The Hem-isphere challenge: garment n°2

Hey there a quick post to show you what I made for the second instalment of Zoe and I's swap project, our topic was La Parisienne and you can read more about it here. I'm so sorry for the bad pics but I was in a rush and it was early in the morning so the light was really dim :(

So this is another take on New Look 6808, I used the beautiful silky cotton and mother-of-pearl buttons Zoe sent me and added heart-shaped lace from my stash around the collar. I LOVE my top and I usually wear it with jeans but it's also great with a pencil skirt.
You can see Zoe's garment here http://sozowhatdoyouknow.blogspot.com/2012/06/hem-isphere-project-parisienne-blouse.html, I can't believe she made such an awesome top out of what I sent her! See you

Me-Made-May 2012 week 3 recap

Hello! Another week of great fun with me-made stuff done, let's see:
- on the 16th I wore my beloved navy Ceylon dress, I neeeeeed to make another one asap!


- on the 17th I wore a self-drafted maxi dress made with super soft cotton lawn bought at Tomato for $1 a metre :) Also can you tell I love my shoes?


- on the 18th I wore another shirred Burda top out of amazing yukata fabric and navy Pochée shorts:


- on the 19th my Fait Main denim shorts and a cute purchased panda tee:


- on the 20th some fun leopard Burda shorts and my old yellow Japanese top:


- on the 21st same top with light denim Burda shorts and a Japanese jacket in the leopard fabric from yesterday:


- and finally today I wore an all new Macaron dress, OMG I love it! The fabrics are polylinen shirting for the upper pieces and cotton for the shell:


My mama's garments this week:

- a Japanese dress in cotton lawn


- a Simplicity dress in cotton lawn again


- another Japanese dress in light twill with a funky print and black patch pockets


That's it, have fun and see you next week!

Me-Made-May 2012 second week recap

MMM is such a great challenge, I wish we had Me-Made-Year^^! So let's have a look at last week's outfits:
- on the 09th I wore my dark denim Fait Main shorts and took a pic of my everyday me-made bag, a simple tote (self drafted) made out of a linen remnant with cotton webbing for handles. I love this style and I have the same design but 4 times bigger for when I go on holiday :)

- on the 10th I wore a shirred Burda top in mustard cotton veil with purchased leggings and me-made white daisy earrings and my Female navy caban at night -such an easy pattern, it was one of the first things I made successfully when I started sewing seriously again in 2008!

- on the 11th I wore another Burda top made with Japanese kitty fabric

- on the 12th I wore a Burda dress that I tampered with and ended wearable, the navy fabric is a remnant from my Ceylon dress and the belt part is quilting cotton from a New Look top

- on the 13th I wore my latest project, McCalls6503, I made view B, cut a size 12 and had to remove 1.5cm vertically at the shoulders to make the bodice less blousy. To make up for that I should have widened the belt parts by 1cm because the dress is slightly high waisted as a result. It's a very cute design and I totally want to try view D in black polka dots. Since I had no idea it was for stretch knits I used cotton lawn, another gift from my boyfriend, with tiny flowers and it makes the dress look quite retro, almost forty-ish IMO. I put a side zipper as usual and I can get in and out of the dress without any problems.

- on the 14th I wore my first Hem-isphere top, it was a gloomy day and I needed a little cheer-up so I chose one of my favourite garments :)

- on the 15th I wore my denim Burda shorts with a Female top that was a catastrophe at first -very ill fit, strange effect overall- but that I managed to salvage more or less, the fabric is Japanese double gauze with kittens and flowers and I really like the fun sleeves ruffles!

As for my mum she wore a variation of her favourite Fait Main dress, this time with slightly extended sleeves and back buttons:

And she wore a Japanese pattern skirt with front pleats and elasticized waist:

See you soon, have a great week!

Me-Made-May 2012: week 1 recap

Hey there! Here are the garments I wore for the first week of MMM:
- on 01st, 06th and 08th I stayed at home in my old coral linen Burda shorts. I love this pattern (from the May 2010 mag) because you need very little fabric to make them and it's a great way of busting remnants!

- on 02nd I wore my new Burda shorts made using the wrong side of some light weight denim, it's a great pattern, easy to make and comfortable yet quite classy with the front pleats. The tunic is from Pochée, I used some repro fabric of a civil war wallpaper for it -I'm always amazed at what cool origins this top has :)

- on 03rd I wore the same shorts with a Burda top made from strange synthetic fabric whose red and blue ume flowers print I love!

- on 04th the weather turned super cold and rainy so I could wear my favourite jacket frankesteined from a Pochée pattern and made of mustard linen and polyester blend. I added a simple V-neck, kimono sleeved black and white top from Female and navy cotton shorts adapted from a Pochée pattern again.

- on 05th I wore a pull-over dress made from a 70's Simplicity pattern, I love the pintuck pleats on the bodice and butterfly sleeves and the fabric has cute tiny orangey flowers so this dress is really a favourite!

- on 07th I finally decided to wear an oversized shirt made from a Female pattern, you can tie the front (which I did) or let it loose. I love this garment because the design is quite original IMO and I used striped cotton that my boyfriend gave me for my birthday last year and pretty red buttons bought in a small haberdashery in Asakusa so it's really dear to me. The denim shorts are a bit small but I wear them a lot anyway, they're from the French crafts magazine Fait Main.

Now for my mum's outfits:
- on 02nd she wore a low waist dress adapted from a Japanese pattern and made with Ikea fabric.

- and on 07th she wore an A-line skirt, another Japanese pattern with polycotton bought in a local shop.

See you soon with more me-made garments :)

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!