My favourite skirt

I hadn't made a skirt in a looong time but when I saw pattern 133 in the February issue of Burda mag I knew I just had to have it! I adored the pleats, pockets and large belt and wanted one in... navy, of course. Well, for once I finally decided to go with my second favourite colour and made this:

It's a chartreuse green beautyyyyy! Hum, you can sort of see the colour better in the next pic:

Yes it's that bright but as long as I wear it with black, white or grey it's okay. So, I slightly altered the pattern by shortening it, gathering the back pieces instead of repeating the front pleats and adding belt loops. 
I even made a "bag" out of upholstery fabric to go with it -sigh, I must confess that I'm super snob when it comes to fashion and I'd rather carry my stuff in my hands than wear trendy things but I couldn't resist the appeal of the CLUTCH which is the most impractical container in the world but looks so good with the skirt!

I went the whole way and made a matching little purse and seeing it in the clutch made me stupidly happy :)

Sweet dress!

Today's garment was made using the R pattern from the Sweet Dress Book and I must say it allows for one of the quickest and most gratifying sewing projects evah! I kept the alterations from the Lucky chance top but finally decided to make the dress length version seeing how many dresses I wear these days. I used amazingly soft and beautiful denim blue fabric -turns out it is Tencel- with white polysomething fabric. I'm also happy that I could use the thin striped trim you can see above the sweetheart detail because it had been in my stash for years and I was longing to find a nice project for it :) As usual I finished the neckline and armholes with bias tape and I machine sewed a simple 1" folded hem. All in all it took me around 2 hours to trace, cut, sew and finish the dress so you know this pattern is a keeper!

I wore it with a purchased belt but I'm thinking about making a matching sash out of the remaining tencel fabric.

New Japanese blouse

OMG this top has totally messed with my feelings^^! First I had ups and downs with the fabric, a small piece of quilting cotton that I managed to grab during the shop's sales and that should be just my type since it has navy and dark red tiny dots on an ecru background -I've recently noticed that my wardrobe is filled with navy garments or navy with red or white details. I say should because once worn it made me look washed out, I got all sad thinking that I had wasted it and finally I trimmed a bit the top's design and added deep blue buttons and it seemingly solved the unflattering colour issue -I also put loads of BB cream to try and look less like a ghost but this is another story.
Then the PATTERN! I found it in this book:

Sorry I meant this one:

On the paper it looked beyond cute and cool:

But as I tried it on while I was making it, it felt a bit granny-ish. So I went for the smaller size and still had to reduce the pieces' width, changed the back from gathers to a pleat and strangely the detail that made the most noticeable difference was how I positionned the first button: I put it lower than required and suddenly the blouse looked much more contemporary :)

And these poor shorts need a rest.

Of course now I'm in love with my top and I want plenty others, I want one in light chambray, one in tiny black gingham, one in my still untouched crazy kitty fabric, one in DOTS etc.

I don't like daisies

It's true! I adore them: I put some on my garments, I buy fabrics printed with them, naturally I grow some in my garden and the faithful teddy bear from my "childhood" -okay I still had it when I moved out at 24- was called Marguerite which is French for Daisy.
And you know what? I'm obsessed with daisy earrings! Since I can't have my ears pierced because there are always complications I got used to making my own clip-ons. That made for some truly awful jewellery when all I had to work with in my extremely remote island was my mama's 80s costume stuff but then, thanks heaven, Etsy and its endless supply of cabochons arrived :)

Above is my latest realisation totally copied from some vintage designs I saw on the net, I made 2 circles out of some plastic packaging and glued the tiny flowers over them so obviously I can't guarantee how long they're going to last^^

These ones were much simpler, I just glued them to the clip-on settings, the white pair was my first, then I couldn't live without the blue ones, I wore the pink ones almost everyday for 2 weeks when I made them and finally the purple ones were bought on a whim but I quite like them anyway.

 The whole family!

This is the little pouch I made to stock them, the cute embroidery detail comes from a Japanese book.
Also did I tell you that chrysanthemums were actually my absolute favourite flower?...

I made a shirt...

... and I love it! The pattern is from an old Female magazine, I traced the LL size because the M size I made back in 2009 when I was even slimmer than now was already a bit tight. Why not try the intermediate L size you may ask? I wanted a relaxed fit and a design that would be a bit masculine because I thought it would go well with the chosen fabric, some cotton and linen blend with faded blue stripes.
Of course this being a Japanese pattern everything went together like a breeze and the shirt was finished in one day:

Can you spot Dora? :)

Since there aren't many and I wanted them to look good I handsewed the buttonholes and I made Franch seams for the sleeves' seams since they would be exposed when rolled. The tan plastic buttons are my favourite for shirts, I buy them in bulk in a haberdashery located on the West coast of the island and I have them in 3 sizes, from tiny for collar attaches to 5/8". 

This pattern has darts at the back and on the front but I only kept the back ones, they're sufficient to add a nice shape to the shirt. Also I wonder about a breast pocket? Anyway I like this design a lot and I'm already planning another one out of crazy kitty fabric!

Love and hate trousers!

So I admit they're shabby with their cheap stretchy fabric, grossly hand-tacked front pleats and ghetto loops (bias tape quickly handsewed randomly around the waist) but I've already worn them a dozen times because they're just so comfy and well they're my first handmade TROUSERS!

 Piggytails!

 On a positive note I lined the pockets and hemmed the legs with nice striped fabric.

 

I used a pattern from this Japanese book but I atrociously tampered with it, "redrafting" -I'm using the term really loosely here- the pieces as I tried the damn thing on. I had to take them in a lot, straighten and shorten the legs and I didn't put the side zipper and opted for an elasticated waist seeing how I could never get something more fitted with my fabric. And then I had to add the loops because the trousers would slide down without a belt :(
But the battle for trousers isn't finished, I've unearthed a super old Pochée magazine with some cool cropped trousers that I shall try next and then there will be some Burda mag skinny trousers that I NEED to make with some cool Hello Kitty fabric:

Both fabrics found at beautifulwork

Mini dress

I'm absolutely killing it with my post titles these days^^
So about today's garment, I started making it around Christmas time because I wanted a dress to go to a New Year's Eve party but then I realised that I'd be eating, drinking and probably behaving like an idiot and went with a teeshirt and jeans instead -and believe me that was one wise decision! All this to say that I put my dress on stand-by and it took me 2 weeks to (almost) complete it, which is a shame given how easy it was to make: I used my basic, sleeveless bodice and attached a half-circle skirt to it, I finished the edges with bias tape and put an invisible zipper at the back.

The reason I made the skirt super short is because I wanted to add rows of big ricrac to lengthen it to the knee but I got distracted by a ton of stuff and have only put one row so far :(

I want to add some bigger white or yellow ricrac to this one and finish with another row of the red one, I'm sure it would be cool! Or a friend also suggested sewing some to figure a mock collar around the neckline, that may work well too.