MMM '13 - week 1

It really is only half a week so far in MMM '13, but so far it's a breeze! My commitment was to wear at least one handmade garment everyday, so it's not very hard, but May has 31 days so we'll see how I feel towards the end of the month... :)

Wednesday 1 May

Burdastyle t-shirt,  recently finished Burdastyle trousers (to be blogged later) and Vacation head scarf. Free from work, celebrating May 1st.

Thursday 2 May

Cropped trousers. Normal workday.

Friday 3 May

Onion jersey dress and Ottobre cardigan. Visiting my sister's.

Saturday 4 May

Laurel dress. Celebrating mum's 60th birthday.

Sunday 5 May

Ottobre cardigan, Kirsten kimono tee (which I noticed right now I haven't posted about) and Burdastyle trousers (same as May 1).

I hope all the participants of MMM '13 are feeling as good about their decision to join as I do.

Bye for now,

Johanna

Ottobre projects - one finished

I've been working on my Ottobre projects, I told you about the Concerto dress the other day, but I've also been working on the cardigan.

First the dress,  I promised pictures of the pretty dress made of horrible fabric. As I said before, the print isn't bad, but the quality of the fabric is awful.

Look at the collar, isn't it cute?! It makes the whole dress. There were some double darts in the front and back of the dress, but I omitted them, because I don't want the dress to be too tight.

I'm thinking of putting in some lining in the dress, to make the dress wearable, because the fabric is quite itchy.

Enough about the dress, because here's something I'm REALLY happy with, my cardigan!!!

It is supercomfy and I feel good in it. It feels like I look good while wearing it. I like that it's long. It was really easy to put together and I used two new techniques on my sewing machine for this. One, I sewed on the buttons  with the sewing machine, jeeze how fast and easy that was. But I almost ruined one of the buttons before I realised that I had forgot to lower the feed dogs. Two, I discovered my sewing machines has some cover stitches and I used one of them to finish most of the edges, like the hem, in the front and round the hood. It looks SOOOOOO professional.

I totally recommend this pattern, it was easy and fast to sew up, especially if you have an overlocker.

Got to go now, bye!

Johanna

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!