I'll sew you

In the post I wrote yesterday I talked about the Slinky Shrug-pattern. I forgot to mention how I found out about the existence of this pattern. So I'll make up for that: If you want to see it already made and get some great tips, then go over to the blog of The Sewing Divas by clicking here . Mary Beth wrote a post about it and already made one up! And thanks Sigrid for your comment in which you mentionned the post of Mary Beth. I did found it there initially, but your help is highly appreciated. And now I wrote this I feel like I want to thank all of you who leave comments on my posts and everyone who takes time to read my blog. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy yours. (And if you don't have a blog yet, start one. It's fún !!) Please feel free to leave a comment any time. I absolutely love it. With my blog I try to give back what I receive from the sew-and-blog-community. I read so many sewingblogs, I thoroughly enjoy them and I will try to...

This morning I wanted to clean my sewingroom. Or at least tidy up a bit. But I didn't get much done. After finishing my skirt yesterday the thought of a new project hasn't left my mind since. I started flickering through all my sewingmagazines and came up with lots of ideas. I wrote that I own about 12 pieces of fabric and therefore am not allowed (self-imposed rule!) to buy anything new but have to sew with what my stash provides. So I decided to look in my stash and see what was waiting there for me. And guess what? The major part are summerfabrics ! Now, I can't go sewing summerthings in winter, can I? So, what does this mean? YES, I CAN BUY MORE FABRIC. Silly rule, actually. I think it origins from the time that I didn't sew up that much. I sewed regularly but not as much as I do now. I bought one, maybe two pieces of fabric and sewed them up before I bought new stuff. I didn't have a stash so to speak. Maybe it also has to do with the way I buy fabric. I ...

Yay!! my pencilskirt is finished. Let's start with a picture, shall we? The picture is a bit dark but in the other pictures you can see the fabric more detailed. (I don't like pictures without a head, but I understand sóóó very well why people publish them that way. Today I wanted to be brave though. And I assure you: I cán laugh you know. I réally can). I'm glad it is finished, for several reasons. First of course because of a new addition to my wardrobe. Overall I'm happy with it but I did have some issues making it. It all went together very well and I had high hopes that this would become a winner. But altough I measured everything very well and I used a tnt-pattern, the band is a bit too wide. If I wear it, it stands away from my body. Just a tiny little bit but also just enough to annoy me. I first wore a belt in the picture but that accentuated this problem in a rather hilarious way. Just below the belt, the band was peaking out, like two little sidetables. Awf...

The pink sweater is finished. It was already on monday last week but due to a very busy schedule, both day and evening, I haven't been able to sit down and write this post. Now it's sunday and I slept in until 11.30u (boy, did I need that extra hours of sleep!) and now I can finally put this new addition in the blogosphere for everyone else to see. First a picture: I am very, very happy with the outcome. When I finish something I usually put it on a hanger where I can see it and I have to say that last week, everytime I passed it, I had feelings of sheer joy. Why such a casual, not really thát interesting piece of clothing can get me over the moon like this, has me puzzled. Well, let's start with a list of points why I dó like it, maybe then it becomes clear: 1. The fabric. It's fleece, it's soft, it's warm, it has a light stretch, it's comfortable. 2. The colour . It's a pastel pink and it's the perfect colour to match the creamy softnes...

Yesterday I started on the pink sweater (KnipMode December 2002) This is the linedrawing: and this is what I came up with so far: As I wrote in an earlier post I was a bit scared of handling fleece since I hadn't worked with it before. But I have to say it's a pleasure to work with. It has a little stretch and so far sewing it has been a breeze. I'll skip the pockets though, maybe next time when I will use this pattern they will get their moment in the sun. I also narrowed the waist as the original pattern has a straight sideseam and I don't want it to look too baggy. Before I start with a garment I always go through the steps in my mind, several times. Sometimes trying to figure out how to do things. This time I kept thinking about how I had to insert the zipper but I couldn't figure it out. When I read the instructions everything became clear and it seems to be very easy. (Maybe that's what instructions are for, right?) You just need a little handstitc...

Today I received my package of fabric I ordered on monday. I had totally forgotten about it so I was pleasantly surprised when I opened my mailbox this evening. This was bought via a webshop and therefore it's always a surprise what you will really get. It's also a risky business because you can't refuse your order because the colour is a bit different then you thought or the pattern is a bit more bold than you pictured it to be. And I must say, this has happened to me once or twice. Once I bought a fabric I thought was purple-brownish coloured. I wanted to make a skirt of it. When I opened my package a bright and sunny orange was 'smiling' back at me. I made a summerblouse with it and I think that was a good choice. But can you imagine this looking purple-brownish in a picture? Well it did. Today's experience was a similar one. But this time it was the size of the pattern that startled me. Of course I knew it had circles, a lot of them. But they're sor...

Last week I've been under the weather. It started on monday with an irritating feeling in my throat. That's always a sign that a cold is about to knock on my door. I managed to keep working for the rest of the week but on friday my boss agreed it would be better to work from home and take my rest when needed.  On saturday I wanted to rest as much as possible to get better because sunday-afternoon I had plans to go to the  Night of the Proms   in Antwerp. And thankfully I had recovered enough by then to do so.  It was really great, as usual. All the performances were accompanied by the music of a symphonic orchestra: Il Novecento, and a wonderful choir: Fine Fleur. We saw performances of Orchestral Manouvres in the Dark, Roxette, Sharon den Adel (leadsinger of Within Temptation, a Dutch symphonic metalband), John Miles, the Katona Twins (two brothers (siblings) who played the guitar, both modern and classical), and of course, Toots Thieleman...

For everyone of you who has been celebrating Halloween or taking part in activities, I hope you had a really fun time. In the Netherlands we don't have Halloween. You see the odd pumpkin here and there, but no dress-up parties or scaring other people, or trick-or-treating. There is, I must say, a growing interest but that has more to do with the commercial side of things. (If you are confronted with all kinds of advertisements, telling you that you HAVE to buy all kind of halloween-related things, yes then maybe in a few years we will have a halloween-tradition as well. But it will not by far be the tradition that you all have). Of course I couldn't wait and decided I had to make my own scary version of Halloween. How? I'll tell you. Buttonholes There once was a blouse, it was nearly finished by its creator, only buttonholes had to be made and buttons had to be attached. Since its creator had the access to a wonderful, electronic Pfaff-sewing machine with full...