Category Archives: projects

I am done here

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Since a while I had in mind to use either the left over’s of my dress

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or a green Hamburger Liebe cotton which I have used for the lining of a bag for a former friend

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to make a Frau Aiko by schnittreif – a wide blouse, surprisingly matching to what I have in mind for my two layered breastfeeding top. Well, I haven’t got enough fabric for any of those. Which is annoying because I really don’t want to buy any new fabric right now.

So I made a Langeness panelled skirt instead. With a contrasting border. I meant to use the same contrasting fabric than for the dress in the first picture. But guess what, not enough fabric left. So I had to rummage through my boxes again and realised that a plain lilac cotton was actually the winner. And that I have enough to have a go at Frau Aiko, too. I know I know, a monochrome piece. Hard to believe. Well, you always need to try out new things! I might one day even make something black!

Anyway, I made the skirt, all easy peasy lemon squeezy. In fact a bit too easy peasy lemon squeezy so I decided to set myself a little challenge…. by misplacing the zip.

IMG_5224Impossible to fold down the facing (Lilac) along the seam. What to do? I tell you what! Embrace the problem and turn it into a feature! So I folded the contrasting facing about 3mm over the seam, pressed it flat  and topstitched it to make it look like a piping.

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I love those little details. Especially when they are in contrasting colours. But who will ever see that “piped” waistline? Well everybody if you are going to team it with a crop top. Or no one.

There is only a slight problem. I love the look but actually the whole waistline is a bit on the loose side already. And there is still hope that my waist will find its way back home at some point. But I really don’t fancy to remove the whole facing to be able to take the skirt in. What can be done? I guess chocolate is the only solution to this problem.

I finished the skirt yesterday and was proudly wearing it today.

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The main skirt has a round hem. But the border is supposed to be cut as a straight rectangle. I am not convinced that this is a good idea as it gives it a little baloon effect and I am just not sure if that works in this particular case.

But anyway, so I was proudly wearing this skirt to an amazing the “event of the year” kind of party when beforementioned former friend approached me and said “Oh, I love the outfit. Did you make it?” “Yes”, I said proudly just wanting to go into detail (feeling very touched that she must obviously have recognised the fabric) when I realised that she was talking about the baby’s outfit! He was wearing some random swedisch high street discounter things! What a disappointment! On so many levels. And shock! What is the purpose of my existence? If a shop bought random baby outfit wins over a handmade skirt? I am guessing it can’t be writing a sewing blog. Last week Brexit and now this! Clearly some changes are needed. I am done here. We will be moving back to Austria! Oh wait, there is no need to rush into this, lets have some informal talks first to get the best deal out of it. And in the meantime I will hop over to RUMS to see what other crafters have created this week.

 

 

 

 

 

Revolutionary method for younger looking skin in seconds

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Method for younger looking skin? Is this the right blog? Yes it is, slightly off topic maybe but still the right place. And as you will see, there is still a connection with crafts.

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Have you ever asked yourself what makes you feel or look particularly old? Is it when you are celebrating your grand mother’s 102 birthday and she is still dancing when you are already longing for a nice cup of tea?

Or is it rather when you are surrounded by people in their twenties showing off an unreasonable amount of flawless and smooth skin? Are you then suddenly aware of all those wrinkles you have accumulated over the years?

For me it is clearly the latter. I see them sometimes in their natural habitat and wonder if they are actually aware of the fact that they are at the top of their natural beauty and that it will only go downhill from there. Or are they blissfully unaware and actually enjoying their lives?

Whatever they are thinking in these moments of smoothness (probably how to keep their trousers from falling down completely but that is a completely different matter and needs to be discussed by some gravity specialist), my focus is usually drawn to every single wrinkle in my own face and on my own neck. And it makes me think what I could do to improve my appearance. So lets analyse the problem. Clearly the smoothness surrounding me makes my own wrinkles come out more. Which leads to two options, either I am getting rid of my wrinkles (lots of companies are making lots of money with unrealistic promises) or I do something against the surrounding smoothness….  And now, tell me, what did you think when you saw the picture at the beginning of this post?

Did you think “Oh my gosh that is one wrinkly neck! Her postings are always sparkling of fun, energy and youth but looking at that neck she must be at least 39 years of age!”

Or did you think: “Goodness, I always thought this blog is written by some mature and clever woman full of sewing wisdom but clearly she doesn’t even own an iron! She must be in her twenties. ”

See! You can either spend a fortune on creams or surgery to smoothen some of the wrinkles in your face or you actually add some wrinkles near or around your face by carefully creasingyour clothes.  You won’t safe time but money!

Lets try again! Look at this close up! What’s your first thought?

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An unironed shirt worn by a young looking woman. And a beautiful contrasting seam in an otherwise unusually (for this blog) monochrom Usedom– shirt.

Point proven! So how is it done?

Don’t use your iron to create creases! The sharp iron pleats will give it an unnatural look. Just crunch your top into a ball when it is still wet and then hang it up to dry. Fold it loosely and keep it in your wardrobe, ideally under a pile of other clothes.

You can also refresh a flattened fabric by gently dampen it (why not use the steam of your iron?) before crunching it up again. Simply leave it crunched up to fully dry before wearing it.

Just be warned: Don’t overdo it! I was actually worried no one would notice the rather mild crunches in those pictures. What a relief when I looked at them on the screen and saw that they had come out beautifully.

But before you are running off to crunch up all your clothes, lets have another look at my new Usedom and its nice white seam at the sleeve. This time I went for a normal sleeve instead of the very wide cuffs as seen in the parrot version.

IMG_5195I think I like the other sleeve type better. It emphasises the batwing shape. But I like this top, too. The colour and the fact that I was acutally able to sew a monochrome piece. Well apart from those few seams. But I am digressing from the actual topic of revolutionary skin care.

So let’s just hop over to RUMS and see if anybody else went for the crunch look or if they have actually ironed their clothes before presenting them to the world.

 

 

 

 

Row, row, row the boat…

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…. gently down the stream

and if you see a pirate ship

don’t forget to scream.

So, the pirate captain (remember?)

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has been joined by a quarter master (not only did I do some research on pirate organisational structure but there is also a very interesting and unbelievably large amount on the subject out there  –  go and have a look yourself)

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matching but also not too matching I think….

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Aren’t they cute fiece? I meant fierce. I am certainly not going to make that mistake again! But then, pirate captains are most likely not following sewing and knitting blogs anyway. So lets just look at them again.

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Which brings us back to the title.

By the way, all pattern are from the Kinderleicht! Naehen mit Jersey fuer Kids by Pauline Dohmen.

 

Scrap Sunday: A few Me Made May thoughts and a perfect match

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May is long gone and I still haven’t summed up my Me Made May experience. So lets have a look.

I pledged

To declutter my wardrobe. Which I did.

To wear me made items three times a week. Which I think I mainly did. Sometimes not for the whole day. But you try and live with a little vomitter and don’t get changed 7 times a day.

To create some new me mades. Which I definitely did.

And to make some progress on the perfect breastfeeding top. Which I haven’t really. Except if you are accepting a head full of vague ideas as progress. Oh well, I will just have to continue breastfeeding for a while.

I guess, I did the challenge only half heartedly as I have so many things on my plate these days but it was still a very good and inspiring experience. And I am already looking forward to taking part next year.

I have realised that my wardrobe consists of lots of ill fitting and mismatching items. I still kept those that might fit again one day. Even though it is hard to tell where kilos things will be going.

The mismatching is another problem, probably unsolvable. I have the colour palette of a parrot so it is difficult to match things. I guess i should add some neutral colours to the mix to be able to combine things better. But if you know me, that will be a difficult task. I might just accidentally turn something that started as a navy blue top into a parrot coat again.

I have also realised that I tend to think that me mades are precious and not to be worn at messy times. For the children I might be making casual items but I still have a tiny bit the feeling that they shouldn’t ruin them because mummy made them. So they shouldn’t be wearing them when they play. Or eat. Which is basically what children do. So whilst in my knitting classes I am always preaching of “making and letting go”, I do struggle a tiny bit of following this for my own makes.

For myself it is even worse. I love making dresses. Especially nice dresses. But I am not an everyday dress type of person. I am a jeans and whatever shirt I pulled out of the wardrobe type of person. So I don’t really have occasions to wear nice dresses and if I wear them for the school run I feel uncomfortable and overdressed.

I guess the main lesson learned from Me Made May 16 was to make not only more clothes for myself and the children but to focus on staples and more wearable items. And to take it more seriously in general. The ideal would be to be able to make all the clothes for the family myself, wouldn’t it. Which would also mean to not only look out for those cute and special printed fabrics but some plain colours too. Even I wouldn’t mix a patterned top with a multicoloured even more patterned skirt. I said “wouldn’t” because I have done it in the past. Due to lack of a plain item in the right colour.

Oh, and when I say “all” the clothes, I don’t include things like rain clothes or winter coats,… Not for now at least. But I am actually planning to make trousers. As I am clearly wearing trousers more often than dresses.

One good side effect of that new plan would also be to reduce my stash considerably. It had gone down lately. Until dotsnstripes had a super sale, selling some lovely fabrics for £3 a metre. So I am back to huge piles of fabric. I wish a day had 48 hours.

So this week started pretty well, I cut out a T-Shirt and a dress last weekend and managed to sew both on Monday. Then I thought, I could continue with one piece a day but this was it 🙂 Well, apart from a Pippi Longstocking apron which I will show you in a seperate post.

Both patterns  are from my klimperklein book Naehen mit Jersey Kinderleicht!

For the dress I used some of the fabric that had been in my Advent calendar last december. And what a perfect match for the size I had to use 🙂 (the pattern doesn’t even include seam allowance yet!):

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I love it, it is obviously girly but not the usual boring pinkish stuff.

For the pirate shirt I had plenty of fabric because I had bought that fabric for  a onesie which never happened. So for once I actually looked at the position of the pattern when cutting out rather than just squeezing it into a corner of the fabric to have as little waste as possible and so the motives are spread out evenly.

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I combined it with palm tree green stripes for the sleeves and orange for the neck and sleeves.

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After I had made the sleeve cuffs too tightly, I panicked and the neck binding is now slightly too loose. But I love the combination and have decided to make a similar combo for his brother. I don’t normally like matching children but I guess pirates usually do come in bunches.

Oh, I almost forgot. I also made a pair of shorts out of scraps. The pattern suggested jogging sweat and I had grey or blue. The boy chose blue (believe it or not but I would have preferred the grey) and as I am struggling with plain colours I put lots of other stuff there, like a double layered application. Which is also a good way of using up tiny pieces of scrap 🙂

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I am a teeny weeny bit unsure about the material choice. Obviously a certain thickness is needed for robustness. But then it might get quite warm. Which doesn’t make sense for a pair of shorts. Hmm. I might just try the same pattern with a woven fabric. It will be much cooler and we will see how long it will survive. But that will have to wait a little bit as this week it will be my and mini pirate’s turn.