Cropped trousers for spring

I've been wanting to make these trousers ever since I got the sewing magazine (Swedish sewing magazine Sömnadsmagasin). In the magazine they were made in hot pink cotton stretch sateen, which looked fan-tastic! I've been looking for some similar fabric, but decided to use to denim stretch fabric from my stash instead (that's what you do when you're short on cash! :( ). Well, at least they will be my entry in the Stashbusting sewalong! Yay!

They were quite fun to put together and it actually took me two days to finish them (instead of my usual one-day garments). The only majot problem I had was putting in the invisible zipper. I've never had any trouble with those before, so I'm not sure what happened this time.

I cut a size EU46, but I probably could have gone with 44 because I took them in about 3 cm on each side seam from the hip down. In retrospect I could have taken them in at the waist too, because they have stretched out a bit after wearing them for a day.

I also got my first try at welt pockets, although they're fake. Looks kind of neat though! :)

I used some quilting cotton for the pockets and the inside of the waistband. I also only had a green invisible zipper, but I like colour so I'm happy with that.

I put a hook and eye above the zipper. The waistband isn't exactly even at the zipper, but I'm OK with that, not a perfectionist... :)


I hope I will make some similar trousers in a happy colour, like green or pink, soon. That would be very spring-y!

Stashbusting sweatshirt dress

Oh my goodness, I've been so tired this week, I've started working 75% instead of 50%. I intended to post about my sweatshirt dress days ago, I even had the photos and everything, but there was just no energy for it... Well, better late than never I guess, so here I am.

In the last issue of 2012 of Allt om handarbete Sömnad, a Swedish sewing magazine, there were a lot of dresses and raight away I liked the sweatshirt dress. I didn't have sweatshirt fabric but some heavier jersey, which I later on realized was a double knit (I have never understood when others have been writing about double knits what they were, but now I do after seeing my own fabric. It's kind of two jersey fabrics stuck together.) I traced the pattern for size EU46 which is was I normally wear, cut and sew the dress together and this is what I ended up with...

 Yep! That's a TENT, ladies and gentlemen!

In these photos, underneath the dress(?) I'm wearing sweat pants, a longsleeved t-shirt and a wool cardigan and it doesn't even show... and it's also too long.

Some work had to be dont before I could wear this in public. I had to take in the sleeves the sides and make a sort of dart down the center back. I also unpicked the hem and cut off about 2-3 inches off the length.

 

Here's the dress looking somewhat better. I lined the hood with turquoise cotton jersey, which I also used for the pockets and I found a turquoise zipper in the right length. (Yep, it's the same jersey I used to underline the Tiramisu dress. I bought the fabric at a charity shop it was 4-5 metres for about £5 and it has been very useful!)

The dress is super comfy and I've worn it three times in the last week, wearing it right now actually. The fabric is rather warm so the dress has been great now that it's been so cold here in Sweden.

Don't know if you can see the long dart in the center back, but it's there...

 

 Quite a difference from the first photos, the dress is still big (and comfy) but it's not a tent anymore. After the dress was finished, or I thought it was finished, I wore it to work one day and realised that the sleeves just were too long, something had to be done. So I cut them off! and made new, longer cuffs, which is very cute, I think.

Not the best photo, but I hope the new cuff is visible. Now the dress is finally finished. So between this dress and the Tiramisu dress I've had some bad luck lately when it comes to fit and size. Am I really not as big as I think or what's going on? Both the Tira and the sweatshirt dress were too big to start with and I had to size them down considerably before they were ok. I have chosen size after my measurements, but still ended up with too large garments. Hmm.... strange...

Anyway, I'm working on starting some new projects.and I will also be back with the result of the Stashbusting sewalong.

Bye for now,

Johanna

Loungewear

Lasst week I wrote about making up these jersey trousers from Burdastyle.com. I was very inspired by a pair of trousers I've seen on the House of Lola site. I thought they wouldn't take long to finish and they didn't!

Source: burdastyle.com via Johanna on Pinterest

Source: houseoflola.se via Johanna on Pinterest

I cut the fabric yesterday late afternoon and was finished by 7.30pm. I made some changes to the pattern. Since most Burdastyle patterns go up to size EU44 I doubted that the trousers would fit since I'm more of a size EU46. So I compared the pattern pieces tto another pattern I had to see what I should change. I decided to add 4 cm to the sides both on back and front pieces. I also made the leg cuffs a little longer, originally the were 19 cm but I made them 25 cm (I have pretty long legs and HATE too short trousers). I also made the waistband a little wider, 10 cm instead of 7 cm (do not feel comfortable in too lowcut trousers).

 

 

I'm happy with the trousers, they're very comfy! But I think I wouldn't have had to add those 4x4 cm, because they are bigger than I had expected, and that's even after taking them in  4-5 cm in the front and back. well, it's a lesson learned if I make them again. I was lazy though and didn't pre-wash the fabric, so maybe they will shrink a little when I wash them.

Here are the trousers combined with my Casual cardi from Ottobre. I feel that I look good even though I'm only lounging about at home in my loungewear... :)

Anyway, I totally recommend the pattern from making some stylish sweat pants.

BTW, we had a really lousy weekend last weekend (away from home and Little Red got really ill, had to visit the emergency room, she could hardly breathe because of a bad case of tonsillitis caused by streptococci, which she later transferred to me, hello tonsillitis!) but before everything tirned ugly I had time to visit a fabric store close to my sister's house. I found some great fabric for only £3/metre. I bought six different fabrics, a total of 14 metres! And some really cheap zippers too. Yay! (Little Red is way better now, and me too, after getting some lovely penicillin. That stuff rocks! BUT you mustn't overuse it so the bacteria become immune.)

Bye for now,

Johanna

Coincidence?

A friend at work has recently started selling these wonderful clothes from House of Lola. I like the style and clothes A LOT, but they are quite expensive so I haven't bought any. These are my favourites so far:

Source: houseoflola.se via Johanna on Pinterest

Source: houseoflola.se via Johanna on Pinterest

Source: houseoflola.se via Johanna on Pinterest

These clothes have been on my mind for a while and yesterday when I picked up the new Burda magazine I found these trousers:

Source: burdastyle.com via Johanna on Pinterest

Lucky coincidence?! Don't they look very similar to the House of Lola trousers? Mhm, that's what I thought, so why not make those gorgeous trousers myself?!

I have already bought the fabric needed: black cotton jersey and knit ribbing, and I have traced the pattern. We'll see if I have time to do more before the weekend, we're going away to visit one of my sisters and that takes some preparation, packing and stuff. So I'd better aim to finish and show them next week.

BTW, if you live in Sweden and want the Sewaholic patterns, but have hesitated to get them from overseas, they are now available from Fagert.se. Good, huh?!

I'm very much into trousers at the moment, and have found these from Onion, which I'm interested to make in a comfy stretchy fabric:

Source: shoponion.com via Johanna on Pinterest

I'm not a big fan of pleats in the front of the trousers, but I like that the waistband is a little wider (deeper, longer, higher?) and so the pleats are set a little lower. I'm thinking of buying the pattern and use the stretchy black fabric I bought a while ago to use for skinny trousers. What do you think, is this a style you like?

Bye for now,

Johanna

PS Taking it little slow with the blog because I'm dead tired most evenings and don't have energy for sewing and therefore don't have much to blog about. Bear with me and I will hopefully get back to normal soon enough.

Ottobre projects in progress

This afternoon I took the time to cut out three of my Ottobre projects: the Concerto dress, the cardigan and the skirt. The cardigan will be in black sweatshirt fabric. The skirt will be made of some stretchy pinstriped dark blue denim, quite lightweight actually for a denim.

For the Concerto dress I took some terrible polyester stretch fabric. It's patterned in blue and white with tulips. I got it very cheap at one of the local charity shops. It's sort of cute, but the quality of the fabric is awful. Well, I consider it a muslin, and if it's wearable that's OK, but not a must. Ihave sewn most of it, I only have to adjust the hem and finish the armscyes. I'll take some pictures and show you. The dress is pretty, but, as mentioned, the fabric is horrible.

Bye for now,

Johanna

Magazine inspiration - Ottobre

I've been looking like crazy for the latest issue of Swedish sewing magazine Sömnadsmagasinet. I've been to eight (!) places where they should sell it, and they don't have it. I was supposed to get to the stores last Tuseday and I've been looking for it since last Monday without results. Is it sold out? Didn't it reach the stores at all? What has happened? I'm totally lost...

Well, I didn't want to go home empty-handed, so I decided to give the magazine Ottobre Design a shot. And I liked it A LOT! Right now I'm taking a break from tracing patterns to write this post, because I've already decided to make four (!) of their designs. I've traced three and have one more to do. But it is possible I will make even more of the design, because they look really great and comfortable.

Here are all the designs from the lastest issue:

Source: ottobredesign.com

Here are pictures of the ones I'm tracing now:

No 1 Stitch details dress
Source: ottobredesign.com

No 6 Casual cardi
Source: ottobredesign.com

No 12 Aztec skirt
Source: ottobredesign.com

No  16 Concerto dress
Source: ottobredesign.com

I also like this design a lot:

No 18 Perfect autumn jacket
Source: ottobredesign.com

Don't they look great?! I thought I'd use fabric from my stash for the dresses and the skirt. But I will buy some black sweatshirt fabric for the cardi. I've already seen some at one of my local fabric stores.

So, I was totally inspired by this magazine and I will definately get the next issue in March.... (Yep, it only comes twice a year...) I hope that someone else will find inspiration in this great magazine too.

Bye for now,

Johanna

PS I've actually finished a pair of trousers, the navy blue ones, but I'm working on getting some pictures of them. So I will be back with a Finished Object post soon!

My masterpiece - a coat is finished

I am PROUD to show you my new coat, which I made ALL BY MYSELF!!! I have never sewn lining into anything and I'm not used to sewing with heavy fabrics and there were fortytwo (!) pieces of fabric to put together, but I did it! (Feel a sudden urge to sing the Dora the Explorer song...).

Picture from the sewing magazine where I found the pattern.

Well, here is is, my masterpiece, so far.... :)

 

I can wear it with the collar buttoned up or folded down like this. Works either way!

Here the coat is matched with a scarf and hat I knitted last winter.

Here the coat is buttoned all the way up.

Check out the cute strap at the back.

Isn't the lining fabric lovely crazy?!

Cute vintage buttons I found on Tradera (Swedish E-bay).



Here's a detail I added - pockets! The pattern didn't have any pockets, kind of crazy for a coat not to have pockets. But since there were two pleats on each side in the front I added the pockets from Colette patterns Macaron dress, which was a hit! A detail I skipped was the shoulder flaps, it just didn't feel like me and added bulk on the shoulders and too much work.

It was much easier to sew up the coat than I would have thought. I took my time and saw it as a long-term project and I think that helped.

Bye for now,

Johanna

Coat info

Here's some more info about the coat I'm going to make. The pattern is from the Swedish sewing magazine Sömnadsmagasin issue nr 11/2011. It's a plus size pattern and making size EU46.

Here are the fabrics I will use. It's the fantastic polar fleece/bouclé in petrol/teal (though it looks more like blue in the photos) and some cheap satin fabric for lining.

Here's a close-up of the bouclé side:

 I hope my coat will be great and I feel positive about the project, even though I'm totally terrified of sewing in satin and putting in a lining, two things I've never ever done... Well, let's just see how it goes, I'm in no hurry, I probably won't need the coat until 2-4 weeks from now (yep, that's the climate in Sweden for you...).

Bye for now (but back soon with a post about my party dress),

Johanna

Coat prep

I've started work on my coat-to-be. And one of the first things to do is to trace the pattern pieces onto pattern paper. It's just that the pattern I've chosen is from a sewing magazine, which means I have to deal with this...

I have to find all of the pattern pieces below on that big sheet of paper above... 20 pattern pieces...

Wish me luck!

Bye for now,

Johanna