Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Looong Black Jersey Dress


I am having serious doubts about publishing my sewing failures or not... I had one recently...
This one was a complete success though! Inspiration came from a H&M model I've been seeing around. Last summer it was long striped dresses (and I had doubt about the stripes), but when I saw this dress totally black, I completely had the need of having it! And not only having it, but having it for my holidays!
So I went to the fabric shop and found this remnant at good price. I do not even want to know about the composition of the fabric. It has cotton, but I suspect it contains poly as well. In what proportion, it is a mystery, 'cause remnants in this shop come without labelling. So for once, I left my hangup home. And in the bright side, it had a nice soft touch and a dark black shiny quality I love.
Regarding the pattern, I used an old jersey dress. I put it flat over the folded fabric and I just cut around it! It was the day before leaving.
I basted it, fit it, machine sewed it. I tried it on again to draw the neckline on me with pins. I applied a bias strip all around neckline and armsythes. Turn it around itself, leaving 1 cm visible and hand sewed it with invisible stitches. I completed the inferior seam with a machine zigzag.
In the final fitting session I realized the armsythes gaped in their inferior part. I simply sewed a minidart in the lateral seam, taking 2 cm off, and taking even the bias ruleau. The result was (snafu, I had no time!) good enough.
The dress has proved to be comfortable, nice to wear and very practical for traveling and holiday making. I even hand washed in a hotel room when it was almost talking with dirt, to be able to wear it again.
A nice one!

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Animal Print Jersey T-shirt





















I have just arrived from our holidays around Europe. In this picture we are about to see another Marc Marquez win in the MotoGP championship, in Germany. It is the ninth win, and we have been his fans since Moto3, so it was a glorious victory in Germany.

I am wearing another example of my "Universal T-shirt Pattern."
This time I cut a low neckline, applied a 5 cm bias strip, turned it towards the inside, leaving 1 cm visible, and handsewing it.
A very nice, wearable and practical t-shirt.


 Here I am a the wonderful Hotel Abendroth, in Mittlebach, next to the Sachsenring circuit.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Sporty Bag

Hello!

This is a complement needed by my Black Raincoat, which I used in Vitoria (basque Country) some weeks ago. I realized I needed a bag to carry the jacket when there was no rain. It had to be very light, since the sporty activity for which it is needed, is going to music festivals around Europe, which means all day and most of the night out and about.

So I cut two squares of 40cm x 40cm (plus 2 cm seams all around), and a smaller rectangle for the inside pocket.




I cut the superior part of the pocket and sewed the two parts to a black zipper. I sewed it then to one of the bigger rectangles.



Next, I zig-zagged both halfs all around, made two channels in the upper part, and sew them together.
Finally I introduced two black ribbons: from the inferior corner to its corner above, all around the loop and back into the same corner, in both sides, being the ribbons oposite in their rounds. Each ribbon is 170 cm long.



The result is very good. It can be easily opened and closed, because the ribbon and the bag fabric are soft. The good part of this bag is that it is really small and can be worn in the pocket when one is wearing the jacket. Or one can use it to carry other stuff when traveling.


After using it next trip around Europe, I will report its goods and bads.

Update: Well, I cannot say how much I love this bag. It was so usefull I took it with me everyday of the trip. It has only good point: very big capacity, if you only put a few things inside, it is so small, very discreet, ellegant and chick, it can be worn in differnt ways, you can fold it and keep it in your pocket until you need it, it goes well with every style, it opens and closes soooo smoothly and easily... it is just PERFECT. I am gonna sew some for my friends!





Sunday, July 6, 2014

Jeans Deconstructed!


Well, this is an "alteration project". Pity I did not get a picture of the old Levi's jeans that became too big when I lost some weight (proud here ;.). They were perfect for some kind of job to be done on them, becasue of the fabric's softness and the bellbottoms, which meant a lot of material.



Well, I had not planned the whole thing ahead. First, I cut the legs off to get a miniskirt. Which I did not like much. So I found some old inherited fabric (originally to make some men's undies), and I added that flare at the bottom.




























For the top I used this sleveless shirt, which required no much fabric. I topstiched every seam with contrating brown thick thread, and used some clips to close it at the front. I did not plan to wear it alltogether, but I now see it is not bad... what do you think?


I have been sewing like mad these days previous to holiday making, but I will publish them designs when we are back, so I can photograph them in the real world. So, see you next month!