I'll sew you

Finally a picture of my latest project: the skirt. (And my previous project, the top). I liked the design of the skirt from the very first moment I saw it and knew that I wanted to make it. And so I did. The picture above is not showing the details very well, but here's a linedrawing, a close-up of the topstitching and a close-up of the skirt. I played with the idea of putting in the zipper at the front but in the end chose not to. I wanted to keep everything symmetrical. I used topstitching, to emphasize the nice design but also to flatten the seams. It would be a right mess on the inside otherwise. I don't like a zipper on the side so I put in a seam in the back yoke and placed the zipper there. The fabric I used is a black stretch jeans. It worked great and the corners of the frontpanel gave no hassle at all. Everything was behaving nicely this time. I took these pictures last thursday after wearing this outfit all day, which explains the wrink...

When I was young, let's say 16 years of age, I didn't exactly lead a glamourous, interesting and exciting life. Not that I was longing for such a life, but in my head I liked dreaming about it. When I was even a bit younger, let's say 12 years of age, I remember my mother had some old 'Libelle's' (a Dutch women's magazine) in the house. They were from the 50's or thereabout. Those magazines were the start of my interest in fashion. Those women looked só stylish and feminine, which was a huge contrast to the fashion of those days: punk and disco. (We're talking 1978 here). One of the first things I sewed was a pencil-skirt way below my knees, inspired by that style. Quite different from what the other girls wore, but I felt very confident in it. With that interest came the fun of sketching and designing. With the bold 80's around the corner, it was just more fuel on the fire. I loved designing so much that I wanted to become a fashiondesigner....

My favourite TNT-pattern is this one: Burda 2008/10 - 119            Two thumbs up for this one! I tried it several times and every time I was pleasantly surprised at how quick it is to assemble and how great the effect is. It's total love and I'll probably be making more of this. This is my latest project: Apart from the sewingpattern being easy and quick, I can't get over how much I love this fabric. It's jersey with velvet on some parts of the flowers. The colours are very rich but demure at the same time. Funny thing is that I received this fabric by accident. I actually ordered other (almost the same) fabric on the internet but apparently it was mistaken for this one. Well, absolutely no harm done. When it was time to topstitch and hem, I was already reaching for my black thread. But then I thought it would be fun to use a brighter colour for that. I had the perfect purple in my stash so I used that. ...

Pheww..!!! That took me wáy too long! So I'm glad I'm finally done with this. But I must say I'm pretty pleased with the end result. (And I'm sure my pants will start to fit better once I shed some pounds...) What you see is cardigan pattern #7 from KnipMode December 2011 and pants pattern # 129 from Burda February 2007. You can find the linedrawing of the cardigan here . This is the linedrawing of the pants.      I used size 46 and eliminated the pockets. I wanted the lines of these pants to be as smooth as possible. (The cardigan is a size 44) That pants-size 46 is really doing my head in. I know I'm tall, but honestly....do I look like a 46 to you?? (Please tell me I don't...) The fake-fur collar is the main feature of this outfit. I could eat this stuff! It feels so soft and luxurious. I didn't read the instructions very carefully, or else I wouldn't have fiddled that long with attaching the collar to t...

The world lost another icon, too young, too soon. Goodbye Whitney. You will be missed.

Thanks everyone who left a nice comment about my top. Stephanie asked if I could show a close-up picture of the collar. I completely forgot about that request and just read it again. I'll do that in my next post. That's a promise! After the top, I made black trousers. But silly, silly me. For years on a row now I am a size 44. Since I've gained some weight in the last year I'm more of a 46 now. So I thought it was only logical to sew a size 46 and then I would end up with perfect fitting pants. Only one 'small' problem, I forgot that most of the years I have been a size 44, I already cut extra seams and width (and therefore probably cut a size 46 already!) to make sure pants and skirts would fit me. So what I actually did now was cut exactly the same size and ended up with some tight-fitting pants. It's wearable, the fabric stretches quite a lot, but it's a far cry from the perfect-fitting pants I had imagined and I'll always have to wear somethin...

Yay!! By the size of this picture you can tell that my technial problems are solved. I have to say a big thank you to Katie Kadiddlehopper  for pointing me in the right direction. Check out her comment in my previous post if you are having the same problems.  And also thank you to Baking Soda from Bake My Day . I might give posting via Windows Live Writer a go one day but now I can go back to my usual way   I think I'm gonna stick to that a bit longer. And to be honest, I have a big fear of losing my blog if I change anything, so..... But I will remember the advise. Now, about the picture. What you're looking at is pattern #3 from KnipMode 08/2008. It's the second time this one has seen the light. It is só easy to make. I like the fact that with minimal effort you have a great effect. I must admit that the fit is quite snug. Especially on the arms but also in other places. It's wearable if I just make sure I wear the right things und...