Sewlutions for 2013 - the result

Last New Year's day I made a sewlution on Karen's blog for 2013. It looked like this:

"I’d like to be in the jar too, Dear Keeper :). And here’s my plan: to sew garments with bound buttonholes, welt pockets, zippered pockets as I want to learn new techniques."

OMG! I have failed miserably! Not a bound button hole in sight... And to be honest, I can't even remember that this is what I promised. I did have "the Mistress of the jar" in the back of my head all year, but I thought I had written that I will try and sew more challenging garments...

Oh well... I'm quite happy with my sewing year anyway and I'm very pleased that I have done so much unselfish sewing.

I even made a skirt for my sister (in the striped giraffe dress) as a X-mas present, only I haven't got any photos of it. It's a navy blue Everyday skirt.

I'm also pleased to have found a TNT (tried and true) dress pattern that I made myself - the Giraffe dress. I love those dresses, so comfy and pretty, I think. :) I wear them all the time. I even have one that I haven't blogged yet (I just realized...).

Another thing I'm proud of and pleased about, is the fact that I've sewn a number of trousers this year, Skinny trouser that fit well, well, and one pair that didn't (but at least those had welt pockets!).

So, no bound button holes or zippered pockets this year, but certainly other things to feel good about!

Happy new sewing year to everyone!

xoxo,

Johanna

Happee Hollydays!

We're closing in on Christmas. I'm with my husband and kids at one of my sisters' house. We are going to celebrate together, me, my sisters and our families, my mum and grandma. Sadly grandpa isn't well so he's in the hospital. We're going to miss him tomorrow.

My dad is also missed a lot. His funeral took place a few days ago, it was very nice and there were fantastic flowers sent there from family, friends and acqaintances. Lots more than we had expected.

Anyway, I'm glad to be with my big family at Christmas time. And tomorrow I might even be the one to dress up in the Santa suit... Ho ho ho!! :)

I want to wish everyone who reads my blog a Merry Christmas!! I hope that everyone will have a good time this holiday.

Hugs from

Johanna

PS I hope to be back before the New Year with a 2013 recap...

Scrappy dappy dachshound

I made a scrap bambi for my daughter for Christmas and here's a scrap dachshound for my son. I found the pattern in one of my sewing magazines. The eyes were supposed to be embroidered circles but I made "bambi"-eyes instead because they're much prettier. :)

It was a pretty easy make and I'm happy with the result. I also hope my son will like his new cuddly dog.

Later,

Johanna

Scrap Bambi

This year I feel inspired to make some of the Christmas presents I'm giving away. My first project is a plush toy for my daughter. She saw this bambi in one of my sewing magazines and asked if she could have one. This was months ago but I remembered and thought Christmas was a good moment to make one for her.

She loves pink so I dug in my pile of scraps to find pink ones to use. Pretty successful outcome I must say!

The pattern really called for quilting cotton, but I used stretchy velour and jersey scraps and they were very easy to work with due to the stretch.

You were also supposed to embroider around the edges of the eyes and make eyelashes, but since I'm a lazy bastard :) I just used my sewing machine and straight stitch! I did close the stuffing hole on the belly by hand! *Proud of myself*

Now I just hope that my girl will like her new little friend!

Bye for now,

Johanna

(Happy birthday to my dad! He was going to be 65 years old today.)

the ones that love us never really leave us

My dad is gone but he'll be in my heart always...

My dad died on Saturday after being really ill for months, but he never gave up on who he was even when it was bad. He kept his spirits up and was cheerful and supportive to me , my sisters and mum until the end. He supported this blog and read it regularly and I want to honour him here.

 I love you dad and I'll see you in a while,

Johanna

Finished! The Everyday skirt from Liesl+Co

It feels so good when a plan falls out the way you planned, because here are the photos of my new skirt that I've been talking about in the last to posts.

I made it up in some wool fabric which I think is tweed. I actually used the wrong side as the right side, because it was too brown and I prefer the wrong side which is more grey/brown.

I'm very happy with the outcome. I've worn the skirt to work today and it was both warm and comfortable. This is size L/14 and it's kind of big at the waist. Either I have to tighten the elastic in the waist or make a smaller size next time. I made a muslin in size XL/16 but it was just too big. I recommend to go down a size.

I love that the pockets are attached to the waistband and don't flop around on the inside. And also that they aren't exactly at the sides but a little bit in from the sides.

The skirt turned out pretty long before hemming. The instructions say the hem should be 2 inches, but I made it 3 inches. But then I had cut size XL for the length...

Anyway, I'm superhappy with the skirt and absolutely recommend the pattern for others!

Bye for now,

Johanna

In progress - Everyday skirt

Photo from oliverands.com

I'm working away on my Everyday skirt, sewing pattern from Liesl+Co. I decided to make a muslin before cutting into my wool tweed and it was good I did, because size XL/16 was too large.

I hope to be back tomorrow (maybe) to show you both the muslin (not hemmed) and the tweed skirt complete with lining! I just have to hem the lining first and take photos.

See you soon,

Johanna

Skirt hope

Hello! I just found this skirt pattern that seems fabulous. I have even bought it, after thinking about it for two minutes.

What am I talking about then? Well it's the Everyday skirt from the maker of the Oliver +S patterns. She has a pattern line called Liesl +Co and all of the patterns are so pretty and seem really comfortable. Just the way I like it! :)

I like that it has panels on the side that are smooth, no gathers to make my hips look bigger, that it has pockets and, best of all, it has a elasticated back waistband!! Do you see now why I'm so excited?! :)

I also have a piece of wool tweed (that's what I think it is anyway) that I washed a little too hot and is now a little bit felted. And I think it will make a perfect winter skirt. So tomorrow I will go to the fabric store to pick up some lining fabric and I will make my first ever lined skirt! Excited!

xx,

Johanna

PTB - what happened?

Remember this?

What happened to it?

Well this...

I used a batwing top from House of Lola as a template and just cut out the front and the back pieces. The neckline isn't finished (yet) since I'm not 100% happy with it. What do you think? OK or a dud?

xx

Johanna

Dreamy dress - Simplicity 1699

During the summer I made a lot of Giraffe dresses, the original blue one, the one in black and white, the striped one I made for my sister and one more I haven't posted about, yet. BUT I didn't make only Giraffe dresses, I did make another Simplicity 1699. My first version was a dress I made for my grandmother. That one turned out very pretty and I wanted to make one for myself.

I had the above fabric in my stash and wanted to use it for a dress. I thought of Simplicity 1652, as seen above, but it's made up of something like 15 pattern pieces and I got the advice to make something simpler to show off the pretty fabric. And that's how I decided on Simplicity 1699.

I had already traced the pattern in size EU44 which is a little small for me around the waist (especially after the summer...), but I used it anyway and added about 4 centimetres to the seam allowances around the waist. And that did the trick. The fit is good and during construction, I left the side seams to last so they can be modified if needed in the future (like if I lose my extra "summer weight").

Since I had a pink zipper, and I love pink, I decided to let the zipper show to give the dress a little extra something.

The length is perfect if I only overlock the edge and turn over a centimetre, which means if I should make a nice-looking hem I have to cut the dress longer. Maybe I'll do that if I make the dress again.

The fabric is 100% cotton from the brand Tilda which can be found at Panduro here in Sweden. I love the fabrics from Tilda, the quality is fantastic and the prints are unbelievably pretty.

I'm onto other projects, like autumn/winter sewing plans. :)

Bye for now,

Johanna (and Siri the Cat)

Sweatpants in disguise

As I wrote in an earlier post I purchased some patterns from Stoff och stil. Among those was a pattern for skinny trousers.

I had some black sweatshirt fabric that I found at a sale this summer and I thought why not use it for a pair of trousers?! So I did. I could even cut out a dress from the same piece of fabric (1.6*2 metres!).

I am very inspired by the clothes from House of Lola and they're all so soft and comfortable and that's where I got the idea to use sweatshirt fabric for the trousers, because all their clothes are loungewear in disguise! I love when clothes are fashionable and beautiful but also comfortable.

It was so easy to sew up the trousers. I mostly used my overlocker and the sewing machine for the topstitching. I didn't cut the waistband out of the sweatshirt fabric, because it would have been too bulky, so instead I cut it from some ribbed jersey fabric. Speaking of the waistband, that's where I have my only problem with these trousers. I don't have a big rear, but somehow I always find trousers that are too low in the back waist, same with these. They fit OK as long as I don't move, but as soon as I do, they creep downwards in the back and I keep having to hoist them up. Quite annoying! Maube I'll make a yoke piece to put between the trouser and the waistband in the back. Any thoughts out there?

See? Lower in the back then the front. Very uncomfortable...

Detail of the topstitiching on the leg.

Anyway, the trousers will be warm and cosy for autumn and winter and they will go as trousers with sweaters and as leggings under dresses. Win-win, right?!

Bye for now,

Johanna

Update

So... I've been out of the blogging loop for a while and that's due to a few things but mainly that I'm having another burn-out episode ("a dip") so I'm exhausted most of the time and I haven't had much energy left for sewing, and none for taking photos and blogging. The other big thing is that my dad is terminally ill and I've spent a lot of my free time driving to see him in the hospital (he lives three hours away by car).

So two major bummers (don't think I take my dad's condotion lightly just because I call it a bummer)... but I have a good thing going on as well and that's my family's first vacation together abroad! I, my husband and my kids are going to Tenerife for a week next Friday!!! Yay!

Anyway, now my head is in packing mode and trying to figure out what to bring for a beach vacation...

I have done some sewing this last month and today I finally scraped together some energy to take photos, so now you can expect some posts and FOs! Finally.... :)

Our hotel in Tenerife! Looks grand, doesn't it?!

Bye for now,

Johanna

PTB

PTB (projects to be), on-going projects, what's on my sewing table... Whatever you like to call it, here are some sneak peeks of what I'm working on at the moment...

Be back soon,

Johanna

Another denim Ginger skirt

I really like my denim Ginger that I made last year, it's just that it's kind of big...

So I decided to make another one a size smaller, size 14 this time. I also added pockets and I made them like on these shorts:

The pocket edge is interfaced and then the pocket piece is attached by a visible seam. I read Sunni's post about her denim Ginger skirt, to figure things out about the pockets. Very helpful.

Aside from the pockets, nothing was really hard about putting the skirt together, which goes to prove that I have learned a lot since the last time I made this pattern.

This time I used an invisible zipper, which isn't very invisible since it's green and my machine doesn't sew invisble zippers that invisibly. But I'm fine with it, what's not to love about green?! :)

I also shortened this version since the other one feels a little matronly, and we all know (well, at least if you have watched Project Runway) that that isn't a good thing.

I had some top-stitching thread that I was going to use for a pair of jeans, but the fabric for those jeans is now said skirt and these trousers, so I felt it was OK to use it on my Ginger. :) Though I should have used another twin needle since my jersey (!!!) one had a hard time. But, that's how it is when you're too lazy to go to the store and get another one. At least it didn't break! :)

See you later,

Johanna