My unusual top

If you follow this blog regularly you have probably noticed that I love the navy colour and fabrics with kittens, stripes and flowers. I raaaaarely sew anything else but once in a while I'm attracted to a different print, usually something strange and in the home department of the store. I always call the garments I make from these unusual fabrics my ugly ducklings because even though they started differently in the end they fit well with the rest of my wardrobe :)
Today's top is the perfect illustration of this theory:




The fabric's from Ikea's children home section with black and pastel geometric patterns, writings and numbers on an off-white background. I fell in love with it the second I saw it even though I have no idea why since it's so far from what I normally like^^. Then there's the design, I used New Look 6808 which is a favourite but I changed the collar to a peter pan one and the thing is I don't usually like this type of collar on me yet I think it works quite well here!
BTW I can't remember if I wrote this before but I removed 1" horizontally on the front and back upper bodice above the bust to get rid of some fabric sagging and I lowered the armhole bottom edge to make up for the lost inches in case you'd have the same fit problem.
To sum up I ended adoring this top and I wear it at least once a week so it will certainly show up a lot for MMM 2012! See ya!

Guess what? More dresses!

So I solved the problem with the infamous birdy dress and to celebrate the fact that I'm literally drowning in dresses I made another one! It's a wrap dress from the same ol' Burda bodice and the fabric is a light polycotton with nice yellow tones. It's really grown on me since said fabric had been lying next to the shop's door for years without my looking at it until I dreamt of it a few weeks ago and went straight to buy it on the next day^^. I'm not completely sold on the design, I thought that since the bodice part is quite fitted with its slimming darts I would avoid the your-body's-quite-the-block-isn't-it effect but the fabric does bunch a little around my -ahem- waist :( On the bright side it has a totally cute 60's vibe and it's really pleasant to wear since it's so light.




The other dress I wanted to show you is a wax variation of my mum's favourite pattern: I only added a sweetheart detail on the front and a contrasting fabric belt. I think she was quite pleased and I must say I'm quite proud of the result :)




Have a nice week, see you!

Birdy dress

Humpf, I'm a bit upset sewing speaking. See, today I got to wear the latest version of my Burda bodice dress and it was supposed to be great: this time I drew a heart shaped yoke at the front, I cut the back panels so that I could use contrasting fabrics and I added sleeves from a vintage pattern, as for the skirt I made big inverted pleats instead of gathers. I used super cool blue batik and black cotton, of course I washed my fabrics first and everything was going well, the fit was fine, I could actually breathe in my dress, until I washed the finished object. It shrinked! I lost all the ease from the bodice and though I can still wear it it's really small and you can see the zipper at the back because the fabric is pulling like crazy -whyyyyyyyy!!!
I've had a look at the seams and I may manage to win back 1 or 2cm if I unpick the sides, but I can't do anything about the zipper seams because they're already very small since I didn't have much fabric to make the dress. I wonder if I can unpick part of the back darts or if it will spoil the garment. Meanwhile, here's the baby:

Birds in and out of cages!

The Horror

I so hope I can save my dress, I love it! Have a nice week, see you!

The Hem-isphere challenge part two

Hiya, how's it going? It's been raining heavily all week long and the other day I didn't have a car but I had to go out, I was shivering and my feet -horror!- were soaking wet by the time I arrived back home so imagine what a nice surprise I had when I found Zoe's latest package in my mailbox!
Inside were the most awesome mother-of-pearl buttons, lace and fabric ever! Seriously, not only are the colour and print wonderful but it's so light and soft it feels like Liberty.


So this time the topic was chosen by Zoe and she came with this great idea: la Parisienne :) This immediately brought back fond memories since it's the name of a bakery where my mama would buy my birthday cakes when I was young. Sigh, nougatine, marzipan, chocolate and whipped cream... But I digress, of course I wasn't to use this for our challenge^^.
The thing is, I've rarely been to Paris and mainly when I was quite young -everyone was dressed like Robert Smith!- so my references regarding this city and its inhabitants come mainly from movies, songs and celebrities. To me Parisiennes are Catherine Deneuve, Brigitte Bardot, Bernadette Lafont, Anna Karina...





...and above all, the embodiement of French class, easy glamour and overall cuteness, Sylvie Vartan! Actually she was born in Bulgaria but she became a very successful singer in France and has represented it abroad ever since.




She wore a lot of candy colours, white lace/broderie anglaise and stripes and peaked in the 60's and 70's so I tried to reflect her style in these eras in my package to Zoe: some crepe-like striped fabric, a fun pattern and some faceted buttons.

I forgot to take a pic AGAIN so thanks Zoe!

As for Zoe's inspiration you can read all about it in this post, I'm thrilled with what she gave me and I hope I can make something that will come up to her excellent idea for this challenge! See you later for the results :)

Ship ahoy!

I got Zoe-fied! Seriously cyber hanging out with her will do that to you:




You'll buy nautical themed fabric even though it's upholstery and you're nearly broke from buying a damn golden anchor last week:


I swear, when the bank statement arrives at the end of the month I'll forward it to her^^.
Now onto the dress's facts: the bodice is from the bridesmaid bubble dress from the March 2011 Burda mag, I shouldn't have shortened it since I had to add a 1" fabric "belt" to make up for it (see third pic) and the skirt is a simple dirndl. I was attracted first to the boatneck -wink!- which seemed fitted for the fabric but then I realised the back V would give my winged girl tattoo some much needed love since I never wear halternecks. Still I slightly reduced the depth of the V so that I could wear a regular bra underneath. I can't believe we're supposed to make curtains out of this awesome fabric, the blue tone and the print are fantastic and it's not stiff at all, it weighs like linen!
I'd like to try this pattern with some short, cap sleeves, I think it would look really nice with the back décolleté and I may just have the right fabric for this project, I can feel another sleepless night coming! Have a nice weekend, see you!

A pretty dress

That's all I was aiming for! So I picked a spring flower print cotton, some white daisy trim and my beloved vintage Advance pattern and here's what I got:

Right clic on the pic then open in a new page to see the trim better!

Yep, my garden is a mess

It's the same pattern as the Christmas dress I showed you earlier in the month, I like that the bodice is cut on the bias -it definitely gives ease- and the skirt has 12 darted panels which make it hang quite neatly IMO. I didn't put the neckline ties because this simple detail pushed the dress into little girl territory and instead I prefered to emphasize the front yoke with the daisy trim. I've tried to bust my stash notion recently so I'm putting trims, ric rac and appliqués on everything^^.
See you!

A typical bi-day outfit or why I love sewing

So today as is often the case, I've had the morning free and I'm working later which means I'll wear two variations of the same outfit, one to go walking and shopping and the other for more professional purposes. Here's the freetime version:


My eternal me-made denim shorts paired with a new top, the I've-almost-tamed-that-damn-fit version of New Look 6808 that I managed to squeeze in a yard of quilting cotton bought on sale. Even though I forget to take pics of them I've actually made a few of these tops and I like to add little changes from one to the other. For instance here I've bound the neckline and sleeves with navy bias topstitched in white and I've put a little bow on the side. I'm glad I found this fabric because it's super cute with its pink and blue confetti print and also because it was a real bargain since it went from 19€ to 6€ a yard -yes, that shop has crazy prices but fortunately there are plenty others which are much more affordable where I live :)

Close-up of the fabric and details and maybe a hint of the side handpicked zipper

Back to the outfit, as you can see it's pretty laid back and nice to wear in the current summer. Now for the teaching version, well I'll put on some jeans, pumps and I'll bring a pale yellow cardigan and that's it:

I LOVE my dazed face on this one, you can tell my baby cat was acting the fool behind the window^^

I don't think I have to ramble on and on about why I love sewing so much, obviously it's just too excellent to spend the entire day in stuff you've made yourself! Have a nice week and see you soon!