I'll sew you

Hi there, In the period I was unemployed I didn't buy much fabric. It wasn't so much that I didn't have the money for it. It was more a matter of prioritising my expenses. I have enough fabric lying in piles, to last me a long time so there was no actual need of buying anything. It wasn't necessarily hard to be on a fabric-diet, it was just not much fun. As you will probably all understand. Finally, last weekend I treated myself on a trip to my local fabricshop. I just love to go there. The shoplady is very sweet, the choice of fabric is great and, as it is a rather small shop, the visitors always end up in a little group chatting with each other. It's cosy and it's fun. There was this little girl - she looked not much older than 8 or 9 years - who asked the customers "Can I help you?". And she did. She was very helpful and seemed to know quite a bit about fabric and notions. As I wondered what her relation to the shoplady was (I assumed granddaug...

That's right. Finally the moment has arrived that I can say: "I got a new JOOOB!" After this weekend I'll start working as an executive assistant, at a regional education centre, which includes 20 schools that provide Preparatory and Secondary Vocational Education and Training. (For my Dutch readers: it's an ROC). The jobdescription is just my cup of tea. I already met a few people and I am really looking forward to working with them. There's another executive assistant I will be working with closely (we share an office) and I have a feeling we will be getting along just fine. It's only 25 kilometers from my house and the building is just beautiful. I hope this will turn out to be a long-term job. But these days, who can tell. I'll start fulltime (40hrs) but there is a chance that some hours will be eliminated after a certain period. Ah well, I just can't worry about that right now. At this point, I only want to count my blessings. It wa...

This is a pattern from KnipMode July 2012. One of the patterns that, through the years, I immediately fell in love with. Again it's an example of simple with a 'twist'. The ruffles are the real center of attention here. The assymetrical neckline also does its best to attract attention. I like the 3/4-length sleeves. It makes it perfect to wear after summer. Great transitional wear so to speak. I am rather proud of how evenly the ruffles are divided. I took my time to get it right and it really payed off. There is one flaw in this pattern. Once the top is sewn, the shoulderlines are no longer aligned. (See the yellow lines in the picture below.) Probably because of all the pulling that is going on. I assume you can change this by extending the diagonal neckline at the shoulderpoint, but I am not gonna try this. I already have to take off 3 cm of that same neckline at the other side, to prevent it from hanging too loose. I don't think adding length...

Months ago it was announced : Knipmode was going to get a make-over. Main change was gonna be an adjustment in the range of sizes. Each pattern was going to be offered in sizes 34 to 54. And as it goes with everything that is announced far in advance, suddenly the day has come that you find the new magazine in your mailbox. In this post I would like to give my opinion on the changes that have been made. Feel free to disagree.  From: KnipMode Magazine - September 2015 The first thing you notice is the size of the magazine . I didn’t measure it but I think that it’s about an 1/2 inch larger in width and 1 inch in height. Does that matter? I think it does. Apart from more room for larger pictures, they used a larger font size for the descriptions, which is easy on the eyes. Next thing  is the cover . The previous covers were made of shiny paper. Now it’s matte, firmer and more solid. Nice! Altough I cherish my old issues of KM and Burda, more th...

It's been a while since I last showed you some newly purchased fabric. Recently I visited the weekly market near my town and I didn't had the intention of buying any new fabric. There is more than enough to work with at home. But you know how these things go, don't you? Once I have a piece of fabric in my hands, I just need to buy something. It's like an addiction. Let me rephrase that: it ís an addiction. Normally I don't like buying stuff without a plan. All the orphans in my stash are the ones of which I thought I could find a matching pattern. For most of them I'm still searching. But when you are at a stall with remnants costing no more than € 2,50 a piece, it's hard to withstand the call of fabric. So I dived into the piles and found myself 4 nice pieces to take home with me. Let me introduce you to: nice blue cotton with tiny dots, probably for a late-summer or fall blouse jersey with a very, very soft feel to it. ...

Wow....it's raining cats and dogs here! What better time to sit down and write a post. This cardigan was still to be reviewed and shown to you, so here goes. The fabric is a super-lovely interlock jersey in royal blue. And I wouldn't be surprised if it contained some lycra. (I bought this at a fabricmarket and I didn't ask about it....  But anyway, I want more of that stuff!! I'm looking somewhat goofy in this picture. The real reason behind this is that I tried to pull down the cardigan to eliminate the draglines, which are caused by the absence of a fullbust-adjustment. That's right. I thought, since this is a jersey, I could do without one. I thought wrong. I will also show you the picture which shows all the flaws. And I didn't even take a picture of the back. Believe me: móre gooey badness! Oh...and don't be fooled by that smile. I was feeling pretty frustrated at that time because every picture looked nasty, so what you see is a very artifical ...

Sometimes you're lucky. Sometimes you make something and everything goes smoothly. This t-shirt is an example of that. Even my serger was nice to me and had no hickups whatsoever. No unpicking of seams, no stupid mistakes in cutting the fabric, no......just no problems at all. And to top it all off, it fits perfectly and wears heavenly... Apart from that, there's not a lot to say about this shirt. It's the second one I made from an Ottobre pattern. The first one you can read about here  and here. The fabric is a jersey knit with lycra. Pretty thin, but heavy enough to hold its shape. And a joy to work with. And I just lóve the colours and the tie-dye print. The green and blue are vibrant but toned down by the white and grey. It's perfect for this time of year (altough today it has been raining here for hours on end). The shirt itself is simple. The only design feature is the ruffled seam on top of the sleeve. There was n...

Yay, I'm done. My first piece of summersewing is finished. It's a top from KnipMode March 2014. There is a design for a top with sleeves, and a dress without sleeves. I chose to make the top without sleeves. At first it seemed like it was going to be an easy one but there are some details I'm not particularly happy about. First things first: a picture. Looks alright, doesn't it? Well, what's wrong with it then? The biggest problem is the neckline. It's way too wide. Before I cut the fabric I raised the front-neckline to avoid some unwanted cleavage, but it's like the fabric has stretched while I was working on it. And that can't have happened because I interfaced the facing, which is cut exactly according to the new, smaller designed neckline. So it can't have stretched. I'm really puzzled about this. There are almost no shoulders left on this top. (It's much worse than it looks in the picture). Combine that with a body that has al...

When I started thinking about a new blogpost, showing the new project I'm working on, I suddenly remembered that a while ago I promised you a picture of the three pieces I sewed as a mini-swap. They all turned out really nice if I say so myself. The jean-jacket you've seen already of course. But not the tanktop and the skirt. I think the three of them make a nice combination. The fabric of the skirt is a bit thicker, it has a knit-texture but it's not heavy. Just perfect for fall or early spring. The hem falls well below my knee. That's why I like to wear it with boots. Shoes are not doing the silhouet any favour. It has a zipper in the back and also a vent. And it's fully lined. For the white top I used a tnt-pattern I drafted myself, using a store-bought top that fits me really well. As a matter of fact, I already made 4 tops with that pattern and many more will follow. Well, now this is out of the way, I soon hope tell you more about the j...

            Finally, result. This took more time to finish than I thought it would. But it's done, and I am happy with it. It looks nice and all the tweaking, testing and trying has paid off and resulted in a better fit. There is still room for improvement. The sloping-shoulder adjustment I made, turned out to be too drastic and the sleeves are too tight on the biceps for real comfort. I can wear it but it's not ideal in that area. Well, at least now I know that these are issues I have to deal with next time.   There are good points as well. Lowering the armscyes has helped to remove a lot of wrinkles in the back. So did the high-rounded back adjustment. The two darts in the back, starting at the shoulderseam, are hardly noticeable. Of course I didn't topstitch these darts, like I did with the rest of the seams.   Talking about topstitching....I used a darkblue, normal thread on the inside and a slightly thicker topsti...

The jacket is coming along nicely. It's always nice to work with denim and this time it's not different. The fit is also something I'm thrilled about this time. As far as I can tell at this stage, the back is fitting quite nicely and so is the front. You have to believe me on this 'cause for now I only have pictures of the jacket on the Blue Lady (Who, by the way, is starting to fall apart really badly: losing skin, getting more wrinkled etc. etc...poor thing!). I basted a lot of the seams to get it to the stage where I could try it on. Now it's time to take them apart, sew real seams and....get the topstitching done. My favourite part :-)   This afternoon I fiddled with the small parts, a.k.a. the pockets and the pocket-flaps. The instruction tells you to sew the pockets on the inside but I chose to place them on the outside. They're gonna be real functioning pockets. Not that I will be putting anything in them, but it's just nice to make them r...

While the sun is streaming through my window, there's a new project on my table. It feels like I'm on a sewing-roll at the moment. One thing finished, starting a next thing right away. Go me! So let me introduce to you: KnipMode - Aug. 2014 - nr.23 - Jacket!           The lining, it has clear lines in reality....          I'll be sewing a size 46 but there are a few adjustments I made to the pattern, some of them standard, some of them are the ones I discovered quite recently. High-roundback-adjustment (Sorry for the unclear picture, the pattern is lying upside down). Because I think a jacket will be more loose-fitting than a blouse, I decided not to use the 2 cm I did in my previous blouse, but just 1 cm. The dart (from the shoulderline pointing to the shoulderblade) is a bit long for my taste, but is necessary. Sloping-shoulder-adjustment. I took off 1,75 cm of the hei...

        There you have it. The black blouse, which has been on my sewing table for way too long. I'm quite happy with the outcome. I managed to tackle some fitting-problems -  not all though - and will be handling future projects in the same way. It's not a blouse to get very excited about, but it's a nice addition to my summer-wardrobe. One can never have too many choice of clothing right?   Yesterday I suddenly remembered that more than a year ago I bought a piece of white fabric (we call it nurse-linen, translated from Dutch to English) to make this same blouse. White fabric can be so terrible see-through, but this fabric doesn't have that problem. I played with the idea to make that my next project but I think I'll go ahead as planned with the jeans-jacket. If I manage to make that a - reasonable/wearable - success, I'll have a mini-wardrobe to show you, together with a simple white top and a skirt, the two pieces I didn't blo...

Hi everyone. It's been a while. What I've been up to? Not much really. Still looking for a job, so no change there. The temporary job I had since last august, ended at the end of january. I must say that job-seeking is by far the most annoying and frustrating thing I have ever had to do in my life. But on the other end it's an experience that makes me - somehow - grow as a person. Having never been unemployed since I left school in 1985 (I had 3 successive jobs), getting fired (due to economical reasons) has forced me to look at things in a different way and broaden my view. You see, I'm still trying to give it all a positive swirl. That's me...always positive. Well, almost always. One of the things I don't like is that I've become rather synical about a lot of things. But I guess that's just a logical consequence of all this. But don't worry, I know that I must work on that because synicals don't get jobs right?... Enough of that. On to the se...