vienna, particularly small local fleamarkets. These are rarely crammed and I can usually always find something nice for a more than reasonable price. My favourite market is the one in my area, which is on about once or twice a year. I went there on both Thursday and Friday this week and found a couple of really nice things.

One of the ladies at the market had a couple of boxes of underwear. Usually I do not look at underwear at fleamarkets because I think it's kind of gross but this lady had some fantastic, unworn vintage pieces from an estate sale. I bought two vests, one in a viscose/cotton blend and one in pure wool, to wear in winter.

They both fit me perfectly and are really long and comfy to wear. Both vests are from Palmers, a quality Austrian lingerie brand, which has existed for almost a century. They had the original tags on them, which also show the price. 188.- Schilling, the pre-Euro Austrian currency, for one of them, which would be about 13-14 Euro today. This seems very expensive, considering the shirts are relatively old. But I don't know how old they really are? Any guesses? I'm thinking 60s, because I can't see how women would have worn these in the 70s or 80s or later. And I think they would look a little older and the tags a little less modern if they were earlier than 60s. What do you think?

I also picked up a t-shirt from H&M and a nightgown also from Palmers in white, very light cotton with yellow eyelet embroidery along the neckline and the hem.

And I bought a vintage white angora/wool/poly sweater, which is really, really warm and not really wearable for this season. I will probably refashion the sweater as it is not very flattering, or else I'll only wear it for outdoor winter adventures. And then I picked up another vest/t-shirt in cotton, also from Palmers, which is a little small and I'm not sure how to wear it yet. But I'll figure something out.

All in all, I'm very happy with my finds, especially as they cost me only 10 Euro in total. I'm sure I can get some good use out of them and it's nice to go shopping every once in a while.

Still, I envy all of you who live in the US, where, at least according to the blogs I follow, there seems to be an abundance of Goodwill's and estate sales and markets that are all far better than anything I have seen here. I have never even as much as found a vintage pattern on any of the markets here. Sadness. But if anyone lives near here and has good vintage shopping tips for me, they are much appreciated. I hope you all have a nice and sunny weekend!

Me and My Sencha

2010-04-26T23:24:00.000+02:00

Is there anyone out there in the sewing world who doesn't own a Sencha yet? The Sencha blouse seems to be ubiquitous, popping up on so many blogs in so many wonderful variations. This is the first Colette pattern I have worked with and I'm really happy with the result.

But let me tell you, things weren't always this happy. Me and my Sencha were off to a rocky start. I made a muslin out of my roommate's old bedsheet at first and when I put it on it looked like an odd hospital gown, as if I had just fled surgery. It was decidedly unflattering and even if I had taken photos at that stage I sure wouldn't post them. Believe me, it looked dreadful.

For a moment I thought I'd abandon the project thinking that sadly Sencha just isn't for me. But then I decided to make View 1 into View 3 by haphazardly cutting a key hole into the neckline and suddenly things didn't look that bad any more despite the many shades of faded light blue and the starchy feel of the fabric.

So, I went for it and I'm sure glad I did because I absolutely love this blouse. Love, love, love it. The blouse is so elegant and yet so easy to wear. The material is comfortable and the cut so ingenious that it feels like I'm wearing only a simple t-shirt.

The sewing process was pretty straightforward except for some minor alterations. I cut a size 6 and made a an FBA and took the blouse in at the waist, because it was far too roomy after the FBA. With this blouse the defined tucks at the waist are really what make or break it. The original hospital muslin was far too wide, which gave it an unflattering and boxy shape.

The sleeves were a bit tricky to sew. My catch stitching on the inside of the sleeve looks pretty sad and certainly not polished. Some of it unravelled the first time I washed the blouse. I also made matching self-cover buttons, which were a breeze to make and yes, well, match perfectly.

I really want to make another Sencha soon. It's a great blouse for summer. I've already eyed some beautiful red cotton eyelet in my favourite fabric store and I'm thinking of making a version with a scoop neckline. I will probably simplify the process by using bias tape at the neckline and sleeves so that I don't have to do any more of the evil catch stitching. I'll keep you posted.

Modelling my Half Slip

2010-04-14T22:06:00.000+02:00

Do you remember my post on Vintage Pattern Nudity from back in February? Well, I have been thoroughly inspired by all the sassy posing and have discovered that I, too, can look intellectual while wearing only a half slip. Phew!

Don't worry I won't be posting any pictures of myself in any of the other sassy poses in the future. After all, a certain level of decency has to be maintained on this blog, right?!

I used Gertie's Vintage-Inspired Half Slip Tutorial to make my slip and found it very easy to follow. I'm usually a helplessly slow sewer, but this was a very quick project. So, if you are ever in a sewing crisis and need a quick and uplifting project to remind you that you haven't completely lost the ability to sew, make yourself a half slip.

I made mine to go with my black wool skirt, which I didn't line. The half-slip has come in very handy and I've since worn it with many other dresses and skirts I have which are not lined. I may be making more soon.

Sewing with Stretch Fabric

2010-04-12T13:40:00.000+02:00

I am not very easily intimidated by difficult sewing projects and if I want something no matter how complicated the pattern or style, I usually just go for it hoping for the best. The one and only thing I have an unreasonable fear of is sewing with stretch fabrics.

I would really like to get into sewing stretch, because I think it would be an easy and quick way of making some very wearable garments. I can't live without t-shirts and tank tops and making my own will stop me from buying bad-quality, cheap H&M tops and the like. I do not have a serger or overlocker but my sewing machine has pretty good options for stretch seams so it should be easy enough.

I also have several kinds of stretch fabrics at home that I bought on various sales, some of which have been in my fabric stash for ages. I bought this stripey knit from a lovely German couple who sold stuff out of their garage in a tiny little picturesque town in Lower Austria:

I also have a largish piece of grey knit with unindentifiable fiber content:

Both these pieces are probably suited more for winter. My latest conquest is a meter of this beautiful coral-colored cotton jersey:

The grey and coral fabrics are not very stretchy and I’m really unsure about how stretchy fabric has to be for certain designs. I will probably err on the safe side and use the these ones for a more woven-type pattern.

The thing I’m concerned about when sewing with stretch is how to get seams and interfacings and all that jazz right, without having seams, necklines or hems stretch and wrinkle and look awfully home-sewn. I bought Sew U: Home Strech ages ago but don’t think this book is a good resource at all. It comes with a couple of basic patterns, which you can alter into various designs, as shown and explained in the book. However, the book has no information on seam stabilizers, interfacings or other tricky little details. There are also no pictures in it at all, only illustrations, which makes it difficult to assess what the designs would look like in fabric and what fabric would be best to choose. I have never used the book and am considering to e-bay it off.

Instead I would really like to buy a good resource for sewing with stretch and knit fabrics, but don’t know which book would be good. Do any of you have recommendations? Books or online resources? What about The Stretch & Sew Guide to Sewing on Knits, which looks terribly eighties?

Has anyone used this book? Do you have any other recommendations? What resources do you use for working with stretch patterns? Thanks for the help!

Green March Blouse

2010-04-04T12:45:00.000+02:00

I know it's not March anymore, but I made this blouse in March and it just reminds me of lush green March fields and Irish celebrations. The blouse is very summery and definitely unfit to be worn in March, so I haven't had a chance to wear it yet. But I think it will come in useful when the sweltering heat of summer sets in. I'll just have to be patient. Here I'm wearing the blouse with my black wool skirt.

I drafted the blouse myself. The blouse has princess seams and sort of a shawl collar. The collar was meant to look a little different but I didn't have enough fabric and didn't think it through enough before cutting my shawl piece. The shawl should have been long enough to go around the entire neckline but ended up being too small, so I left it open in the back and added a decorative button from my stash to keep it in place.

The fabric is from a local fleamarket I went to last summer and only cost about a Euro or so. The fabric has little heads woven in. I think it's supposed to be Geisha heads but some look a bit like sad Virginia Woolf faces.

I have no clue what the fabric is made of but it's a little sheer so I chose to do two layers. There is also some stretch to the fabric which made it difficult to sew with, but since the blouse is still a bit wide around my waist I could sew it without a zipper or buttons. I experimented a little with the styling of the blouse and tried it with a belt to give it more of a Vintage feel.

Yes, it was very sunny. Maybe I should have worn sunglasses. Happy Easter!

A Norwegian Cardigan Travels to the Westcoast of Ireland

2010-03-20T14:23:00.001+01:00

I was away on holidays for a week, during which me and my boyfriend took a two-day trip to the Westcoast of Ireland. We stayed in a lovely little town called Ennis for a night and went for a hike in The Burren, a picturesque region along the coast in County Clare. We got to see the Aran Islands from the hilltops and a lot of sheep and cows on our way. We were also lucky to have very untypically Irish sunshine on both days so I finally got the chance to have my picture taken in my new Norwegian cardigan.

This cardigan has been in the making for a very, very long time - but no, not by me, I can't even knit as much as a scarf. But luckily my grandmother and mother are expert knitters. My grandmother started knitting this cardigan for me about two years ago, but before she had the chance to finish it she had an accident and can now no longer knit. After the cardigan had been lying in a bag for a good year and half my mother continued knitting the remaining sleeve and I eventually set in the sleeves and sewed on the buttons.

Norway has a long tradition of knitting and a great number of traditional designs and patterns. This cardigan was made in a style called Setesdal, named after a valley in Norway, where the design originated. The Setesdal pattern is one of the most famous and varied patterns in Norway and characterized by crosses in the design.

The knitting pattern for this cardigan is from the 1970s as you can see in the pattern illustration. I chose a 1970s pattern over a contemporary one because Norwegian cardigans and sweaters used to be worn more fitted back in the day. Most contemporary patterns are very baggy, which makes it difficult to wear them underneath a coat in the winter. Since Norwegian sweaters are incredibly warm I find a cardigan more useful than a sweater since it gives you the option of wearing it unbuttoned especially if you live in a less arctic climate than Norway.

I really cherish my cardigan, not only because I think it's beautiful but also because this was truly a three-generational family project. I have tried to wear it as often as I can this winter but as temperatures are rising I will have to put it away until next winter. So, for this season this will be the last of me and my cardigan.

Vintage Pattern Nudity

2010-02-28T15:41:00.002+01:00

The Naked Seamstress finally lives up to her name and brings you nudity. Yes, nudity, you heard right! Here are some hilarious Vintage pattern illustrations from the 70s and 80s I found online. They can also be used as a guide on how to best cover your boobs when you happen to be a Vintage pattern fashion illustration. Let me show you some classy examples:

Exhibit 1 shows the popular fold-your-arms-over-your-breasts style. Let me add: your seemingly non-existent breasts. Alterntively you can also just show your nude back, but don't forget the obligatory glitzy choker for extra classiness.

Exhibit 2, brought to you by Kwik Sew, is a lot more pornographic than necessary for a pattern illustration me thinks. Look at those luscious grey (?!) curls covering up girl B. And also do note the long painted fingernails and bejeweled rings.Very sassy indeed.

And for the most creative boob cover ever we have to thank McCall's: Why not use a newspaper!? Yes, you can be dressed only in a half-slip and still show a keen interest in current affairs.

I'm featured!

2010-02-25T18:35:00.001+01:00

This week I'm being featured on BurdaStyle with a photo of me and the cows. A classic. If you want to read my interview on BurdaStyle, you can find it here.

A New Skirt!

2010-02-23T23:58:00.001+01:00

I was away from the blog for some time because of general business but now I'm back with a new skirt to share with you. I'm really excited about this skirt. It is so simple and versatile and ever since I finished making it I've worn it almost every day. This has to be the mark of a successful project because as you know I don't always end up wearing what I sew.

Initially I was busily working away on a pants pattern before I realized that I didn't have enough fabric to complete my project. Recent fabric shopping excursions to stock up on proper pants fabric haven't helped either because I seem to have expensive taste when it comes to suiting fabric. So, instead of making pants I drafted yet another pattern so that I could use the fabric I had at home: very comfy, gorgeous black wool.

I decided on a six-gored, high-waisted skirt. The skirt is a-linish and has very deep pockets at the front and belt loops, so that I can wear the skirt with different belts. I'm a big fan of belts!

The only thing I'm a bit bothered with is the hem. For some reason I always get a ridge at the bottom hem from the bit that's turned inside. Do I iron too much? Iron from the wrong side? Any solutions to this problem?

Well, all in all I'm happy and hope winter doesn't end too soon so that I can get a bit more wear out of this skirt.

Sweater Refashion

2010-02-10T01:52:00.000+01:00

Last Saturday night I was too tired to go out and instead preferred to stay home and sew. I wanted to start on my next project but had no suitable fabric at home for a muslin. I was close to cutting up one of my bedsheets, when I found a sweater to cut up and refashion instead. I have far too many clothes in my wardrobe that fall into the only-good-for-wearing-at-home category and the pile is growing steadily. I've been wanting to turn some of these clothes into wearable items for quite some time now but never got around to it.

The sweater I decided to cut up and refashion was a wide, v-necked, gray and dull, but good quality wool sweater. First I sewed the sweater into a more flattering fit at the sides and along the sleeves and then I cut out the neckline, drafted a peter pan collar and made some matching cuffs. The farbic I used was just some left-over fabric I had lying around. I made a skirt out of this fabric a long time ago which I never ended up hemming, but I suppose if I felt like it I could hem the skirt and then wear them as a combo - No, don't think so.

I worked in a really sloppy and unorderly manner on this refashion and wasn't my usual careful and perfectionist self, but I think it turned out well despite the chaos. It was nice working like this; just brutally cutting into things, sloppily drawing a collar and sewing it all together in a frenzy while singing and listening to loud music. I should try this more often.

Kreativ Blogger Award

2010-02-07T00:17:00.001+01:00

Recently I received the Kreativ Blogger Award from both Carolyn at Handmade by Carolyn and Rachel at Boo Dogg and Me. Thank you both very much. So, let me share the 7 things you most likely didn't know about me...

1) I’m addicted to watching Columbo. I mean I’m really addicted. I’ve probably watched each episode at least five times and that’s only counting last year. Columbo is an excellent companion during sewing hours and of these there are plenty.

2) When I was going to primary school in the early nineties my mother made me wear lace detachable collars for special occasions and I hated them. We didn’t have a lot of money when I was growing up and apparently a lace collar attached to any day dress will turn that dress into a formal occasion dress. I still find this logic dodgy but I have to say that my love for Vintage styles has put lace collars back on my mind. So maybe my mother had a point after all.

3) I’ve been learning Russian for many, many years. First in university and now only as a hobby. I’m a bit of a Slavophile, besides being even more of an Anglophile, and hope I will be able to speak Russian with effortless fluency one day. So, you Russian readers out there (if there are any) feel free to comment on my blog in Russian any time. Спасибо.

4) I loved dressing up for carnival as a kid. All of my costumes were styled by my mother and a lot of them were also sewn by her, while my father occasionally made matching accessories. As you can see my costumes weren’t always the most politically correct, but this was back in the late eighties and early nineties, so nobody really cared.

5) I'm not a particularly athletic person, but I do love riding my bicycle around town, going swimming in the summer and iceskating in the winter. I also love going for long hikes in the countryside, but unfortunately I don't go hiking as much as I wish I did.

6) I'm an avid reader of biographies of obscure (and not so obscure) women (writers mostly). I just love reading about women's lives. My favorites include biographies of Anna Akhmatova, Anais Nin (very entertaining!), Isadora Duncan, Sylvia Beach, Anne Sexton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

7) Like most Viennese I love a good cup of coffee, but to be sensible I limit myself to a maximum of two cups a day. I probably couldn't handle more anyways.

Since most bloggers I read seem to have received this award already from someone else, I'm only passing it on to four other bloggers:

Frk. Bustad from Norway, who makes adorable clothes out of very funky and colorful fabric. She writes in Norwegian but always provides English translations.
Jodi from Jodi is feeling creative, who has just entered a lovely dress into the BurdStyle red-and-pink contest.
Julia from the House of Maramalade, who has amazing corsetry skills and has just completed her first self-drafted corset, which is very impressive.
Lily from The House of Mirth, who drafts and sews beautiful, unique and inspiring garments. She also entered the red-and-pink contest with an amazing dress.

Pant Inspiration

2010-02-02T17:02:00.001+01:00

Thank you all for your kind comments on my purple dress! It's inspiring me to sew more...

The next project I have planned is a black pant. A recent look into my closet has revealed that I only own one pair of black pants - and not just any pair of black pants but the crappiest RTW polyester pant you have ever seen. So, I'm in dire need of a new pair!

My plan is to draft the pair myself and make them vintage-inspired with a high-waist, a fairly straight leg and a side zipper. As always at the beginning of a new sewing project I am full of inspiration and have scoured the internet for more. Here is one such specimen, which fulfills all my pant fantasies: a reproduction pattern found on Vintage Fashion Library.

I love the clean lines and the simplicity of this pair - something which is rarely found in shops anymore, where pants seem to be heavily adorned with all sorts of pockets and other design details.

Simplicity 3688 sports a similar Vintage reproduction pattern, which has raving reviews on Pattern Review. I'm particularly fond of member MagpieJen's three variations of this pant pattern.

The fabric I will be using is a medium-weight black wool I bought some time last year intending to make a skirt, but that somehow never happend. For more comfort I will also be lining these pants and I will probably make an inseam pocket on one side. Ideally I would make them on both sides, but I simply can't wrap my head around how to make an inseam pocket if there is already a zipper in the seam. So one pocket it will be.

But fist off, I'll be a good girl and make a muslin, so that there will be no evil surprises...

Party Dress Completed

2010-01-29T17:18:00.000+01:00

My Party Dress is finished! It was finished last week already and I even got a chance to wear it to a little party but I had the hardest time getting good photos of the dress, in which the color of the dress would show. Eventually I had to take it outside into freezing temperatures, where my roommate helped me take the photos.

I spent the longest time ever on fitting this dress and all in all it turned out well. I followed the advice of Fit for Real People and chose the pattern according to upper chest circumference rather than bust measurement and went down a whooping two sizes from a 16 to a 12. I had to do a full bust adjustment and add some extra ease in the waist. Isn’t it strange how the hip, waist and bust measurements of a size 16 correspond exactly to mine and yet a straight size 16 results in the most terrible fit. Pattern sizing boggles my mind.

I also for the first time experimented with some more sophisticated ways of garment finishing. I used a Hong Kong seam finish on the skirt and used bias tape on the hem to make it easier to ease in the extra width of a rounded hem.

The only thing that sticks out like a sore thumb in this dress are the bust darts. There was just no way I could have made them smoother, without dimpling and bulging. I even converted the underbust dart into two smaller darts to be able to deal better with the bulk of fabric that had to be tucked away in the darts – but to no avail. They still look terribly frankensteined.

I was thinking that perhaps if you have a large bust and mine is a DD/E it is impossible to achieve certain styles. There is a limit to how big a dart can be to still look good and the amount of extra width and length I need to add in a full bust adjustment always results in monster darts. Is there a solution to avoid this problem or is it simply impossible to deal with all this fullness in one or two simple darts?

In future projects I am planning to make sure to reduce the size of my darts and rather convert the fullness into seams (like princess seams, which work well on a full bust) or gathering or dart tucks of varying sizes. Perhaps this is the only solution. And there go my dreams for this simple and perfect sheath dress with only a single, elegant dart. Sigh.