hello again grey dress

Remember the grey and green dress (that also was my very first post here on this blog)?

The walls only looks slightly pink because it was very dark when I took the picture. Lots of photo-editing = bad.

Yeah, it’s not grey and green anymore. I mentioned a couple of things that were a bit wonky with the dress already back then, like me having chosen the wrong size for the yoke (too small), and that I should have used interfacing. The dress didn’t exactly look bad, but there were some things that just weren’t quite right. Since the yoke wasn’t very stiff, and it was a size or two too small, it sagged and pulled to the side, making a not-so-flattering gap where the upper edge fell away from my body. Hmm. Also, the sleeves were quite tight, which made the dress just a tad unpractical to wear. Lastly, and I guess, most importantly – I could never get that green color to work with anything. I do love that color, but being so bright, and in pretty stark contrast to the grey, I found it hard to pair it with pretty much anything else in my wardrobe.

Off to market, ehm, the cobbler to pick up my shoes. The ones on my feet are from Sally-Jane Vintage.

So, here is an “after” of sorts. I replaced the green fabric with a brown/blue floral patterned fabric – it’s giving me a bit of a House on the Prairie-vibe! It blends more with the grey fabric, which I think is a good thing – it will be much easier to wear with all my other clothes now!

underwear, v2.0

I’m back with the underwear! This was my first attempt, and I’m happy to report that they are all still in commission. This batch is the new and improved version, and this is what I got out of a nice, soft, size M, cotton t-shirt:

So, to sum up, I learned a couple of things from sewing up the first round of underwear (hence these new ones being improved).

• Pick t-shirts with care. Stiff is not so good because of the lack of give, soft is good, but supersoft is not better. Supersoft often means superthin too, which tends to make for a weaker fabric.
• Avoid a lot of stress on the seams. Which sounds silly because it’s underwear, and should be able to put up with a lot of wear and tear. For the first batch of underwear I attached the binding by sewing right sides together, flipping over and around, and stitching in the ditch to secure the backside of the binding. This however, meant that there was a lot of tension where the binding and main fabric were joined, especially since I used a straight and non-giving seam.
• Lay pattern-pieces on the grain. My thrifty self wants to get every use out of that t-shirt, but you will end up with a stretchier piece of underwear that doesn’t twist if you actually go with the grain, rather than randomly squeezing things in.
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Ops, I got the inside and outside mixed up on this one. See the zigzag-stitch on the binding?

Let’s get technical (skip this if you’re not too much into underwear construction!):

I used the same patterns as for the first pairs I made. The one for me has four pattern-pieces, and the one for the boy has six. For mine, there is the front and the back piece, and two identical gusset lining pieces. I sandwich the front piece between these two smaller pieces first, and sew them down. Then there is a little moebius-like magic, as I twist the smaller pieced layers before matching them up with the edge of the back piece. Doing it this way makes all the seams completely on the inside, nice and tidy. I use the neckband of the t-shirt as a waistband when I can, and since they usually are ribbed, they stretch and fit quite nicely. Similarly, I use the hem from the sleeves or the body for the binding as well. They all have a crease running down the middle already, which is convenient for matching up the fold with the top of the main underwear piece. For these pairs I sewed down the edges right sides together with a zigzag, before doing the matching up and tucking under (on the wrong side), and using a twin needle to secure the overlapping parts. This might all be a lot clearer with an image-heavy tutorial, I think! Perhaps I will do one if there is desire and interest for it?

The boy version is in many ways much easier to sew. First the two smaller front pieces go together (four pieces cut out, so two identical sets when this step is done), and then that is attached to the large front pieces on either side. The back seam is next, and at this point, I do a double top stitched seam on all seams, meaning that I sew a straight seam to either side of the pressed open seam. It’s not terribly functional, but it looks very nice. Now I add the second layer of the front piece, but seam allowances of these front panels facing each other, so it’s as nice and tidy as can be. I couldn’t find a way to tuck the edges of this piece under without making it bulky, so I left them raw and uncovered. They seem to be doing just fine – t-shirt material doesn’t really unravel. Almost done! After sewing the inseam, the hem is turned up and zigzag’ed (a twin needle would also work), and then the elastic waistband is secured with a zigzag-seam as well.
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Waistband made from the t-shirt neckband, and a nice double seam on the binding, courtesy of the twin needle.

There we go, new underwear! And what have I learned?

• Twin needles are my friends. They make a very nice, evenly spaced double seam on the right side, and a zigzag (and thus stretchy) seam on the wrong side.
• The patterns should be symmetrical. I haven’t done anything to the pattern since I traced it from an old piece of underwear, and it’s not completely even. I think the pieces will sew together more accurately once I’ve retraced and fixed the pattern.

This is becoming a ongoing project I look forward to doing – it’s pretty quick and easy to do, so it earns instant gratification points. It’s also re-purposing, and I especially like how useful the end product is! With several t-shirts in my pile, it only becomes a matter of picking which color to do next!

sweater refashioned

Always a sucker for a good thriftstore find, I picked up a grey, slightly boxy sweater a while back. The label read 75 % silk and 15 % cashmere, so I just couldn’t leave it behind!

Buttoning isn’t always easy.

First up, I sewed two parallel seams down the front, and cut in the middle of them. I wanted to prevent any potential fraying, but the sweater-fabric was very well behaved. I positioned the seams slightly to the left of the center, so that the opening would remain centered after overlapping the two edges. I also took in the sides a couple of centimetres at the waist, to get a better fit.

Next I sewed on some dark blue linen lace at the edge of the side that would be covered when the cardigan is buttoned. I thought it would look sweet with a bit of lace peeking out, but it was more drab than anything. The dark color didn’t help, and neither did the fact that there was no embellishment really visible when it was all buttoned up. It needed something more bold!

I thought about some sunny, yellow, machine embroidered swirls, but I was worried it might turn out a little too bright and almost pastel-like for my taste. Fortunately, I found a scrap of  lovely, moodier yellow fabric in my stash, which worked perfectly with the grey. I love freehand machine embroidery, so I found a thread to match the color of the sweater, and set to it.

Terrible mixed incandescent and natural lighting.

On my trusty Bernina, all I have to do is switch to the embroidery foot (It’s more or less just a circle, like a tiny embroidery hoop), set the stitch length and width to zero, and lower the transporter. This allows the needle to just go up and down, while I’m creating the pattern by moving the fabric. Lots of fun!

We’re still getting some half-chilly days here, so while I’m waiting for the summer heat, I have something to cover up with!

thrifted jacket

Last weekend, the boy and out went out for a walk in the neighbourhood, and quite randomly stopped by the local thriftstore. I found this jacket, and at $7 it was quite a steal!

The tag says it’s from a 2004 season, and it’s in excellent condition. Now – I actually already have another couple of double-breasted trench-looking jackets in different lengths – but in black. I guess I’ll have myself quite a collection if I keep this up! The hat, scarf, mittens and skirt is made/remade by me, and the shoes are thrifted.

The appearance of this skirt in two consecutive posts is purely random – this is the first time since last post I’ve worn it. And, I think this door might be my new photoshoot spot – I seem to gravitate towards this place for outfit pictures.

I haven’t had a finished project to show off in quite a while now. I have been happily crafting, I just seem to be at the same stage of all of my projects; the middle. Haha! I think I will have some finished this soon though, especially with the anticipated Spring Break currently upon me.

tuilp-skirt, remade

After a bit of a hiatus on the creating front, I’m feeling like I’m on the way back to my regular craftiness. The middle of winter has seen much more knitting (a couple of big projects are underway), than sewing, probably because it’s much easier to snuggle up with a blanket, a cup of tea, and some knitting needles than it is with a sewing machine!

This skirt has been through several stages of transformations – I finally made the last changes, so it should be quite wearable now! To begin with this was a below the knee, A-line, light dusty grey-blue corduroy skirt from trusty H&M. I wore it and loved it for many, many years before I finally grew a bit tired of it. I had a pile of textiles and clothes I was going to dye a teal-ish color, so I threw the skirt in with the rest. I love the new color, which is more or less just a darker, richer shade of the original color. The pattern is based on the Marie skirt from BurdaStyle. The pattern is wider at the waistline than it is at the hem, so I turned the skirt up-side down so the hem was pleated over and turned into the waist. To make it easier for myself, I kept the side seams and used the BurdaStyle pattern as more of a template.

After wearing the skirt a couple of times though, the waistband stretched, and my high-waisted skirt was no longer so high-waisted! After many months in the ‘to do’-pile (and a cross-Atlantic move!), I finally sat down for half an hour and whipped up a waistband, interfacing it so the skirt will now stay high-waisted. The time spent in waiting must be directly disproportionate to how long it actually takes to fix it!

With a photographer boyfriend, anything has photo-shoot potential!

I think I am ready to tackle the rest of that ‘to-do’ pile now!