I'll sew you

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...

No I'm not talking about summer fabric with lovely yellow lemons on it... My little cat-friend who has been with me for 13 years has been diagnosed with severe arthritis. (The exact words of the vet: "We don't see this very often"). I noticed that his movement was slower and jumping up and down didn't go as smoothly as it once did but it's an elder cat and I thought that was just normal and age-appropriate. Lately though he seemed to be in pain at times. So I took him to the vet last friday, which actually turned into a very stressful visit for him (the cat, not the vet...) but also for me. They had to give him anesthetics to examin him. Then they decided to take x-rays and there it was, the verdict of arthritis. I wasn't completely surprised, but still.... Now he has to be on continuous pain-medication for 30 days and then try to reduce that to every other day (at least, that's the plan for now) and I can give him special food that will help to imp...

First of all a big thank you to those who left a comment on my previous post. It's great to hear from you! In the meantime the tee is finished. Nothing complicated, just a simple project. But isn't it true that those pieces are the ones that get to be worn the most? I thought it would be fun to play a bit with the stripes and added a band at the bottom of the sleeves with the stripes going in the opposite direction. For that I folded a rectangular in half and sewed it double at the bottom of the sleeves. The stripes of the necklinebinding are also placed at a right angle. I'll try to sneak in a little post about how I make a necklinebinding. If you are struggling with the usual method (folding a strip of fabric and sewing it double to the neckline), this method may be the one you were looking for. It works for me every time and I find its much easier.  Back to the tee. I'm happy with the fit. Basically I measured my hips, waist, bustline and uppe...

Hi, Just a short post to show the second t-shirt I made with the same Ottobre pattern I used for the black-and-white shirt. I just couldn't let the stripe-trend go by without joining it. The fabric I used is maybe a bit too thick for a t-shirt (punta di roma) but all in all it is ok to wear. The stripes are darkblue and cream-coloured. The sleeve with a piece of elastic sewed on the inside. (My arm isn't as gigantic in real life as in this picture haha....) Making this shirt was not exactly a pleasant journey. About everything that could go wrong, went wrong. I even forgot to match the stripes at the sideseams when cutting the fabric. So I was very, very lucky that they did match after all. You want to be hasty and then you forget the most basic things... At first I finished the neckline the same way I did with the black-and-white shirt, but that resulted in a disaster. No matter how hard I pulled the binding, it was just too stiff to lay flat. I guess that's w...

This fabric was bought with the idea of making a T-shirt. But I felt that just a plain T-shirt was not enough to do it justice. So I chose a pattern from an Ottobre magazine I've used before 2 times. A few years back I tried this pattern and was pleasantly surprised by the great instant fit. No pattern-alterations were needed at the time. What I particularly like about it is the detail on the sleeve. It's actually very simple: there's a little dart at the top of the sleeve. When you sew this together, at the same time you sew over a stretched piece of elastic. Et voilá! Simple, yet effective. I've taken a picture of the sleeve but it's close to impossible to get a clear picture. The linedrawing however is pretty clear. I don't remember if I altered the neckline when I used this pattern for the first time but mine is not as wide as it appears in the drawing. I've already worn this shirt multiple times so that makes it a winner in my book....