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!

Sewing is healthy for you! More Burdastyle jersey trousers

Wooah?! Two posts in one day? By me, who have been complaining about the curse of the flu for ages now? What is going on? Well, after this morning's post I did have some more energy than before so I decided to cut out the fabric for the Burdastyle jersey trousers.

I also started sewing together the Kirsten kimono tee from yesterday and once I got started at the sewing machine and the overlocker, why stop?! So I sewed up the jersey trousers too, I skipped the side pockets on this pair and that made it an even faster finish. I didn't finish the tee-shirt, still have to finish the bottom hem.

I even mended my old black and white striped t-shirt where the twin seam had come undone. And I put my label on a few of my latest makes. I also had an idea for a new banner for the blog. Yay!

And this is why I say: Sewing is healthy for you!!!!! This afternoon I've finally had some energy and haven't felt like I will always be a zombie/Ozzy Osbourne (that's what Mr Red calls me when I'm tired...:)) and it's all because of sewing (and maybe a little because I seem to be well from the flu...).

Ok, here's some proof that I'm not just making this up/having feverish flu dreams about sewing :).

 I've also realised,seeing these photos, that I have to get a tripod for my camera. These photos are taken by my son, 6 years old, and while it's charming that he wants to help me, the photos pretty much suck. I can't even show the ones he took of only the trousers, because somehow he made my butt look twice as big as it really is....:/ Anyway I'm thinking gorilla pod for the camera, they seem very handy since you can bend them and hang them pretty much anywhere. They're not too expensive either.

So, finally, I'm actually feeling better!

Be back soon,

Johanna

PS. The Burdastyle trousers are a part of the Copycat challenge by Erin @ i heart fabric. Let me show you my inspiration.

Source: houseoflola.se via Johanna on Pinterest

The light at the end of the tunnel...

This has been (or still is) the worst case of the flu that I have ever had. It started last Friday, today is Saturday NINE DAYS later, and I still don't feel good. Urgh!

The positive thing is that the kids are well and I do see the light at the end of the tunnel, yesterday I actually had some energy to cut out the fabric for my Kirsten kimono tee using a me-made tunic I don't wear. AND I lengthened the pattern for the Burdastyle jersey trousers.

Source: burdastyle.com via Johanna on Pinterest

I wear the pair I have a lot, but I'm not 100% happy with them and I want another pair so I've already got me some teal jersey. For the last pair I only lengthened the leg-cuffs, but this time I have lengthened the trousers pieces (the Burdastyle patterns are for women of 168 cm, and I'm 175 cm).

Here are the Burdastyle jersey trousers I made back in Nov/Dec.

I've also decided to join Erin's of "I heart fabric" Copy cat challenge. Hop on over and see what it's about and maybe join in you too! :) Fortunately there's no time limit on this challenge. My plan is to make another pair of Burdastyle trouser like these (still haven't blogged about my first pair, but it's coming, promise!):

Source: burdastyle.com via Johanna on Pinterest

But this time i will make them out of denim and add pockets and stuff to make them more jeans-like. My inspiration is my favourite pair of jeans which I bought last summer.

Sorry about this horrible photo. And I'm glad to say I've lost a few pounds since it was taken. :)

 

Anyway, so much for my sewing plans, my first goal is to get rid of this highly annoying and energy-consuming flu.

What are your sewing plans right now?

'Til next time,

Johanna

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

Tiramisu dress - finally wearable

I have been taking part in the 30 minutes a day Tiramisu knit dress sewalong, but when I was almost finished I ran into some huge problems...

A while back I bought some super cute jersey fabric, it's green with darker green polka dots (or swiss dots, I don't know the difference between those...). Almost immediately I knew I wanted to use it for a Tiramisu dress and when the sewalong came along shortly after it was such a great coincidence.

This is how I wore it today to work, with a grey cardigan and my new boots!

I found my size which can be bit tricky and traced the pattern as I usually do. I cut out the fabric and sewed up the dress until I came to the part when you baste the sides together and try the dress on...

The fit was ALL WRONG! The seam that's supposed to go right under the bust was just above my waist and the shape was just not good. The fabric was too lightweight and stretchy, everything showed like pantylines and tummyfat. I kind of froze and didn't know what to do at that point, so I abandonned the dress for a few days. I also wrote a comment in the Flickr group about this frustration and got some awesome help and encouragement. Yay for sewalongs! :)

So two days ago I finally started to rescue the dress. I cut it apart where I had serged the pieces together and unpicked the basting. I just couldn't bear to do something to the neckbinding or the sleeve bindings, too much hassle. I adjusted the size of the bodice from a 35D to a 30D and also the waistbands. Then I cut out all the pattern pieces from a sturdier jersey fabric except for the neck and sleeve bindings .

I attached the underlining bodice to the shell by overlocking or zigzagging. The dress looks AWFUL on the inside but at least now I can wear it! :) I also had to omit the pockets because they did nothing for my already wide hips...

I had already top-stitched the neck binding using a twin needle so I used zigzag to attach the underlining.

Here you can see the zigzag on the inside of the neck binding.

Now the dress looks alright and I even wore it to work today. I haven't finished the hemline and I don't think I will either.

Look, no gaping!

The Tiramisu dress is a really pretty and flattering dress once you've figured out the fit, but for me it did not go as smoothly as I had anticipated. But I do recommend the pattern!

Back soon with the dress that I made while pausing the Tira dress,

Johanna

Sewalong fun!

I really like participating in the fun sewalongs that some of the creative people here in the sewing blogosphere come up with and host. Right now I'm taking part in three sewalongs.

There is the Sew Colette 2.0, which is taking a break right now but will resume in March. I'm really looking forward to that.

Then there is the on-going 30 minutes a day Tiramisu knit dress sewalong. My participation has been very chopped up, but right now I'm in the same stage as everyone else.

And today I read about the fantastic Stashbusting sewalong 2013 and decided to join in! I have committed to use at least six pieces of fabric from my stash this year. This sewalong seems superfun with one theme a month and challenges with prizes! Yay! I'm so in!

I have also committed to some other sewing goals for 2013. I'm in the jar of Karen from didyoumakethat. My sewlution is to  sew garments with bound buttonholes, welt pockets, zippered pockets as I want to learn new techniques.

 

 

Now I just hope the I can combine some of these sewalongs, that would be really cool.

 

Are you in any of these sewalongs or any other that I don't know about?

 

 

Bye for now,

 

Johanna



Macaron 2.0

 

 

So, here's my second Macaron dress... Not quite like my first one, in several ways... Let me tell you...

 

 

I thought it would be a breeze sewing up my second Macaron, since the pattern was already cut out and fitted. I already knew what issues there might be and I had my mind set on a gorgeous knit fabric from my stash. I could use black thread for it, which I already had. So, it looked like a smooth sail, but oh no...

Since the fabric was patterned and I wanted to use the fabric pattern  a ccertain way, I had to cut out the pattern pieces the "wrong" way. This made the dress extremely stretchy lengthwise and for the first fitting, the waistband was on top of the hips. Not a very pretty sight. So I had to shorten the bodice about an inch and it doesn't look pretty on the inside, but OK on the outside.

The next issue was the fit around the upperbody, much too loose for was I had envisioned. So I had to take it in about an inch on each side, due to the stretchy/heavy fabric. I might to take it more, but I'll let the dress settle for now, wash it and then we'll see.

I also could have cut out the upperbody pieces as one front and one back piece instead of two bodice and two yoke pieces. That cute sweetheart neckline doesn't even show now...

A recommendation for anyone (especially me) who will make this dress is to attach the skirt pieces separately to the bodice before doing the side seams. It's just so much easier to make adjustments when the side seam goes all the way.

Did I make any other adjustments? Yes, I did. I lengthened the skirt by about 2 inches (not quite necessary since the dress stretched) and I omitted the zipper, since I don't need one to get in and out of the dress (streeeeetchy fabric).

I do like the dress, even with the fit issues and it was great to use the overlocker/serger for finishing the seams. It was very comfortable when I wore it for work today and I guess that's something to be happy about, even though it doesn't look like I had planned.

Bye for now,

Johanna

Crafts magazine inspiration and Macaron update

It's no secret that I like crafts magazine like Burda and the Swedish one, Sömnadsmagasin, but it can be difficult to find reviews of the patterns from those magazines. Well, while browsing the internet I found a fantastic site called Burda addicts, a sewing community. much like we sew retro, but formed round the Burda magazine patterns. It's in French though, but even if you don't know French you can always look at the photos!

BTW, I have made (almost finished) a second version of the Macaron dress, in knit fabric... I'm still contemplating my satisfaction with it, since it didn't turn out like the first version (Duh... Two very different types of fabric... Sometimes I'm not very smart... :)). Well, I will finish it, just some hemming left, and then I will post about it and you can make your own opinion about it...

Bye for now,

Johanna

Colette sew-along 2.0: Macaron muslin finished!

Yep, I finished the Macaron muslin today and I'm quite happy with it. There were some issues and I will write about them later on. But first some pics:

It's always interesting (terrifying?) to see yourself from the back. I see now that the back is a little loose. Well, I'll leave it like that, I don't like to tight clothes anyway.

Ok, as I said there were some issues with this dress for me...

1. It's a little on the short side.  I had to serge the bottom hem and fold it 1cm/3/8inch and then sew. And it's still a little shorter than I would have liked.

2. The sleeves are super cute, but I do have a big problem with sleeves of this type (fitted?). I do NOT like when I can't lift my arms without the whole dress lifting too. If/when I make the Macaron dress again, I think I will make some sort of kimono sleeve instead. (Kimono sleeves rock!)

3. As mentioned in my last post, I thought it was difficult to know which way to turn the midriff pieces. The front midriff piece still doesn't look right, it has like a different sheen to it... strange...

Some other things to note...

4. I didn't have an invisible zipper at hand, but found an ordinary one, long enough and blue(!) in my stash. I was not perfect, but close enough for a muslin.

5. I am so lazy... I used turquoise (teal) thread all over, even on the white fabric... I couldn't be bothered to change it... :-P

6. I used my serger to finish seams on the inside! Very practical! And fast.

To sum up: the Macaron dress is uncomplicated to put together with a great fit (for me) that makes you look good. I recommend this pattern a lot.


Bye for now,

Johanna