I'll sew you

From when I started sewing in my early teens, up until a few years ago, my hometown had a fabricshop which I visited frequently. When the shop closed it was the time that real fabricshops were becoming very scarce and online shops were starting to bloom. I've done my fair bit of online shopping but it can NEVER replace the real deal. Looking directly at the fabric, seeing every detail of the fiber and the print. Feeling how soft, flimsy, sturdy, stretchy, warm or breezy it is. Stroking it lovingly whilst coming up with ideas for patterns you want to use for it. I miss it. Very much. That's why I'm so happy with the big fabricmarkets that are organised twice a year, in spring and fall. Last spring I had my hopes set on the fabric market that was to be held on the 18th of March, only half an hour's drive away from my home. Well, as you probably already guessed: it all fell through because of covid-19. In september however, when things were starting to look up a bit, a ...

This week I'm enjoying my autumn break. A whole week to do some much needed sewing. The plan is to do some easy sewing. Nothing too complicated. Last friday I started on a cardigan for which I revisited the pattern I used  here  and   here . And my next make is already finished as well: a nightgown, made from a lovely cotton jersey which is a dream to work with! I already made one before with the same type of fabric (black with flowers) and it gets worn a lot. The fabric I used is bought with this nightgown in mind. I thought it would be fun to show you how I finished the neckline and armscyes. It's a very easy method and I prefer it over the method where you fold the band and sew it on, double layered. It's a thin line between stretching the band too much and causing puckers or not stretching it enough so it won't lay flat. For me it's hard to get that right. But with this foldover method it's actually easy-peasy.  Make sure when you cut your pattern you don...

Actually this blog should be about the #4 (and last) fruit of my sewcation back in spring, but that one is about pants-fitting and I still haven't taken the right pictures for it. I do however have pictures of other projects to show. This summerdress is one of them.  (Pardon the blue shoes I'm wearing. They are not matching very well with the dress, but at this point my head was almost exploding with a headache and the shoes were the last thing on my mind. I don't know why I chose one of the hottest days of summer to take pictures of 4 different outfits.........) Image from KnipMode August 2017 As you can see in the linedrawing, the original pattern  is a jumpsuit. The first time I saw it in KnipMode I was immediately drawn to the designlines. But a jumpsuit is just not for me. However, it was clear to me that I could easily hack this pattern and make a dress of it by turning the pants into a skirt. All I had to do was extend the vertical seamline of the pants at centerfron...

From KnipMode January 2018 This is the last one of my makes I sewed way back in the beginning of May. The fabric I used has been in my stash for quite some time. It was part of a fabric surprisebox and altough I liked the fabric from the beginning, I didn’t have plans for it for a long time. But when I started to think about spring- and summersewing earlier this year, this fabric popped up in my head more than once. So the search for a pattern started. I knew I wanted to make an easy dress  and I wanted to use the side of the fabric on which the pattern gets darker, as a feature. I found a pattern that seemed to check all the boxes and decided to place the darker pattern of the fabric at the bottom of the dress. For a few moments I thought of placing it at the waist but boy, am I glad I decided against that! I fiddled with the pattern a bit to get it to my liking (sleeves a bit wider, shorter and more bended, added a bust-dart, widened the waist, took out some fullness of the skirt...

(I'm way behind with blogging about my sewing-makes.This post was already written in June but I never got round to taking pictures because I háte doing that. So why I picked today to do that, in a scorching heat of  35 °C, I have absolutely no idea. But I'm glad I did because now I have the 'hard' work done for some new posts which I hope to bring to you soon.) This skirt from KnipMode May 2008, is really the fruit of me wanting to sew up something quickly, just for the fun of it.  Back in 2010 I sewed this skirt but it never got worn because it was too tight. I don’t remember if this was due to the fact that I gained weight in those days, or that I simply didn’t take measurements and made it too small. Believe it or not, that happened more than once back then.                                                  This time I took a size 46, which is clos...

Last week I was enjoying a much needed vacation, which in fact has been a sewcation, just as planned. The muscles in my neck and back are sore from sitting in an unhealthy position. (Note to self: must do something about that position!) I managed to sew a cardigan, a skirt, a dress and I took some time on pants-fitting. Each item will get its own blogpost because I’ve decided that, apart from informing (inspiring?) you, I want this blog to be a documentation of what I have sewn. So let’s start with the cardigan in a fuchsiapink, very pretty lace jersey. ( Here you can read about the first time I made this cardigan. ) The colour is almost a neon pink, but surprisingly enough it is totally wearable and I like it on me. Here I'm wearing it with a lilac tanktop.  A colourful combination!  without the belt (I prefer it closed though...) I’m still on the fence about wether I like it as a garment  In other words: if I will wear it or not. The major pro...

For many years my motto was: ‘Why use a pattern more than once, if you have so many nice patterns to choose from? Life is too short!’  I just never did. All the patterns I tried were thrown away after using them. (I’m talking about the patterns I traced on paper, the patternsheets I still own.) Now I just don’t get what I was thinking back then. If now I find a pattern that I like and ,with a few (or a lot) alterations, finally fits me well, to me it’s a blessing I can use that pattern again without any fitting-hassle.   I must have had unrestrained energy in those days, that I was not afraid to ‘reinvent the wheel’, over and over again. Or I must not have had many fitting-issues…hmm…that’s probably it. This pattern has been on my want-to-make list ever since it appeared in Knipmode. Now I finally got round to making it. Not once, but twice! And I see more of them coming in the foreseeable future. The top fits nicely (after alterations), is easy to put together ...

                                                                                                          Normally this is a chronological blog, but with this cardigan I'm breaking that rule. This was already made in december. Animal print is a trend that has been here for a while and is probably not going anywhere soon. I still have to get used to wearing it and feel very selfconscious if I do. Especially when half of my body is covered in it. But it was not made to hang in the closet so today I was 'brave' and wore it to work. At least, it's perfect for casual friday. It is a simple pattern and a simple make. I took my time with the front- and necklineband. The only thing I changed was the armscye. T...

In my earlier years of sewing I didn't have a fabricstash. I bought 1, 2 or max 3 pieces and sewed them up, before I bought other fabric. Then the internet came and I started reading about other sewists who bought lots and lots of fabrics. Pictures of enormous fabricstashes....it made my mouth water....and yes I must admit, influenced me! Slowly but surely I started buying more and more. You could say that's where my addiction started. My plans couldn't catch up with the need  want of new fabric so I started buying without a plan. And that was a mistake. If I look at my stash now I see some pieces that have been there forever. And guess what? Exactly! Those were the ones I bought without any idea of what to do with them. I came to the realisation that that was just not the way to go for me. So nowadays I'm back to planning most of my fabricpurchases. Trying to be sensible about it. (I'll make an exception for pieces out of the remnant bin though....) It doesn'...

Yesterday I finally finished the culotte on which I have been working on and off for a few weeks now and that has been on my sewing-wishlist for quite some time. In fact it has been there ever since this pattern was published in December 2017. The fabric I bought at a fabric market and at the time I forgot to ask what kind of fabric it is but I’m pretty sure there’s polyester in it. (I should do the ‘burn-test’!) The weight is heavy and that's a very good thing for this design, because it elongates the pleats in the front which makes all that extra width stay in place. The original design has a paperbag-waist. I would never wear it like that (don’t need all that extra bulk at my waist) and decided to eliminate the piece above the waistline.   It’s a loose fitting design (and very comfortable to wear!) so I could get away with my normal size 46 and had to add just a little bit at the sideseams at the waist. I didn’t make the fabric tie belt either. I’ll be using a small s...

(Disclaimer: the following is based on my opinion only, it’s about what I think and feel about Knipmode. I respect it’s not the same for everyone) Sewingfriends, an era has come to an end. Actually it already ended in the fall of 2019, when my KnipMode subscription expired and I decided, with a heavy heart, not to renew it. How it began Back in 1993 one of my aunts visited me. She had been sewing for most of her life and was damn good at it. Many bridal gowns in the family were made by her. She also sewed a lot for my mother and she made my communion dress. I have vivid memories of how pretty I felt that day. Now 45 years later, it’s still hanging in a closet because I just can't part with it.  Anyways, we were chatting over coffee and she asked if I was interested to subscribe to KnipMode. In those days I bought a copy occasionally but I liked the idea of getting it on a regular basis, so I subscribed. Around 2005 I got a bit bored with the style of the patterns an...