Summers Day

A beautiful summers day and i get to wear my Knot Dress. Us English are so over enthusiastic about the sun at the moment. We don't even mind if its not that hot: T-shirts, shorts and summer dresses are out in force. So i took my time form getting sun burnt to take some picture in my mums garden. To replace the not so good ones i took in my small dark flat. See here.

I am now working on a new Knot Dress in a washed out blue flowery fabric. I really want to get it finished in time to go on holiday, but i am missing an invisible zipper. Where can i find an invisible zipper in Newport?

Anyway that's my other news i am off on holiday to Nice again. This time i am going for 16 nights and i am going to do a french course. I am so excited because i have always wanted to learn another language. I have dipped in and out of french for many years, but it is really hard to get motivated when you are learning on your own. I did do a evening class many years ago, but that was in another town and there are no local classes which will fit around my work. 

I am hoping that on this course, my french teachers can help me pull all of the french words (and i know many) out off my head and into usable sentences. Because it is quite embarrassing when somebody approached you in France and you understand almost everything they are saying, but you cant even remember how to tell them that use don't speak french. 

Burda Front Knot Dress - 3/2012 108b

I have been a bit quite on the blog front for a while, but i am not the only one. Its been quite in blog land for a while, i assume that this is because it is summer and we all have better things to do than to sew, knit, and then blog about it.

For me i have been on holiday, then to London twice; once for tennis at Wimbledon and another to catch up with a friend from my travels. And i have two weeks of holiday coming in a few weeks time, so i shall be off again then as well. 

Wow, this must be my most showy offy pose of all time.

Yesterday i finished the Knot Front Dress pattern 108b from the March addition of Burda Magazine. I was so excited to finish something,  i jumped up and took some photos in the fading light of my flat. So sorry about the quality it was so dark, i might try to take some better photos next time i wear this dress. (p.s. I have now taken better photo's).

Sewing this dress took longer than i thought. I had been reading all the reviews from other bloggers and sewers on-line and they nearly all mentioned how easy this was to put together and sewing it in just a few hours. So i went into this with a slight underestimate of how long it was going to take me. I started tracing it a few weeks ago and it has taking me a week of evenings and a Saturday to actually finish. 

I cut a size 80 tall or size 14UK. I did not make any adjustments as usually i need to lengthen the bodice as i have a really long body even though i am only 5'5". The length of the skirt came out a bit strange as the front panels were 5" shorter than the back panel. I must have made a mistake tracing the pattern but as of yet i have not gone back and evaluated what went wrong. So i ended up with a slightly shorter skirt than expected. 

Their was a lot of basting involved in the process of piecing this together and i was never quit sure when i should be removing the bastes. I made the mistake of removing the baste along the bottom of one of the knot pieces as i was making the knot. I now realise that the instructions don't tell you to remove this because it should stay, else the lining piece wont stay put.  So i spent a good hour restitching the lining back on. I therefore recommend that if you are reading this post with a view to making it, that you make this baste in a matching thread, or if you know a better way please let me know as i plan on making another. 

As i don't like my clothes not having pockets i added an inseam pocket to the right side, i would have added one to the left as well but the zipper was in the way. Next time i make this i might add a shorter zipper so i can get a second pocket.

Just a note. this dress looks so similar to two already on the Burdastyle website by lazylinchen and tsedai. I did not copy their fabric choice i swear. But we three do have great dresses.

New fabric for my stash

So i went fabric shopping in Birmingham on Saturday, as i absolutely demolished my fabric stash before my holiday. I went with a few ideas about what i wanted, such as a dark blue, red and white floral print fabric and some pretty patterned knit fabrics. But as usual, there was loads of fabrics but not quite what i was looking for. I came close with a dark blue floral fabric but, its colours were too muted for what i wanted. I really need to rethink my fabric buying strategy as i tend to go with ideas which are just too narrow and get disappointed.

Anyway, after i got over my disappointment, this is what i came up with.

A narrow blue and creamish synthetic fabric and some cream lining, which i am going to attempt to make the Dress With Knot Front 03/2012 #108B from Burda magazine.

This light indigo linen fabric and this thick black patterned fabric as a lining to the Asymmetric Jacket 03/2012 #116, also from the same addition of Burda magazine.

And three lots of jersey knit fabrics. I bough 1m of the bright orange (which is brighter in real life than my photo). I think that i will try to make a skirt from this, possibly self drafted. I bough 3m of the aubergine which i will make into a top, probably my hacked Newlook - 6807 and also a skirt. Then i have also bought 1m of grey stripy knit, i have never worked with stripes before and i don't think that the Newlook pattern will work with the material, so any ideas?

So no beautiful floral prints, or summer fabrics, but the weather was not very inspiring. Actually it was horrendous again. I had to work in the morning so i cycled in the rain to work (because bicycle or car are the only options to get there), and then cycled in heavier rain to the train station. By the time i had reached the train station my waterproof mascara had run and i was drenched. The toilets were closed for renovation, so i spent the day walking around Birmingham feeling a right mess. 

Holiday Photos

I got back from my holiday late on Sunday. It has been so hectic ever since. As soon as i got back i had a little rest and then to work of a 9h shift, then it just been work and trying to sort out the mess i made making the last Sorbetto before my holiday. Oh and trying to get my laundry done, which has not shrunk any despite doing four loads.

Any way back to my holiday a mini backpacking trip. First stop was Pisa, Italy. A student city, with loads and loads of bicycles and an airport in walking distance of town (my favorite part; i could just get off the plane and walk to my hostel and then into town). Apart from the bicycles which i loved, the only place of any real interest in Pisa is the complex with the Leaning Tower. I spent part of my morning here and the rest walking around town. I started quite early so by midday i had pretty much got board of Pisa and headed for Lucca, a very picturesque walled town a short train ride away.

Then off the Nice, France by the way of a 6h train ride. I changed trains at Genoa, and got this view of Genoa from the platform. Awesome or what?

Nice was lovely, too hilly for bikes, but loads of spectacular views of the city, from every angle possible. I spent the first day walking and walking the streets of Nice and up into the old castle grounds, where i took so many pictures of the view i just cant process them. 

The second day on the beach in Monaco with Agata and another girl who's name embarrassingly i have already forgotten. Forgetting names seems to be my biggest problem with backpacking as you meet too many people in to shorter time to catch and remember there names. 

My third and favorite day was visiting the little hill top village of Eze. 

On blog related stuff. I took loads of clothes that i had made, and easily wore one every single day. Unfortunately i forgot to take picture of my self, so this is all the evidence i have. 

After leaving Nice via another long train journey to Marseille Airport, i arrived back in to Stanstead for one of the biggest weather shocks this year. Wow it was windy! The landing felt as though the pilot had trouble keeping the plane on the runway and i nearly lost all my possessions leaving the plane.

I meet up with my friend Michelle who lives near by. Our sort of plan was to go into London the next day, but the weather was so horrendous that we just ended up going into Cambridge, which is never a bad plan as it is a beautiful city. So another student city full of so many beautiful bicycles. 

Panel Sorbetto Blouse

This is my latest version of the Sorbetto blouse. I am off on holiday next Saturday for a week to Pisa, Italy and then to Nice, France. I am only taking hand luggage, as i refuse to pay stupid prices for cheeked in luggage. Therefore, i am going to have to pack lightly, so this Sorbetto blouse and the Floaty Sorbetto Blouse, will mean that i have at least two light weight tops. 

The Sorbetto blouse is a free pattern available form Colette Patterns you can find it on there blog. I cut a size 6, i found this sizing a bit strange. I measure 34" at bust but i had to cut for a 36", and even now i could probably get away with larger. The changes i made to the original pattern were, that i inverted the pleat at the front, lengthened the hem and i added a panel at the front. 

I bought the fabric at my favorite shopping haunt, Birmingham's Rag Market. I can not remember how much i paid, but it was not much. I am a cheapskate:) I was so cheap i only bought the minimum amount that i though i would need do the job and grossly underestimated it. So i added the panel in the front. The panel fabric was left over from one of my first sewing projects last year. I actually thinks it looks better like this. 

Both fabrics were impossible to press as they melted before the iron was hot enough to crease them. This means that i don't have the neat polished look that i would like, but it still looks good. I remember when i first took an iron to the patterned one last year, i lost huge amounts of the material before the iron even touched it. I've been very wary ever since, testing each bit of fabric before pressing. 

I did french seams on this top for the first time, instead of my usual plain seams, which is why there are pictures of the inside of my Sorbetto. It looks and feels so much neater. This is something i am going to keep doing in the future, because it does make your clothes feel that much more high quality, even if you are buying the cheep fabric. It also mean that my sewing is moving on, and i am learning new stuff.

I now only have a few days left before i am off on holiday and they are all work days. I really need to do my laundry and clean my flat so i have somewhere reasonably clean to come back to. But i am also very tempted to see if i can make another Sorbetto before my flight leaves on Saturday. We'll see, the fabric washed and ready to go.

Floaty Sorbetto Blouse

The sun has come out at last, and now i want summer clothes. It was so hard to get in the mood for making summer stuff, as only last week i was contending with sleet and snow. I really don't know how professional clothing designers can design a summer collection in the wrong time of year. If it was up to me the shops would be all full of woolly mittens and grey wool dresses right now.

So this is what i am wearing right now, shorts (at last) and a Sorbetto blouse.

I made the blouse using the free Sorbetto pattern from Colette Patterns. I have made a few changes to the blouse, i added cap sleeves, lengthened the hem and inverted the centre pleat. 

When i decided to use this pattern to make summer tops, i was always going to make a few. I had planned out what fabric i was going to use, black and red with daises (below), blue polka dot, and a white and blue stripy one. Then it got warm and sunny and suddenly my chose of fabric seemed a bit dull and inappropriate.

But a good hunt through my fabric draw and suddenly this one surfaced. The fabric is one that i bought over a year ago, before i even started sewing. I had the idea that maybe one day i would use it to make a bag. When i did eventually started sewing it went to the bottom of my fabric draw, and i decided i did not like the print. Then the sun came out to play and suddenly its perfect.

The flower print top is actually the second Sorbetto i have made this week. The firts one....

came out a bit small, but it did give me a chance experiment. So i added caped sleeves to it using my less than professional approach...

1. cut out a piece of fabric that is roughly sleeve shaped and attach it to bodice.

2. hack away at it with a pair of blunt scissors.

3. rip it off, cut down the centre, spread it apart and recut it out. 

4. reattach to bodice, to check shape.

and i had my cap sleeve pattern piece.

I new this would happen, i have been trying so hard to follow proper established sewing methods, so i don't fall in to bad habits. But i have a personality type.

And then Timbaland, The Way I Are, came on the radio and i could not resist...

I embarrass in night clubs.

Burda Blouse 5/2012 with Tie Collar

This is another item i found in the 5/2012 addition of the Burda magazine. It is pattern no: 103, but i have attached a tie collar instead of the plain collar. I actually liked the tie collar blouse that is pattern 134, but it was a plus size pattern, as seems are most of my favourite Burda magazine patterns. So i made 103 and attached the collar as described in 134.

This pattern was pretty easy to follow. At the first glance of the diagram i thought it might be more complicated than the skirt i made last week. But the instruction were quite simple and straight forward to follow. Though you still need to know how to sew so it is not a pattern for beginners. 

I did not cut the fabric on the bias as recommended for the tie, as i did not have enough in my stash, but the end result is still pretty good. 

My photos are not very clear, and it really hard to make out the tie at the front in any of them. I was trying to take them when it was raining yesterday afternoon, so the light coming into my flat was very poor. The black polka dots really make the tie bow blends into the shirt. I think is a good thing, because it is there, and it is big, but understated at the same time.

I am going on holiday soon and will need some new summer tops. My original plan was to making a bunch of heavily modified Newlook 6807's. That did not worked out, due to not finding enough suitable jersey fabric. So now i am working on making the Sorbetto top, from Collete Patterns. I have seen many versions of this pattern appearing on the Burdastyle website, but have never really thought much about the pattern until recently.  Now there have been several versions of this pattern that have caught my eye, so i am giving it ago.

Burda Skirt- 5/2012

Normally this time of year i wear brighter, lighter summer clothes, and i want to be in summer clothes making mode. But the weather it just so far from summer at the moment; this skirt is very appropriate. I actually had to cycle to work in heavy sleet and snow on Tuesday, the weather is horrid. Where is summer?

I made this aubergine skirt from the May addition of the Burda magazine using pattern number 118. I cut a burda size 38 grading to 40 at the waist. I also cut the skirt to the same length as the 119 skirt. The skirt has come out really well, although i usually say that and then change my mind. This is one item i can see my self wearing all the time. I feel so comfortable in it. 

  

It was quite challenging to make; as i really struggled with the instructions and i spent a lot of time seam ripping. I have read a lot about burda magazine patterns being hard to understand and now i understand why. They assume a lot of sewing knowledge, there are no diagrams as with paper patterns, and the written instructions just did not explain in enough detail how the pieces were to go together.

 I missed off the welts on the back skirt. I cut them out, read the instructions about how to apply them but just could not comprehend what they were saying. So after a long search for instructions in books, internet and on the Burdastyle website i found nothing. So i ended up leaving them off. I also found it really hard to understand their instructions for the zipper, but after studying an old pair of jeans and reading up on it i eventually figured it out.

 Well that was a long rant about the instructions, overall i think the pattern is great. and maybe with a bit more practice ill become more proficient at using burda patterns. I am making a shirt from the same issue. So far i have found the instructions for that to be quite simple. 

Well that's all for now..... off to work on my shirt.

Loads of UFOs

I have not posted for over two weeks, now i feel kind of obliged not to let my blog stand idle; as i cant see my self posting a finished project for about a week.  I have not been lazy, its just that i have not quite finished a whole project, yet. Hence i have loads of UnFinished Objects. A lot of this was down to riding my bike with a fever. I cycled 13 miles on Friday morning and spent Friday afternoon being scarily dizzy and sick, trying to contact a doctor. However loads of rest over the weekend at my parents house and i am now fine.

So here is a project update. 

I have started a new Cable Knit Bag like my grey one. I was in B&M and they had this perfect chunky 100% wool yarn, that i just knew was put there for me to make this bag.  The first time i made this  i drew a diagram of the bag and knitted it from that and what was in my head. That was two years ago now so i have been thinking i need to make another one for a while and write the instructions down properly, before i completely forget how i did it. So this is what i have been doing, its harder than i thought. More on that later.

I have my first UFO. Its official. I can't see these short being finished in weeks, if not months. Maybe never. I am being brave and using this paisley fabric. I cut 121 view C from the May addition of Burda Magazine. I read the instructions and thought that they looked simple enough to make, so i cut out the fabric and then realized that i missed an invisible zipper in the recipe. I am going to buy an invisible zipper foot for my sewing machine, when i get around to it. But for now its been put away. There is nowhere in town that i can by invisible zippers let alone a sewing machine foot.

The May addition of Burda Magazine has loads of great stuff in it. So i picked it up to see what else i could reasonably make. There are quite a few things i might try. When i first saw this skirt i thought that would be perfect in an aubergine fabric i bought last year to make a dress. I had convinced myself that i had used rest of the fabric lining a skirt. So brilliant surprise for me when i found enough of it in my fabric stash to make the knee length version of this skirt. So this is cut out and is waiting next to my sewing machine for me to stitch it together.

Well i did finish something! Its Burda 119 from the March issue. I actually really like it on, but i will have to layer it, because it is made from that horrid fabric i used for the Peter Pan Tee that i swore i would never touch again.

P.S. I stole the pics from the Burda magazine straight from this blog: http://sewingandstyle.blogspot.co.uk/. I don't know where she got hers from.