Tag Archives: Schnittreif

the girl with the golden top

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I have to admit, the girl with the glitter dragonfly dress is not alone. I, too, own since fairly recently something sparkly.

I kept admiring the giant flowers by Susalabim (my new favourite designer in case you haven’t noticed) featuring dark grey and yellow flowers on a grey background. When I saw it on a shopping trip, I took a bit and only realised at home that the yellow was actually gold. I guess, I deserve a little bit of gold, so never mind.

The fabric is a super soft modal and together with the giant flowers it would be ideal for a dress. But for someone who never wears dresses I do have too many already so I made a Usedom by Schnittreif. The loose fit and the bat wings make it just perfect to accommodate my wobbly tummy without looking pregnant.

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pattern: Usedom by schnittreif, fabric: modal Riesenblumen by Susalabim, lillestoff

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I love it, it ticks a lot of boxes, quick to sew, supersoft material, comfortable to wear, unusual print, somehow neutral colours (in comparison with the rest of my wardrobe) and most importantly, apple puree seems to be blending in.

And in case you are wondering about the quality of the pictures – they are meant to look like this. This is called artistic. Honestly. It wasn’t easy to make them look like this.

Over to RUMS now, to see if other are better photographers.

 

One for all and all for one

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You know I like mixing fabrics. And colours. And patterns.

I don’t even remember if I ever made a shirt just out of one fabric. But I am sure some of my clever readers will remember everything ever shown on this blog and know the answer to that question, so please do not hesitate to post it beneath.

I usually use a contrasting fabric for the sleeves

very rarely I do a contrast hood as well – in fact I think that should become the norm, I don’t know why I do not always do that, it looks much better, maybe I never have enough of the contrast fabric, again the clever ones of you will know.

See, the pink one looks much better.Pictures aren’t great though, I know.

Sometimes, I do even front and back in different fabrics. Well, once. It was custom made.

The benefit of this mix and (sometimes) match method is that you usually end up with rather big pieces of scrap as you do not actually need the whole width for those little children shirts (especially if the amount of fabric indicated on the pattern is usually calculated for a whole shirt) – sometimes there is enough left for, lets say a skirt for a grown up who would otherwise never have chosen that fabric. But back to the title of “one for all”. And back to my enormous project list for this autumn.

I bought a lot of sweat this season. And a pattern bundle for hoodies for the whole family.

Meet Toni by schnittreif. A comfortable hoody for the whole family with my favourite feature of a longer back. I hate getting cold at the back. Or at the derriere.

So far I made the boy version. Which is not worn. Apparently the sleeves feel funny.

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I love those fabrics, not keen on the hood lining, seemed ok in the soft light of the building site light bulbs.

For the girls version, you’ll have to wait. A dress was requested instead, stupidly altered to tunic midway as the fabric seemed too hot for a dress.  So, the girls A-line hoody is actually not a Toni but a pattern from klimperklein.

img_5465-2 img_5453-2Still really cool fabric. And luckily more than enough left to make a skirt for a grown up who would never ever choose such a fabric for herself. But if it is a left over, you have to use it up, haven’t you.

But first a closer look at the two hoodies:

joined in unusual harmony

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close up of the hoods, I like the cross over in the girls version more:

The sleeves. Toni features a extra ribbing whereas klimperklein is “only” folded up and stitched with a stretchy contrasting stitch. Looks surprisingly similar somehow:

The two grown up versions will have to wait a little (well, I don’t know if there will be a daddy Toni, I haven’t seen my husband in clothes warmer than a T-Shirt since I made a woolen jumper for his wardrobe for him).

I got a new dress instead. Carol by pattydoo. Meant to do that since ages. It looks cool, super comfy and extremely breastfeeding unfriendly. Which is why I haven’t made it before. Now we are only feeding when I feel like it so why not wearing dresses sometimes (and at home it doesn’t matter anyway)?

I am afraid, I can not show you any pictures of the dress when worn so please click on the link to see how it is supposed to look. I really like my new dress, don’t get me wrong but I do think it makes my tummy look a bit big and wobbly in pictures (the camera’s fault, not the tummy’s) plus my resident photographers are currently busy with lego building work, so it is “dress on hanger only” this time. But as clever as you readers are, you will manage to imagine the rest.

I like the contrasting pockets and the low waist. Oh, and the little rectangle for the belt button holes are actually hiding a little mishap (others might call it hole). But doesn’t it look a bit like a belt buckle? A bit?

I have used a cheap summer sweat as this is only the trial version. I think a proper, slightly heavier sweat will actually make it more suitable for me and my tummy.

Plus imagine just the skirt part of the dress with the leopards! That will look so cool. Initially I thought only the dark navy with the yellow dots as side panels however I might not actually have enough of the yellow left and it might just become a proper mix up of both leopard fabrics and the dots as pockets only.

The clever reader will by now be wondering where the baby item is if this post has anything to do with its title (It actually hasn’t, I’m afraid, no fencing, no horses, no silly hats).

Any if you are by now thinking “I don’t get any of these tasks. Am I not the clever reader she is referring to?” then all I can say: Apparently not 😉

And as I have by now probably lost most of my offended readers, I can finally tell you that there will be a big secret revealed next time. And it has to do with the baby’s new coat. Which is far to thin for october in Austria by the way. No one has told me it would be that cold already. Anyway. Big secret coming up. Not to be shared with the whole wide world, only with those few followers who simply can not be chased away. Watch this space.

 

More Oh dear, oh dear

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I have looked into ticket prices to move to the north pole for the rest of the Me Made May challenge and decided it might be cheaper (and healthier for the baby) if I stayed here and actually made a few items to wear for the rest of the challenge.

I think I mentioned a while ago that I am experimenting on the perfect breastfeeding top. I am thinking of a loose double layer top where the bottom one has two slashes for easy access. This is still in progress, I struggled with neatening the edges of the slashes properly and threw it in a corner. In the meantime I decided to order a schnittreif pattern that I had seen on a blog somewhere. When browsing their shop, I bought other patterns too. Some of them are extremely unsuitable for breastfeeding but I guess I will stop at some point.

Anyway, I decided to make first a Frau Emma to see how it goes before I will make the much cooler Usedom. I think, whilst those two might not be the perfect breastfeeding tops, they are at least breastfeeding friendly as they are loose and can just be pulled up. Which is why I made my trial Emma even with a loose hem rather than a ribbing. I started with it last weekend. First, I took my measurements to see which size I’ll need. Let me just say that my measurements have changed slightly over the years, pregnancies and children….

The good news is that all of a sudden, my chest measurements are about the same as my hips. That sounds a lot like an hourglass figure. Which is the ideal female bodyshape in my opinion. So, I am two thirds there. Hurray! Lets have a look at my waist then just to confirm! Oh, the same number! Is the measuring tape broken? No? Hmm. So, what does that make me? A stick? (sounds slightly more flattering than barrel or drum).

Anyway, I made a Frau Emma, size L, using a cheap viscose jersey from Shepherds Bush. It is just a trial but if if works well, it will actually be a nice top.

Hmm.

IMG_4828It is not flattering, that’s for sure. I think I should have made it a size smaller. But the hem is not cool. Easy to pull up the shirt but not cool.

IMG_4835I used contrasting pink for the sleeves and for the hem line seam. The orange of the 80’s skirt looks much cooler. Great, now my 6 years old is cooler than me.

I am also not sure of the neckline.

IMG_4837Actually, I am sure about it. I am sure I don’t like it. It is not the patterns fault. It is me. Maybe I liked it better when made with an even thinner material, possibly woven fabric. The ruffle is too bulky for my liking. But lets move on.

I am usually quite a fan of those loose tops with a stretchy and tight hem. Which seems to be called “bubble hem”. Right. So I quite like bubble hem tops. Except that they are always a bit short and keep coming up. Which is bad in combination with those low waist trousers. I don’t like them. They expose my kidneys to cold draft. I am an old, uncool woman. I don’t like that. I want warm and cosy kidneys. (I have recently invested in two Japanese belly warmers. They are nice. But I would just prefer long enough shirts and high enough waistlines. )

Anyway, I thought, I might give it a go and just cut a hole into the existing hemline to insert an elastic.

IMG_4845Not too bad from the front.

IMG_4844But still too much material at the back. Which I take as a definite sign for a size too big.

As I was experimenting and the shirt was now in a rather unexciting state, I wanted to take it a step further and replaced the existing hemline with a wide-ish stretch jersey to make it more jumperlike. This would have been one of the initial options of the pattern anyway. Except that there would have been a cutting line about 6cm higher than my hemline. I decided to just cut off those two cm where I had stitched the hem to make it longer.

I measured the needed width by putting it actually around my hips. I needed to really stretch it when I stitched it to the grey fabric.

IMG_4865Which doesn’t look great as you can see.  Another sign that large was actually  a size too big for me. Thankfully.

Normally I wouldn’t wear it like this. It is not meant to look like a mini dress. So:IMG_4851 IMG_4853The back still looks wrong. And actually it is too long now. Ha, who would have thought. I’ll leave it as it is for now. But it will probably still only be something I want to wear at home or to exercise.

If I used the pattern again, then definitely size M and with a waistband. But to be honest, I am not sure if the ruffled neckline and I will ever be friends.

Next step will rather be the Usedom. And I guess I will go for size M this time.

For now, I will just quickly put this online. Wow, two posts in one day.

But there is not only Me Made May – in the German blogging world there is RUMS on Thursday, where female bloggers show off what they made for themselves. So I guess, I should always do my MMM posts on a Thursday and link it with RUMS to then see what others have made. Off we go.