Pretty Amazing

Today I have a day off (a bank holiday in this part of the world :-)). As my sewing mojo is on its highest, I wanted to use the day for sewing. In reality it´s late afternoon right now and I haven´s even made a first step towards sewing anything. My problem: I didn´t find a single piece of fabric in my fabric stash, that I´d be willing to sacrifice to make a pregnancy outfit, that will only serve me for a couple of months (or weeks, looking at the speed my weight is going up. Blah.) I also don´t have the courage to sew anything for my post-pregnancy life, because I don´t feel like sewing without being able to do any fitting is a good idea. I´ll have to think about a plan to solve this dilemma, because I really want to sew something up! :-D

I have one idea in my mind - I want to make some things for the baby (a quilt, a pillow and blanket cover...) - things like this, but since I don´t know the gender yet, I don´t know what colors to use. And I don´t see yellow as the central color of my choice :-)...

Talking about the baby. This is also the second reason for which I wasn´t blogging for quite a long time (I talked about it in this post). I wasn´t feeling well and I was terribly exhausted as soon as I left my bed in the morning. Fortunately, this has improved with time and I don´t fee like sleeping 24/7 anymore. 

Now, back to the present.

Can this post get any messier :-)?

As I was feeling as quite a useless creature today - a day off and no sewing going on (!), I went to my last refuge - other people´s blogs. I mean, at least someone else is sewing, right :-)?! So I stared with the most recent blog post on my following list. It was from a blogger I just began to follow recently. A couple of nights ago I couldn´t sleep and I was browsing the internet and looking for talented bloggers for some feel-good read and inspiration. That´s how I discovered Rhonda Buss of Rhonda´s Creative Life. According to the picture that was showing on my blog roll, Rhonda blogged about the same dress that I blogged about lastly - the McCall´s 6553. Ah, great, I want to see it!

But waaaaait :-O! I nearly fell off my feet. Well, only nearly, because, fortunately, I was sitting :-). This lovely lady had put up a post about two bloggers, one of them being ME! I mean, I nearly had a heart attack, because there are so many wonderful bloggers out there, that I can´t even compare with (so I better won´t...) and someone has really wrote about me and my humble blog. 

I have to say - THANK YOU, RHONDA. Thank you even for the survived almost-heart attack :-), because the reason was a very flattering act. It has also brought me to the thought, that I should mention other fellow bloggers more often, especially because a huge amount of inspiration, good read and things I keep constantly learning come from them. Meaning you, other sewing bloggers :-). 

With this feeling of gratitude - towards Rhonda and other great bloggers out there, I am leaving you for now.

Happy sewing and see you soon!

McCall´s 6553 Dress

On Saturday I used my post-vacation sewing mojo to finish the two knit dresses, that I mentioned in my last post. One of them is a black knit dress - McCall´s 6553.

I was really looking forward to sew this one up. I had a look at some reviews and the pattern looked like a simple one, consisting of just a few pieces, that come together easily. It has proven to be true - it is not a complicated pattern, just a great fabric eater. 

I used a piece of black knit bought particularly for this dress. It is not too heavy, nor too thin, so an ideal material for what I had in my mind. I was trying to avoid using any even a bit stiffer fabric to not to end up with a big black tent.

Soo, since the pattern is so simple, why not to make it a bit complicated, right? I decided to add about 7cm to the length of the dress. Not so complicated, right? Well, I added 3,5cm at both "lengthen/shorten here" lines and thought that it would be easy to blend the side lines and keep the width of the dress very close to its original size 6. Nope, it wasn´t easy for me. I didn´t want to lose the shape of the dress and couldn´t manage to draw a line that would keep both the longer length and the original shape of size 6, so I had to broaden it at both sides as the pattern was leading me. Thinking about it, I think I might be able to do better now, but, well, too laaaaaate. Grrrrr :-)... So, I ended up with a dress, that is longer, but also wider than the original pattern. Not a big tragedy with such a loose dress.

I wanted to take some quality pictures to show the one-of-a-kind shape of this dress, but the weather does not cooperate anymore and I couldn´t wear it out yet. So I snapped a couple of pictures inside, but inside pictures of a black dress in a rather gloomy weather behind the windows never turn out really well.

At least some pathetic attempts:

 

There are some other minor changes I made:

- I omitted the loop and the button on the back side. If I read the sewing instructions carefully before the actual sewing process, I would have known, that there is no sewn-in fabric loop or a button hole, but a thread loop recommended. This was no option for me, so I have just sewn the two parts together from the inside with a couple of hand stitches and the collar is wide enough to serve its purpose without a button.

- The side holes for the sash are quite wide - so wide, that you can see the skin through them. I read this in one of the reviews, but obviously, I had to see for myself to actually believe how big they are... No big deal, So I made them a bit smaller with a couple of hand stitches from the inside.

Don´t ask me what this pose should have looked like. It makes me look pregnant.

Oh, maybe because I am :-).

See you soon :-).

Back From The Summer Vacation

I had no idea that it´s been such a long time since I last blogged. As always, I had no intention to be absent for so long, but there are two reasons that might apologize my silence. Well, not that I am somehow obliged to blog, but I suppose these reasons are apologies to myself.

First - I finally got out of the city for my summer vacation. We´ve been to Spain, Andalusia, and made trips to Spanish Seville, Portugal and Gibraltar. It was great, the beach was amazing and I wish the vacation was longer, but, oh, well... 

the beach along the sea was covered with seashells

Plaza de España

The one thing that was connecting me with the sewing world even during the holidays was my hunt after the Patrones magazines. While on the trip to Portugal I had a revelation - I remembered a blogger - (have no idea who it was, since I read so many sewing blogs :-)) - who got some of the Patrones issues in Portugal and from that time on, I looked into every magazine shop and stand to get some. And I was quite successful - getting four issues, both in Portugal and Spain. A happy smile :-):

 

It was a nice feeling to get them for around 4€ right from the newsstand instead of stalking after them allover the internet for like 10€ a number :-)...

There is also a second reason why I was absent from the blogging world, but I´ve just made up my mind and I´ll give this one away in the next post. Yes, it´s a bit mean - I hate it when people begin to talk about something and not finish the whole "story" too.

Now to the sewing part of the post. Before leaving for the vacation, I nearly finished two knit dresses. "Nearly finished" meaning - both need to be hemmed, one of them has unfinished some of the inner seams and the other is missing a sash. I pretty much hope I´ll get at least one of them finished tomorrow. A post will be following. I am really looking forward to be back to sewing after the vacation.

I hope you all have a great summer...

... and see you soon :-).