Category Archives: projects

Me Made May

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Here it is again. May. Me Made May. I can’t believe how quickly this year has passed and how little I have been able to achieve craftwise. I know, I have produced a lot but I rarely stretch myself to more difficult tasks. As I usually don’t have much time, I try to be efficient by using the patterns that I have already prepared. Unfortunately this means that I do not learn anything new. At least I have been able to develop the trousers project. I definitely made a lot of trousers over the course of the past year. But for myself, I have only made a few crazy leggings (I guess we can count them as trousers) and one pair of light summer trousers.

Anyway, for Me Made May, I decided to challenge myself and endeavour to use new patterns, especially for tops as I really do not seem to own any decent well fitting top. But for now, I will show you my attempt of a neutral, black or grey skirt to be worn with crazy leggings. Because as much as I do love leggings, I think they should not be seen from upper thigh upwards. Unless you are in a fitness class. So, either you are wearing a tunic or a mini skirt. And since my leggings are not exactly in subtle shades or patterns,

I would need something neutral. Idealy black or grey.

In the spirit of my new found desire to get out of my comfort zone, I have chosen a style that I have never been wearing, at least not for the last 30 years. A ballon skirt.

DSC_0430pattern: Ballonrock by Lybstes, fabric: jaquard sweat by Lillestoff, 40cm left over on sale

I think it looks supercool and it is really comfy. Plus it has pockets for all those little things you need to carry around.

 

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No, I am not colourblind. I am aware that this is neither black nor grey. But thanks for pointing it out to me. I only need a couple of black or grey leggings to combine it with. And anyway, I wanted to try the new pattern with left over fabrics to be sustainable and use up what I have rather than buying new material. Plus, I already got a compliment for it. Actually 2. One by my daugther and one by my favourite neighbour.

And now over to creadienstag   to see what other creative people have made today.

 

 

Speaking of cool…

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I had totally forgotten to show you the items worn by the one person who I consider to be the coolest (clothwise) in the house.

It is the master of leggings and slim fit trousers.

DSC_0196pattern: Leggings Lilly by pattydoo, fabric: Lillestoff (Glueckspaket)

DSC_0280pattern: Canelita by bienvenido colorido, fabric: freezing penguins by Lillestoff

I so wanted to buy this fabric but decided not to as the little one really did not need anything. And then the 6-year-old chose this particular fabric out of a million fabrics online for his new trousers! What good taste.

 

Not sure, if you can actually recognise it but this time I even made pockets at the back.

The girl has grown, too, so here are her trousers.

DSC_0278pattern: Canelita by bienvenido colorido, fabric: Rebekah by Lillestoff

 

And last but not least, I made another attempt in being cool by upcycling the carneval costume. She was dressed as a witch and we made a black dress for this purpose, already knowing that it would be altered afterwards.

DSC_0201pattern: Raglankleid by klimperklein, fabric: black sweat, purchased at biostoffe.at

I cut the fringe, made an normal hem, pink cuffs and ironed on some stars that I had cut out of plot foil to add some colour to the plain bl.. bl… it is really hard for me to say that…. black dress.

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To be honest, I don’t think it is cool at all but what do I know! (Nothing, in case you were wondering)

That’s if for now, it looks like Me Made May is around the corner, so I quickly need to get ready and jump on board in an other post.

 

How to be cool

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First, let me just say how happy and proud I am that you came to me to learn about coolness. Clearly, this means that you are, unlike my daughter, convinced that I am a really cool person. I keep telling her that my lack of coolness is the new cool. Well, not everybody seems to agree on that. So I was a bit stressed out, when I made clothes for my nephew and nieces, as some of them are… lets just say…. in a critical age.

Well, I guess, my oldest nephew is actually rather easy to handle. He is fine with stripes and only stripes. Stars? No thank you? Maybe some abstract pattern? No. So, stripes then. Yehes. So since years he gets a stripy hoody but I went out of the pattern comfort zone and went for a sweat Toni by schnittreif rather than the usual jersey Leo by pattydoo.

DSC_0176pattern: Toni by Schnittreif, fabric: Lillestoff

The 6-year-old nephew who is usually only into really manly stuff, like pirates, vikings,… anything armed really, happened to visit when I was about to make something for him. I naively showed him the few fabrics that I considered to be cool. He dismissed them all and chose two fabrics out of my stash and that’s what I made out of them:

DSC_0177pattern: Leo by pattydoo, fabric: bought for myself, years ago

DSC_0178pattern: Leo by Pattydoo, fabric: Lillestoff (Glueckspaket)

I guess it was a bit silly to make the short-sleeved shirt with hood and the long version without but I had already cut out the hood when I started to look for a suitable fabric for the sleeves and I simply hadn’t had enough of the black and white for long sleeves.

The hardest coolness problem to solve was certainly my 10-year-old niece. That one really made me nervous.

DSC_0181DSC_0182pattern: Pia by Pattydoo, fabric: “Mannequin” by Lillestoff, design Susalabim

This top needed to be made out of two parts as when I had ordered this fabric, the pattern repeat had been cut wrongly with the girls on top and lots of grey at the bottom. So by making a yoke out of the fabric bottom piece, I have been able to move the girls at the bottom of the shirt.

I have also made a Pia for my daughter, out of the left over of a correctly cut repeat, so no need for a yoke:

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but for a different back fabric (it looks like this post actually qualifies for Scrap Sunday, doesn’t it)

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Once finished with those two cool T-shirts, I started doubting again. Will a 10-year old find this cool? Especially if actually an 8-year old finds it cool? (Yes, my daughter did find it cool)

Nevertheless, I made another one. Mainly because I had already cut out the main pieces. And because I so wanted to try out a thing that seems to be called “destroyed negativ applikation”. In German though. It is cool to use English terms, you know.

DSC_0179pattern: Pia by Pattydoo, fabric: Lillestoff (Glueckspaket)

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How cooooool is that?!

My daughter found it silly. I took it as a good sign.

So, when my nice came to visit, I was really nervous. Because up until now she thought I was some kind of super hero thanks to my sewing skills. And I didn’t want to lose this position.

And before the suspense is killing you, I can reveal that she found it coooool!!!!!!

 

 

The unsolved mystery of the missing leggings

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I haven’t had the time to write elaborate posts because I was so busy hunting for easter eggs and also sewing up the huge pile of fabric. I made all sorts of clothes for nephew and nieces and sent them of with a special private courrier who got the two cotton bags mixed up and delivered the right things to the wrong grand children. So I got them back and tried the Austrian mail service this time. I packed  two lovely jumpers, two pairs of simple, stripey  nothing special leggings (3/4 length to be precise) and a wrapped birthday present containing an amazing dress and a cute skirt plus some necessities for a three year old (fancy tape and stickers) into a box, labelled it and brought it to the local post office. A day later! it already arrived at the other end of the country and as it turns out, it only contained two lovely jumpers and a wrapped birthday present containing an amazing dress and a cute skirt plus some necessities for a three year old (fancy tape and stickers). But no leggings. Isn’t that weird? Where have they gone? I know, people who have ever seen my study will suggest that I have simply forgotten to pack them and that they will be under one of the piles of fabric, clothes or paper work sitting in said study. Well, I am actually preeetty sure that I put them into the box. Sure, I did take them out again because I needed to put another little necessity into the wrapped present but I did put them back. Most likely I guess. In any case, they had been in the first packing round.

Then there is also the possibility that my sister-in-law found them so horrific that she pretended they never arrived whilst secretly burning them. But she is the sort of polite person who would have forced her daughter to wear them first to be able to send me a picture of her wearing them before actually burning them.

Which leaves us with the possibility that someone has actually stolen them out of the box. Seems unlikely, I know, considering that there were actually much prettier things in the box, like the two lovely jumpers and the wrapped birthday present containing the amazing dress and the cute skirt plus some necessities for the three-year old (fancy tape and stickers). However, around the same time, we had ordered stilts for our training-to-be-a-circus-artist-child. And the package arrived but with the foot rests missing!!!!! Obviously there is person out there with serious hight issues, stealing tiny leggings (and probably wearing them) and tall-making-devices! So if you see someone jumping around on wooden blocks and wearing these leggings, please call the police.

pattern: leggings Lilly by pattydoo, fabrics from my stash

To prove my point (not sure which one), these are the things that have not been stolen:

DSC_0186pattern: Latzkleid from Babyleicht by Pauline Dohmen (klimperklein), fabric: Rumble in the jungle, Lillestoff

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… and a cute skirt

DSC_0198pattern: Rock’ n roll from Kinderleicht by Pauline Dohmen (klimperklein), fabric: Lillestoff Glueckspaket

And may I just draw your attention to the hem of the skirt:

made with my brand new sewing machine. In one go. Would be really quick to make if I had the courage to actually go over the slowest possible speed.

It is a really fancy machine. Lots of buttons and a shiny display. And a working light bulb that hasn’t fallen out yet. A real change to the old one. And you don’t need a foot pedal anymore. You just press a button to make it work. Which apparently my foot doesn’t know yet. I have observed it standing up at 45 degree without a pedal in sight on several sewing occasions.

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