I'll sew you

Yay, I'm done. My first piece of summersewing is finished. It's a top from KnipMode March 2014. There is a design for a top with sleeves, and a dress without sleeves. I chose to make the top without sleeves. At first it seemed like it was going to be an easy one but there are some details I'm not particularly happy about. First things first: a picture. Looks alright, doesn't it? Well, what's wrong with it then? The biggest problem is the neckline. It's way too wide. Before I cut the fabric I raised the front-neckline to avoid some unwanted cleavage, but it's like the fabric has stretched while I was working on it. And that can't have happened because I interfaced the facing, which is cut exactly according to the new, smaller designed neckline. So it can't have stretched. I'm really puzzled about this. There are almost no shoulders left on this top. (It's much worse than it looks in the picture). Combine that with a body that has al...

When I started thinking about a new blogpost, showing the new project I'm working on, I suddenly remembered that a while ago I promised you a picture of the three pieces I sewed as a mini-swap. They all turned out really nice if I say so myself. The jean-jacket you've seen already of course. But not the tanktop and the skirt. I think the three of them make a nice combination. The fabric of the skirt is a bit thicker, it has a knit-texture but it's not heavy. Just perfect for fall or early spring. The hem falls well below my knee. That's why I like to wear it with boots. Shoes are not doing the silhouet any favour. It has a zipper in the back and also a vent. And it's fully lined. For the white top I used a tnt-pattern I drafted myself, using a store-bought top that fits me really well. As a matter of fact, I already made 4 tops with that pattern and many more will follow. Well, now this is out of the way, I soon hope tell you more about the j...

            Finally, result. This took more time to finish than I thought it would. But it's done, and I am happy with it. It looks nice and all the tweaking, testing and trying has paid off and resulted in a better fit. There is still room for improvement. The sloping-shoulder adjustment I made, turned out to be too drastic and the sleeves are too tight on the biceps for real comfort. I can wear it but it's not ideal in that area. Well, at least now I know that these are issues I have to deal with next time.   There are good points as well. Lowering the armscyes has helped to remove a lot of wrinkles in the back. So did the high-rounded back adjustment. The two darts in the back, starting at the shoulderseam, are hardly noticeable. Of course I didn't topstitch these darts, like I did with the rest of the seams.   Talking about topstitching....I used a darkblue, normal thread on the inside and a slightly thicker topsti...

The jacket is coming along nicely. It's always nice to work with denim and this time it's not different. The fit is also something I'm thrilled about this time. As far as I can tell at this stage, the back is fitting quite nicely and so is the front. You have to believe me on this 'cause for now I only have pictures of the jacket on the Blue Lady (Who, by the way, is starting to fall apart really badly: losing skin, getting more wrinkled etc. etc...poor thing!). I basted a lot of the seams to get it to the stage where I could try it on. Now it's time to take them apart, sew real seams and....get the topstitching done. My favourite part :-)   This afternoon I fiddled with the small parts, a.k.a. the pockets and the pocket-flaps. The instruction tells you to sew the pockets on the inside but I chose to place them on the outside. They're gonna be real functioning pockets. Not that I will be putting anything in them, but it's just nice to make them r...

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...