I'll sew you

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...

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...

My first sewingproject of the year 2020 is finished and it’s a raglan sleeve sweater. The original pattern I’ve used is from KnipMode December 2013. Original, because I made quite some changes. In the picture below you can see the original linedrawing of this pattern. See those curved seams? The front and back bodypiece do have this curved seamline (second picture), but the sleeves do not. They're straight at that point. Anyone who has been sewing for a while knows that when you sew a curved and a straight seam together, you create depth. The fabric is no longer laying flat. And that’s exactly what happened when I made this sweater some years ago. Front and back, left and right. I remember I took some time trying to fix it but for some reason I never really succeeded, so that sweater ended up never being worn. Last year I wanted to give it another go and I smoothed out the line of the front and back bodypiece. That did the trick, as was to be expected. No stran...

As I type this, I only have 1,5 days of vacation left. Oh my…where did those 5 weeks go??  Because of the 2 heat waves we’ve experienced here in the Netherlands, the first 3 weeks went by in a bit of a blur. I really could not do much more than hang on the couch and move as little as possible. It's just not my kind of weather and I’m ever so glad that the heat is gone, altough it’s still above 20°C.  In spite of all that heat I managed to get some sewing done. I bought the fabric for this skirt (KnipMode January 2018 – skirt ‘Yara’) at a fabric fair and it is a wonderful jersey with elastane. The colours are so vibrant, And it has a bit of weight to it so it hangs beautifully. It was a super quick make. I took size 46 and made it slightly bigger at the hip. Jersey can be so clingy to your body and I really want to avoid that if possible.  As you can tell from the picture below, the design calls for an elastic band as a waistband, but I opted for a casing of t...

Anyone out there who likes to sew in blistering temperatures?? No, me neither… It's sooo hot and dry here in the Netherlands and there's no sign of it changing anytime soon.  I have a trip planned this thursday with two friends. Initially we were going to pay a visit to a few city's in the province of Zeeland, but I don't think that's a good idea when it's 35°C. Thursday and Friday are actually the hottest days according to the weather forecast. We will probably be driving on to the coast instead and spending our day at the beach. N ext tuesday I'll be going on a daytrip with a friend to Trier (Germany). It's  booked at a bus-company and I'm really looking forward to that but if the temperatures are still this high (and chances are they will be) than it's going to be somewhat of a challenge to be walking around in a heated city. I hope the bus has airco, that would be a big plus! Okay, I've moaned enough. There are still a lot of peo...

While I was away, I have been sewing. Not blogging, but yeah..sewing. Because my dear readers, the sewing mojo seems to be back in my life. How great is that! The only problem is, and will be for who knows when: finding time to sew. With a heavy workschedule, and having to deal with householdstuff, garden etc. by myself, I find it hard to find time to sit behind the sewing-machine. But I managed to squeeze in moments to do some summer-sewing. My fabricstash is not very big and I love to go to fabricmarkets to add new beauties to the pile. Recently I spend a few hours on a big fabricmarket that was held near my town. And I was very pleased with the fabrics on offer. So many great fabrics I could see myself working with. But I managed to narrow it down to these 5 pieces. The two black-and-whites in the middle already are turned into T-shirts. With the lycra zebra-print (don't you just love it!!) I made a skirt. The light fabric in the bottom on the left, will be a nic...