Polyester Knight

My first ever try at a McCall's pattern. The instructions were very clear, up to a certain point, and then they totally lost me. It looks like there is some very clever way of putting it together; turning it inside out etc, but I just did not get it. I lost a lot of time staring at the drawings and trying, but to no avail. Well, I figured something out.

But the end result is kind of disappointing. The neck opening is so wide it falls off his shoulders. I had to overlap the slid in the back quite a bit to prevent this. And then, all the poly fabric, well, I should have known. At least, I lined it with some nice cotton, so he doesn’t have it against his skin. But the overall look is just like the cheap costumes one can buy. I will certainly try to make him something nicer soon. He likes it, though, and wants pants in the same fabric used for the sleeves… I am a bit afraid it will all end up looking like some dancing queen and not like the proud knight he wants to be.  Opinions?

McCall’s costumes M5500 size 5-6

Body: polyester satin from tissus.net

Lining: old cotton bed sheet

Sleeves: “lamés cigarette” from quartierdestissu.com, cotton underlining

Me Made June

‘I sign up as a participant of Me-Made-June ’11. I endeavour to wear one self-made item each day for the duration of June 2011′

Just in case, you've not yet heard about it, all the details are here:

http://sozowhatdoyouknow.blogspot.com/2011/04/me-made-june-join-me.html

June will be a lot harder than March for me. In March I wore a hand-knit or crocheted cardigan/sweater everyday. If June's going to be hot, it'll be all about a few skirts.  

Downton Abbey

I didn’t sew this, but I found this vintage nighty in my fabric stash. I have no idea where it originally came from, but I guess I kept it just in case I could reuse the fabric someday. Then, the other day, I stumbled upon a sewing blogger mentioning Downton Abbey, I thought this would be right up my alley and ordered the DVD. I’ve just started watching it last night, but I really like it. I noticed that I now look at the dresses in much more detail than I used to before learning how to sew.

But back to the nighty, it’s something one of the servants of Downton Abbey could have worn, no? In any case I really felt the need to get it out of my fabric stash and use it to sleep in. I am already looking forward to watching Downton Abbey in it tonight.

Crescent Skirt no 2

I was working on 2 Crescent Skirts simultaneously. Now here’s the second one. Whilst the first (view A) fits perfectly, the 2^nd (view C) has some problems.

After the muslin, cut in a size 10, I decided to take the waistband in by 1cm on each side (by sewing the seams with a 2cm seam allowance). This worked perfectly for my first skirt. But somehow, for the second I must have forgotten to do it. So now, it’s too wide. Also, apparently, I did not forget this alteration when sewing the waistband facing, so I ended up with a facing that didn’t match my waistband and had to cut and sew up another one.  At that point, for some reason, I thought the fit was ok. Otherwise I should have redone the waistband instead of the facing, even though it was already attached to the skirt.

As suspected the fullness of the skirt makes me look way larger than I am. This is emphasized by the fact that it just doesn’t sit right (too low because too wide). And I used the print upside down. I didn’t realize it had a direction after I was way into sewing up the skirt. Anyway… if I make another Crescent skirt, I will definitely go for version A again. But for now I am wondering if there’s a way to save this version….

Crescent Skirt no 1

Let’s have a closer look at this new skirt of mine, shall we? I stumbled upon a post of another not pear-shaped blogger yesterday that pretty much said all I could have said on the subject. I, too, wondered about how it would fit on a rectangular figure. But it does. This is view A, so it doesn’t flare out too much. I have a view C underway, too, and that one might make me look a lot larger than I am (more length, more flare) or maybe not, we’ll see about that soon.

I do love the pockets. Sometimes all I need to go out is my keys and a handkerchief.  With my pocket-less A-line skirts I am obliged to take a bag. I learned a ton of new-to-me techniques and the sew-along posts over at sewaholic do explain everything so very well. I tried to jump ahead at one point, but I would not have managed the zipper insertion (everyone says it’s a super clever way, but I have limited zipper experience, so I can’t really tell) without the sew-along posts.

Hi there, I am new.

Hello everyone!

So, I gave in and got myself a sewing blog. Not that I think the world needs another sewing blog, not another of the kind I can write anyway. But I do want to participate in the online sewing community and the sewing wasn’t really fitting into my other blog. Also, they don’t (yet) have some kind of Ravelry (I know about burdastyle, patternreview and such, but that’s not really the same thing). Therefore, if you want to participate in sew-alongs, me-made challenges etc. and can’t give a blog address, well… you kind of feel left out.

I first started sewing a little over 2 years ago and I am just starting to make garments for myself. I have a Brother XL-2600 and a Bernina 1150MDA serger. Besides myself I have 3 little ones to sew for. I am not going to show you everything I’ve sewn so far now, but what about a couple of highlights?

My first encounter with Liberty fabrics.

First attempt at redrafting a simple pattern.

First time being proud of pretty details:

Also noteworthy, my discovery of clothkits:

And most recently (as in earlier today), making stuff for me that actually fits:

Crescent Skirt by sewaholic

I'll be back soon with more current sewing.