And another Kyoko Dress

How many Kyoko Dresses does one need? A lot! 

It's just such an easy and quick pattern. I love it!

This one is made out of some fine jersey I got on sale. I think it was about $4.

What? The stripes don't match? Who cares. I don't! I actually think it's rather nice to break off the symmetry. 

One week from now I will sit in a plane to Germany wearing this dress. I like to wear comfy things while traveling, and thought a knit dress would be perfect.

Skirt Collection

So I finally got a picture of me wearing the Lisette Continental skirt and blouse. I really like the colors, they are quite unusual for me. I am always more drawn to reddish colors, and this was a nice change for me. The light blue also goes very well with my white legs ;)




 This is such an easy and quick skirt pattern. And the cut is exactly my style. Two fabrics in my stash seemed to be perfect for a fall/winter skirt. The seam on the front and back is a nice touch to play around with prints, but for my two fabrics I needed a skirt pattern with a one-piece front and back. I am new to changing, not to mention drafting patterns, so the way I got rid of the seam on the front/back is probably way too complicated. I cut both panels from a leftover muslin, sewed them together, then laid it on freezer paper (I never cut the tissue paper, but trace all patterns on freezer paper) and traced around it. Voila!

This wool blend is leftover from my sew-along Thurlow Trousers (pics to follow). I lined it with blue Bemberg.

 I don't really know what kind of fabric this is. It has a tiny bit of stretch. The border print was meant to be a skirt, don't you think? I should've gotten a close up of the embroidery. The skirt is lined with some rather cheap polyester lining. It looks grey in the picture, but is actually more denim.

I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

Another Kyoko Dress

Last Sunday I finally had some time to take pictures of the finished projects of the last weeks. But most of them didn't turn out good enough to post here. I will do it again sometime this week. I did finish the Thurlow Trousers in time with the sew-along, and will post about it as soon as I get some decent pictures.

In the meantime another Kyoko Dress. The fabric is a very flimsy jersey with border print. I bought it off the sales rack at Denver Fabrics in Denver. (not to be confused with the website)

I am still debating with myself if I should hem skirt and sleeves or just leave 'em.  This is such an easy and quick dress pattern. And it makes for a nice casual dress.

Alma Blouse

My first go on the Alma Blouse, another great pattern from Sewaholic. It offers so many different options.

When the pattern arrived I was really excited to try it out. I knew exactly what fabric I would use, and went straight ahead to cut it. After I had cut most of the pieces already I realized, that the chosen fabric was a knit. Yay for not having to put a zipper in. I am glad for this mistake, because I absolutely love the knit version. More to follow for sure.

 I used fold over elastic for the binding. It stretched out a little too much on the left sleeve.

 Here it is with the belt.

 It is a very nice pattern for some stash busting, since it doesn't require a lot of fabric. Here is my seersucker version. The fabric was left over from my Crepe Dress.

 Invisible zip

I have two more in the making. This time around with the peter pan collar.

Simplicity 3673

A couple of weeks ago I made this dress. I still have to hem it, but don't know yet what length I like. It is a very nice pattern, and really easy to make. The only thing is it turned out to be just a tad too wide. I made the usual size 12, which normally fits me like a glove. I plan on wearing it in the winter with a white or black turtleneck.

 

I think wearing something underneath will fill out the room I have around the waistline. And one needs some room to breath and move, right?

The fabric is Queen of hearts velveteen by Anna Maria Horner

 

  

Only the bodice part of the dress is lined with Bemberg. If I should make this dress again I will line the skirt part too. 

Looking at this picture now I guess I also have to add a hook and eye above the zipper :)

This picture shows pretty good how much room the dress has around the waistline. We will see, maybe I will add another dart or two, if a sweater doesn't fill it out enough. But that will have to wait since I have to finish two skirts, a pair of pants, a jacket, a quilt, and a blouse.

Lisette Continental Blouse and Skirt

A couple of months back I bought this pattern at JoAnn's for $0.99. Great deal!

 I have six Lisette patterns, and I love the pictures on the front of all of them, but it seems that somehow they don't really work for me. It could of course be that I don't have the fitting right. Usually I can make a straight size 12 with all Simplicity patterns and they fit. But not these ones. It's just that they somehow turn out to look boxy on me. The blouses/tops that is. The two Lisette skirts I made so far are great.

The skirt is perfect and I like the seams on the front and back side. This time around I used a very simple cotton twill, but as you can see on the envelope front, the seams at the front and back side give a nice opportunity to play with prints. Next time I will take advantage of that. And there will be a next time for sure! It is such an easy and quick skirt project and the fit is perfect. I wish I could say the same about the top. The fabric is a cotton lawn from the Lisette collection at JoAnn's. It is so boxy, and even thou I used this very light cotton lawn, it sticks out at the back a lot. Maybe I just have to make it a size smaller.

 

Back view (obviously) 

Here is a close up of the gathers at the lower back.

Upgrade

A couple of weeks ago I upgraded on my sewing machine. In February I bought a very nice Bernina 140 Patchwork Edition. It is a very good machine in excellent shape, but since I am mostly sewing garments I started to really miss some of the utility stitches other machines have. And I wouldn't have mind some more decorative stitches as well. 

So I started to look around if I could maybe find another Bernina with more utility stitches. Bernina just came out with the new 7 series, which is absolutely out of my price range. But a girl is allowed to dream, yes?

I checked ebay for a couple of weeks to see for how much the machines usually sell. Until a couple of Bernina 430 caught my eye. I had three of them on my watching list. The first two sold for around $1.700, which again is out of my price range. But for some reason no one was interested in this one. Maybe because it didn't have the foot pedal? Who knows. I got it for just a little more than I paid for mine at the dealer. It arrived in very good shape and works perfectly. I am soooo happy about this machine. There are only two things I miss from my old one. 1.) I wish they would still cover the complete arm with stainless steel, and 2.) the small slide on boxes who work as an extension of the work space and hold all the accessories. The big slide on table is still something I have to get used to. I have the Free Hand System, but I don't care for it. So far I didn't feel the need to use it. I think I am good for a couple of years now before the next upgrade ;)

My first Sew-Along

Lauren from Lladybird is hosting a Thurlow Trousers sew-along and I will participate! I am very excited and  looking forward to my first sew-along. I already made two pairs of Thurlows. The first one was too small. The second one turned out pretty nice, only needs some little adjustment with the back crotch length. My skills of a cleaner finished inside of the pants still needs some fine tuning, which I am looking forward of improving with the help of Lauren and her sew-along.

I will post pictures of my two pairs of Thurlows soon. Instead two pictures of a skirt I made two weeks ago. It's really nothing special. I bought the fabric at a small local sewing supply store. A huge pile of all kinds of nice fabric for $3/pound. This seems to me to be some kind of moleskin fabric, but I am not sure. It is very soft with a nice drape. The idea for this skirt is from the book "Improv Sewing", which I absolutely love!!! The hem is three wavy lines of stitching, and fold over elastic around the waist. And some improv free motion drawing.

 Here a close up of the lines. It is a nice skirt for casual wear. It was really fun and quick to make . I am looking forward to more projects from the book.

Kyoko Dress by Modkid Patterns

I finished this dress a while ago, but didn't get around to take pictures. Now I finally photographed it. I don't feel like modeling my dresses right now. So my dress form has to do. 

The pattern front

My version, in Caravan knit kashmir tobacco by Valorie Wells. Here without the sash. The lighting isn't good, sorry about that.

 And here with the sash in matching solid fuchsia. I already worn the dress twice and it feels soooo comfortable. Like a soft sweater. One more go-to pattern in my stash!

Another Renfrew

Just a quick post where I wanted to show you my newest Renfrew. This time with cowl neck. I bought the fabric in the sales section of Denver Fabrics (the store, which has nothing to do with the website of the same name). Anyway, it is a very nice and soft knit fabric.

I just love this pattern. It is an absolute must-have!! And sooooo easy to make. If you are a little intimidated to sew with knit fabrics, you should buy this pattern and your fears will be gone. And Tasia from Sewaholic will have some kind of sew-along. Just go here and check it out.

Finally...the Taffy Blouse

So I finally got around to take some decent pictures of my take on the Taffy Blouse from Colette Patterns. I bought the fabric off the sales rack of Denver Fabrics. The actual store in Denver, not the online store. It seems to be some kind of polyester chiffon maybe. It wasn't hard to work with at all. And again, no alterations needed. I will wear it with a black cami underneath.

The focus is a little off in this picture, sorry about that. The bias tape is store bought. It is such a nice pattern. I will make more of this for sure.

Crepe Dress by Colette Patterns

I couldn't wait to finally get my hands on the Crepe dress pattern and make my own version. I had seen this dotted cotton lawn fabric online and knew instantly it would make a cute Crepe dress.

 

I call this dress the Confetti Crepe. The ties are from Cotton Voile.

I didn't have to make any alteration on the bodice muslin. I guess I just got lucky with my built :)

Because the Cotton Lawn was very sheer I fully lined the dress. The plan was to line the whole dress in the same white cotton lawn, but I had only enough for the bodice. So I lined the skirt with the same cotton voile as the ties are. 

I used these two tutorials for lining the Crepe dress: 

Sew Country Chick

Sew Mental Mama

Thank you guys for posting these helpful tutorials!

 

And because I love the dress so much and had this awesome cotton seersucker around I made another one (within a week). As you can see I do like pink!

 Here is a back view. The perfect summer dress. Fast and easy to make. More to follow :)

 

Meghan Peasant by SisBoom

A couple weeks ago I made my first Meghan Peasant Dress. Here is a pic of the pattern.

Here is my version in a quilting cotton by Art Gallery. I just love the fabric. It is a perfect casual little summer dress.

 

Here the back view. It is very easy and quick to put together. And the instructions are very well written. 

 

 

For some to me absolutely unexplainable reasons I thought it would be awesome to make this pattern, which is written to be made in quilting cotton, with chiffon. Chiffon!!!! I underlined the bodice front and back with polyester lining. Which I also used as lining for the skirt part. The chiffon, as you can clearly see at the sleeves, is very sheer. I bought the polyester chiffon months ago at Walmart for $1/yard. The dress was a pain in the butt to make in this fabric, but I do really like the end result. I won't bother showing you the really unprofessional seam finishes. Since it's completely polyester I have to spray it with Static Guard, but that stuff really helps.

 The back view. Both fabrics have this shimmer and it gives it a more dressy look, I think.

Colette Peony

My third attempt on a Colette pattern and my first blog post about it. I guess I have been a little lazy blogging about my Taffy blouse. But there is a picture of it in the 'Inside my closet' section. The first pattern I tried was the Truffle dress. It is one of the five patterns from the Colette Sewing Handbook, which I love. But unfortunately even after making a well fitted muslin the dress is gaping on the back...a lot! The dress lacks the hem, and the Bemberg lining has a hole that needs to be fixed thanks to the stupid zipper. I seem to have no luck with zippers, ever! The stupid zipper in my riding boots keeps braking too. I might write a blog post about it when it's done. 

But back to the subject here, the Peony dress. Oh my, how I LOVE it! I made one muslin of the top part and didn't need to make any changes. The fabric I used is some kind of lightweight twill, which I bought at the Albuquerque Bernina dealer. What a lovely fabric. I intended to make a pair of trousers out of it, but am now very happy I decided otherwise. The drape is gorgeous! 

Front view with cummerbund

Back view with cummerbund. I replaced the button with two pearl snap fasteners.

 Front view without the cummerbund. Don't mind my face, I do love the dress!

I like Corduroy!

I am starting to sew more for the cold time of year. Here is my first fall ensemble. The Renfrew Top Version A in Navy Cotton Jersey. First time that I've sewn it with long sleeves. I absolutely love this pattern and have at least three more fabrics in stash for more. The skirt is Barcelona Layered Skirt by Amy Butler in grey corduroy.

After I finished the Lisette Passport Jacket I knew I wanted a fitting skirt to go with it. So I went to JoAnn's and bought more of the corduroy for the skirt. It was unintentionally that the top fits in color as well.