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 :-).

Burda 7488 Dress

Yes, it has actually happened - I have sewn up something. A dress. I used a piece of fabric from my stash - a blend of cotton and elastan and made it into a fifties-like dress. At least I think it looks like a 50's style. 

Since the fabric has got quite a busy print, I wanted to use a sewing pattern with simpler lines, so that the print and the style don't clash. I used Burda 7488.

 

The dress pattern was pretty simple to sew up. Fortunately, because the English version of instructions was missing from the pattern envelope (I don't know if it was never there or if I lost it, but I somehow think the first is the truth, arghhh), so I had to follow the instructions in German. Maybe it wouldn't be such a problem, because I speak German, but I am not completely familiar with the sewing vocabulary, so I was lucky that the dress was pretty straight-forward to sew up. I even made my (I think) first attempt ever to match the fabric print on the upper front bodice sewing lines :-).

Here's the result:

This is the first fully lined dress I made - at least lined this way, with a concealed zipper. 

The changes I made to the pattern were minor - I added interfacing to the neckline, left out the band on the skirt hem and omitted to make the belt. I think that the busy fabric print needs to be disrupted a bit to show the dress silhouette, so I used a brown leather belt on the dress form. And I intend to wear it with a one colored belt in real life too.

The concealed zipper:

 

(The dress needs to be washed yet - the fabric markings are still visible here)

I added interfacing to the neckline:

The concealed zipper in the lined dress wasn't such a problem to sew as I always dreaded. The result is not perfect, but I think it is good enough for my first concealed zipper in a lined dress. The problem I eventually had was the very fine lining fabric. In fact, I managed to insert the invisile zipper on a second attempt (yay!), but as I tried to close and open the zipper a couple of times, it made a hole into the lining. This really disappointed me, because I thought that the zipper was sewn in pretty well and was not it the way of the slider. I had to resew a part of it to salvage the lining. 

The one thing I hated doing was sewing the shoulder seams. This is really quite a trivial part od a dress to sew, but because these seams played a part in the lining insertion, that I didn't understand fully until consulting one of my sewing books, I eventually had to sew them completely by hand. I partly blame the Burda instructions, which are never really explanatory in great details, but to be honest, I should have thought about the dress construction more profoundly before actually sewing some parts of it. The next time I'll be wiser. (Fingers crossed :-P).

Aside from that, I think I like the dress. It still needs to stand a test of being worn, but my dress form looks quite happy in it :-)...

I hope to get to sewing again soon, hopefully the next weekend.

In the meanwhile...

... happy sewing to you :-)!

Confessions of a UFO-holic

I've had no plan to stop sewing or blogging for such a long time. But around Christmas, as I was "forced" to change my sewing room (a.k.a. our living room) back to what it really is, a living room, you know... it took me a looooong time to get all my sewing stuff back from where it was unwillingly hiding. This doesn't mean that I wasted all this time just lazing around. I was working on some other stuff, doing some other crafts, which I might talk about some time later, but I don't feel like it could be a consistent part of this blog just yet.

On the other hand, to tell the truth, I had no idea that a virtual space such as a blog can make me feel guilty for not being active on it :-D. Haunting me around for letting it hibernate in a winter sleep. Well, now I know :-). 

Anyway, since I obviously need a kick in my non-sewing butt, I stopped hiding from myself and cleared my closet from all the skeletons, understand UFOs. Nooo, I haven't finished them up, haha (who was so naive to think that?), but I was brave enough to count them and give myself a long mental lecture on my inability to finish up (so many) sewing projects. (In fact, I can judge myself pretty lucky that this only applies on my sewing and not the rest of my everyday life!)

So, here are confessions of a UFO-holic:

This dress is waiting to be hemmed and get a single button on the back. The reason why I originally left it like this was my fear to hem it. The sheer fabric is flimsy and frays like hell, so as a beginning sewer I was afraid to potentially destroy an otherwise well-sewn dress. McCall' s 5805:

Another dress. Needs to be hemmed and sleeves and collar facing are missing. Well, they are cut and prepared to be sewn where they belong. Prepared... for a looong time now. Simplicity 2444:

A floral coat. I had it nearly done, but I forgot one small detail. So, to make it properly, I had to take apart a part of its collar. I also had some difficulties with the vent. The details were time consuming. At that time more than anything else I needed to sew and create some decorations and accessories for my wedding and just didn't come around it anymore. McCall's 5525:

This should have been an instant gratification project. It turned out as an instant annoyance project. Everything went well until I accidentally made a hole into the fabric. It wasn't that bad - it was near a seam under the breast area, but after fiddling with the fabric for some time I just got so annoyed, that... I obviously let it lay like this and walked away from it for that moment. I meant to finish it up the next day.  Weeeeeeell, looks like that had not happened... Butterick 5497 top:

The Vogue 8333 jacket I was so proud of. I put a lot of working hours into this jacket and the only thing it needs to be finished is to attach the lining to the lower hem and sleeves and make 5 buttonholes. Do I need to say more?

This top was made with a pattern from Burda Style magazine. The reason why it's not finished up is very simple - I can't finish its armholes in a presentable way. This one is laying around unworn only because of this. (But don't ask me why I didn't place the pattern on the fabric in a more fabric-pattern-friendly way... :-D).

          

Another dress. Stumbled upon a sewing problem with a convex and concave angles. I believe I might be able to sew it now. After that, only sleeves and a hem will be missing. Butterick 5279:

Dear fabric pieces, what would you like to be when you grow up? We want to be tops! Vogue 1217 and McCall's 5977:

   

 

Another unfinished dress. One day it's going to be Vogue 1154 - as soon as I overcome two issues. One is that I put on some kilos and won't be able to stuff them into this current dress size (hopefully to be tackled soon :-)) and this one (hopefully to be tackled as soon as I will be able to get into the pre-cut size).  

Please, bear with me, "only" two more left. If you haven't fallen asleep yet, here they are. Vogue 1189 dress (purple snake fabric) and Burda 7444 top (purple double-knit). 

                     

 

Yes, there is no mistake. You can count - it makes twelve unfinished sewing projects. I was trying to fool myself into believing that it's not that bad, since they were emerging in the course of more than 2 years, but who do I want to fool...? (Me! :-D)

So, this was a self-torturing process of fighting my I-am-not-that-bad-at-finishing-sewing-projects denial. Not that I would feel anyhow relieved - now, that I assured myself that I actually am that bad at finishing sewing projects :-D... Frown...

Anyhow, I really like some of these poor unfinished garments and some of them would be great for the (hopefully) upcoming Spring temperatures, so I will try to finish them up. 

Hmmm. Have I heard this somewhere before...? ;-)

Before coming to the end of this terribly long and probably pretty boring blog post, I'd like to thank to every reader, especially the following ones, who were patient enough to not to unsubscribe from my hibernating blog. Another thank you belongs to those new followers who were nice enough to newly follow my blog although it was in the before-said hibernating state!

I wonder, am I actually a better blogger when I don't blog... :-D? Hmmm, I've something to thing about... ;-). 

Until next time :-)...!

Nearly Finished Vogue 8333 Jacket

I still need to work on this jacket a couple more hours, but it looks like I am coming to the finishing line. The outer shell and the lining are sewn together, except of the sleeve and lower hem areas and I need to buy buttons to be able to create suitable buttonholes, but otherwise, it looks like this might end up like a wearable jacket :-). 

This really isn't an easy pattern - it is not terribly difficult to sew up, but it's pretty time consuming. On the other hand, it gives me more self-confidence and trust in my sewing abilities, seeing that I am able to create something elaborate and more complicated than a simple t-shirt :-). 

The interfaced fabric, especially in the pocket area, where sometimes four or even more layers meet, creates quite a lot of bulk, so I hope I'll be able to tame it and get a nice crisp lower hem. 

The one area  I was most afraid to sew was probably the collar and lapel area. Firstly, I don't have experience with this kind of a collar and secondly, I was anxious that I wouldn't be able to get a symmetrical result and ruin all the hours of work with two badly curved lapel sides. Fortunately, I think I managed to do it quite right and have got a decent looking jacket front. Yay :-)! 

                                   

But the battle is not yet won. I will tell you a little secret I have - I have never made a single buttonhole (if I don't take into account that one test buttonhole I made to try out my sewing machine abilities...), so this is going to be the last minefield of this jacket to go through.

See you sewn ;-)!

Mojo Lost, Mojo Found

Once in a while, nearly every blogging sewer writes a post about a missing mojo and no wish to sew whatsoever. Before I started reading blogs about sewing, I didn't even know the word "mojo":-) and from the time I had started to sew, I have never experienced this feeling - no wish to sew, until recently. I had sewing plans, but for some time, I just lost my motivation to sew. I didn't stop reading all the nice blogs about sewing, I kept looking for new sewing patterns and I didn't lose my interest in shopping for fabric, I just couldn't force myself to sew. 

Fortunately, this time is gone and I am back in the saddle :-). The pattern I have chosen to sew up after such a long time without sewing is Vogue 8333 - a jacket with a very nice pocket detail. 

It's not an easy project. Only tracing all the pattern pieces took me about 5 hours, but at this moment, the fabric pieces are beginning to look like a jacket. I am taking my time to do everything very precisely, so that after all the days of work I don't end up with a wadder (although one can never be sure about that...).   

Because I am not a very experienced sewer and the pattern is quite complicated, containing many pattern pieces, I am not doing any major adjustments on the garment (I'll be happy if I finish it without any big mishaps :-D), so I'll have to be satisfied with the fit right out of the envelope. On the other hand, the size 6 looks like a pretty good fit for my figure so far.

There are two sets of instructions in the pattern envelope - one written by Claire Shaeffer and one that I call commercial. I follow the regular instructions, but sometimes help myself with the other set, because sometimes I find the couture instructions easier to understand or simpler to follow. 

Creativity is messy and I am very creative! :-D

This is what the jacket looks so far:

The pocket detail in making:

This was the first time I used a stay tape in a sewing project. Since I had no experience with it, I had no commercial stay tape at home. The book "Professional Sewing Techniques for Designers" from Julie Cole and Sharon Czachor helped me with this a lot and I made my own stay tape. 

... it feels good to sew again :-)...

Thank you to everyone, who took the time to leave a comment on my last (wedding) post and to everyone who is reading or following my blog and haven't lost interest in it during my unplanned inactivity. I really appreciate it.

Have a lovely weekend! :-)

Wedding and Stuff...

First I have to say thank you to everyone, who commented on my last post, the Vogue dress and my then-upcoming wedding :-)! I am quite a stubborn person, so even though I had known a simpler pattern would have been a sure bet, I had to try to sew up the one, that I pretty much could have known was impossible to finish. (This is probably not a grammatically correct sentence, but I hope you know what I mean :-D.)

It's been a loooong time since I last blogged, but I just wasn't able to manage all things at once - the wedding preparations were very time-consuming and I couldn't "waste" time I didn't even have with other activities, like sewing for example. Having said that, I also think that all the work and time I invested in sewing decorative tablecloths, napkin rings, ring-bearer pillow, garters and preparing other decorative stuff paid off, because the wedding reception was even better than I hoped.

The weather was great, sunny and hot (looks like the hottest day of this rather cold summer so far), which was an important part of it all, since it took place in a garden under wedding tents. Everything was very pretty, which I have to admit very immodestly, taking into account also the esthetic part I was responsible for :-). I had an idea of what I liked and wanted, but I couldn't imagine it coming all together, which finally did better than I had hoped.

On the other hand, I'm glad I don't have to go through it all again any time soon :-)... We were gifted with an extra portion of adrenaline two days before the ceremony, as we found out, that the church we were supposed to be married in was completely covered with scaffolding from the inside, so we had to find a new one in two days, which wasn't really a part of the original plan...

Here are a couple of pictures for those, who might be interested. I've only got a couple of the professionally taken pictures so far (some of them are here) and I'm still waiting for the rest.

My mum decorated the muffins. The ribbons, napkin rings etc, which look rather reddish here, are in fact magenta colored. The tents above the tables had casted shadows which made the magenta-colored objects look red...

While I was sewing the tablecloth number 678.987 (there were "only" about 27 in reality, but it felt like a million to me when sewing them up), I began to feel like a robot... A professional sewing one.

The cake looked exactly like I described my idea to the bakery (loved it) and it tasted deliciously. Vanilla, chocolate and raspberry. Yummy! This picture was made by a friend, not the professional photographer and it doesn't show its real colors - especially the beautiful magenta/fuchsia-colored roses, so I hope to have a better picture from the photographer later.

Now I'm back from vacation and I'm quite motivated and full of hope, that I'll be able to do all the things I like (or at least some of them), which had to be put on hiatus before the wedding. Like sewing. There are a couple of UFOs lying around the apartment, which have to be completed. I'm very bad at coming back to unfinished projects, so I'll probably start (and finish :-)) something new and then come back to what has to be done. Aahhh.

I'm sorry for the not-to-sewing-related post, although it explains why there's no finished garment to report about. Next time I'll do better :-).

Have a great creative week :-)!