I'll sew you

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...

This top is really cheering me up with its great, vibrant colours. Something we could all use in these, most of the time, gray and cold days. At some places the colours look faded, but that's the print. The pattern is from a KnipMode special, which I can't find anywhere by the way. The original has a little strip of fabric that goes through a hole in the front, just beneath the drape and then you tie the ends together and by that gather the drape. Boy, does that even make sense to you? Anyway, I didn't use it. Nor did I use it in the same top I made about a year ago. And that's a colourful one as well. With that top I made a belt (not shown in the picture, couldn't find that either :-( I left out the belt this time and instead took in the sideseams, and now it's a more fitted top. (You got to trust me on that. I don't feel like taking a picture of me as I am down with a cold and not looking too well.) What I like particularly is the fact that the...

Yes. Another simple project... I almost feel the need to apologise for the fact that my sewing might seem a bit boring lately. But for me it isn't. No matter how simple it looks, there are always some problems to overcome and when I do, I am quite happy with the outcome. This top is a good example of that (first picture is a bit crappy though...)       As you can see, my top has no sleeves. Here's why.It all started with a piece of fabric I bought at a local fair for only € 3 ($ 3,80 / £ 2,30). Soon after that the idea came up to sew a trendy, oversized shirt with short sleeves. It took some time to find a matching pattern. (MUST NOT BUY FABRIC WITHOUT A PLAN - I REPEAT...MUST NOT etc.) This pattern is from a magazine called 'Diana'. (More about that later). When that was solved too it was time to cut the fabric. It was then I discovered a big yellow stain, which eliminated 1/4 of the fabric I could use. Bummer..... So what was I to do? ...

First of all: a big, big thank you to everyone who left a comment on my last post, suggesting what could be the problem I was having with my yellow blouse and possible ways to solve that. This is so much appreciated! Sometimes in life you need help and you don't know who to turn to. But ask fellow-sewers for help and they all come to your rescue. That's so kind and sweet! So again, from the bottom of my heart: THANK YOU GUYS! Now. On to the alterations. Some of you suggested that maybe I need to create more space in the upper-back. I started to take a closer look at pictures of me from the side, and I was surprised to notice that I do have a rounded upper-back. Why didn't I notice before?! Besides that, I Always feel that my tops and blouses are hanging shorter in the back than the front. That may also be a result of the fabric pulling up at the top. Wow. This does make a lot of sense. I definitely have sloping shoulders. That could be part of the problem to...

First the good:     Then the bad: I have a problem. And I need your advice. Please! I can't go on sewing blouses like this. Everytime I sew a blouse in a non-stretch fabric, the same problem occurs, namely this:     You see the draglines in the back, pointing from the neckline to as far as under the arm? I'm sooo tired that this happens every time. I just don't know how to make them go away. It looks like my arm is pulling the armscye down, like it's too high for my body. At first I thought I could solve this by lowering the armscye as a whole. I once tried this on another blouse. It helped maybe a little bit, but unfortunately, if I moved my arms, the complete shoulder/neckline moved upward, like someone had put a clothes hanger in it and lifted that up. Not a good thing. I also don't think that the armscye is too small. There's enough room to move. So yeah, I need your help. If anyone knows a way t...