Scrap Sunday: Slightly bigger tissue issue

Posted on 24/07/2016 by atelieroursonne

I know you are waiting for the big one, but let me tell you one thing: moving houses, actually moving countries with three children takes up slightly more time than one would have thought. Especially at the end of term with all those extra activities to attend.

Sure, they all help a lot, sorting out toys, peeling down wall stickers,…

Especially the little one. He kindly wakes me up at 5 o’clock in the morning, so I can make the most of my day and then goes and searches for all those small pieces on the floor that my old eye can’t even spot and examines them carefully if they needed to be processed any further. In which case he takes care of them and kindly hands them to me after a day or two.

He is actually a big fan of tissues hence the big tissue issue you are all waiting for. But back to the small one for now.

Initially I thought that there won’t be any teachers’ presents this year but very last minute (we are speaking of the eve of the last nursery day) I decided they should get something. It just wouldn’t have been fair.When my daughter had left her nursery, I had made bags and badge holders using fabrics I had used for her clothes.

So I quickly cut out lots of squares for tissue covers.

I had found the pattern when I was looking for my knitted one from last week. Funnily enough this one by Two Brown Birds features also contrasting edges (through the lining fabric)

At 7 am the next morning (I’m sure the neighbours appreciated I hadn’t started using the sewing machine at 5am) I quickly made the 4 I needed for nursery. The other ones followed later that day and the next morning. I have to say, this project is really quick. Basically 4 seams with a little bit of ironing in between (ideally). However, it annoys me to know that there are ugly seams inside which can potentially be seen. I zigzagged them as well as I found it not secure enough with raw edges. And I do wonder how much more time it would cost to make a reversible version. But enough talking, lets have a look. I guess you’ll recognize some of the fabrics.

I’ve tried to use some of the fabrics the teachers might now (difficult due to uniform, so it is all about the sunhats) so they would actually be reminded of my children,

or fabric to match their personal style:

or cute fabric (you know because my children are cute)

or because a pretty piece of fabric had about the right size

or simply because it was the manliest and scariest fabric I found (for the male deputy head teacher 🙂 ) – which happens to be a hopefully good reminder of my son too (not because he is scary)

Which one do you like best? I find it really hard to decide.

Oh, and in case you were expecting another post about tissue issues soon, forget it. The packers are coming tomorrow and the whole week will be about getting to Vienna, settling in and unpacking some of those boxes.

So, enjoy the blog free time as long as you can – I’ll be back

Scrap Sunday: What I meant to say

Posted on 03/07/2016 by atelieroursonne

It is Sunday evening and I so wanted to write the weekly Scrap Sunday post. Except that it has been a looong day, party with 6 cakes included and I am tired. Too tired to write a post.

I meant to tell you the good news that my former friend is my friend again. Life is too short to be angry at people who were probably trying to be nice when they actually make you suddenly have to question your (sewing and blogging) existence.

I meant to tell you that my sister in law inspired me with a picture of her latest make – a mobile phone charging bag: A little cute bag where you put your phone during charging so the phone and the cable are safely stored away. She hade made hers out of thick woolen felt. Looks really stylish and grown up.

I would have told you that I experimented with left over fabrics and very heavy interfacing as I do not own any felt. I would probably have made and shown you some pictures of the process, including a change of mind pocketstylewise. And I would have taken some nice pictures of the result. A little bag with a perfectly sized opening to put the plug through. With a pocket big enough to hold your mobile phone and he cable. Neat edges.

But I can’t tell you any of this. Because I went to a party where I ate too much cake and Tiramisu. Now I am tired and this is all I have got:

Such a shame, it would have been a gread Scrap Sunday project.

Scrap Sunday: No jokes today, sorry

Posted on 26/06/2016 by atelieroursonne

This was meant to be a really funny post full of anecdotes about a certain person in my life who is slightly, just slightly hypochondriac. But to be honest I don’t feel like making jokes these days. I am shocked and sad about the UK’s EU referendum. So many things went wrong, I don’t even know where to start and yet it is so simple. The European Union is like a marriage, built to make us all stronger for the good times but even more for the bad times. It was far to important to use it for silly power games by short sighted ~~little boys on the playground~~ politicians who are then all shocked by the result and its consequences.

Anyway, this is not the place to discuss this, so lets go back to Scrap Sunday.

I found a nice little project to use up some scrap fabric. A little wallet for your homeopathic remedies. I followed the Globbi freebook by madiGreen on farbenmix.

Unfortunately I followed the instructions too closely as actually my homeopathic remedies seem to come in bigger containers than the ones used in the e-book so the result is a bit tight.

Plus, when I ironed it flat before top stitching, the iron was a bit too hot for the woven trim and shrank it a little bit which subsequently gathered the fabric a bit. (a lot of bits in that sentence).

Other than that I am very pleased with the result and I find it an extremely useful gift for people who pick up deadly diseases such as rhinopharyngitis like others catch a cold.

It also reminded me that I should pay more attention to Scrap Sunday and think a bit harder about small projects. So watch this space! (She said boastfully whilst ignoring the fact that The Move was happing in about a month)

Why the working title “Have you ever pressed a prefolded bias tape open?” needed to be changed to “The danger of the seam ripper”

Posted on 19/05/2016 by atelieroursonne

Time for a little Me Made May update. I did manage to wear me made outfits three times this week, but there hasn’t been much variety and I have realised that I can not really combine those items with anything else. The wardrobe remains unsorted but it really has to be done until next Thursday.

So I have mainly been busy working on a dress. I was looking for a breastfeeding friendly dress. I have used “breastfeeding friendly” a few times in my last posts but what does it actually mean? It is just a normal piece that allows to breastfeed a child without taking the whole thing off. My prefered choice is the two layer look, one up one down. Obviously with a normal dress this would be a bit difficult….

So, I was looking for something with buttons and found The Vintage Shirt Dress by Sew over it.

I bought a lovely vintage-y fabric with cherry print in Goldhawk Road but ended up making a very quick calico version first to not waste the trial fabric and to see if it would actually fit me. As usual, the dress would have been too wide at the shoulders and I also decided to make the skirt just a tiny bit narrower to even out the different sizes my body actually needs. I also decided to use a plain colour for the colour and the facings as I had seen one lovely version somewhere on Pinterest. As it turns out my alterations let me cut out so much more effectively that I saved roughly a meter of fabric.

But enough talking, let’s have a look. (Note: I had to use the self-timer with the camera balancing on some books)

So it is definitely a wearable trial version but lets use it to improve the next version. I am not sure about the green collar.

I think black would have been better but guess what, I do not own black fabric.However, the buttons in black just show it would have been the better choice. Plus, I am not sure anymore if a contrasting collar is really what I want.

The waist is a bit too high, after the photo session I pushed down the belt to where I think my waist really sits and I liked the look much more. So I might make the bodice an inch longer and the skirt a bit shorter.

The finish of the armholes with the bias tape at the inside was new for me. When I read the description I got confused and decided to follow step by step. Apart from cutting my own bias binding. I felt that would be a waste of that lovely fabric. I realised that my shop bought bias binding was slightly wider than the requested 4cm so I decided to trim it and ended up pressing the bias binding flat to make sure it had no more folds! (Title No 1), then I trimmed it and followed the instructions from there.

I really don’t like it, I am not sure if it is only my fault, there was a lot of tension on the binding and I am not sure if it would be that easy to slip stitch it. I might try again on a little sample before ruining the next dress 🙂

I guess you are by now really excited to learn the reason for the danger of the seam ripper title, so if you feel you are strong enough, here it comes:

I had just finished the second button-hole and opened it with the seam ripper when I slipped and slashed the whole dress open over a length of about 4cm. Great.This has been my first ever button hole accident and I usually cut it open with scissors. Sometimes huge fabric scissors. Never ever anything has happened.

I fixed it quickly with two layers of interfacing in between main fabric and facing and then I panicked and zigzagged over it. Maybe I should have thought about other options first. It is not too visible but there might have been a more discrete option. And it is just one of these things, no one might notice but I know it is there.

Up until that incident I thought this might actually be the dress for the baptism not just a trial version. But now that there is this mistake sitting on my waist, I will just keep thinking of it and that zigzag line with eventually burn a huge hole into my dress. We will see if I consider it suitable for the school run. I would definitely get a few looks. After all they only know me as a trousers and top kind of person. I definitely like making dresses much more than actually wearing them.

But enough of me, I’ll send this over to RUMS and will then have a look if others have made things to wear or trial onlys.

Atelier Oursonne

handmade for you

Tag Archives: sewing

Scrap Sunday: Slightly bigger tissue issue

Scrap Sunday: What I meant to say

Scrap Sunday: No jokes today, sorry

Why the working title “Have you ever pressed a prefolded bias tape open?” needed to be changed to “The danger of the seam ripper”