Laurel x 2

No, I didn't die.... Although I have been too busy to be posting on the blog. :)

I have sewn a lot, but also been working a lot and this weekend I worked, a lot, in the gaarden, which happens about once every year.

Here are two more Laurels, I finished the dress this weekend (after the gardening!) and the blouse was finished today.  I have entered both in the Colette patterns Laurel contest, but I have no chance of winning what so ever, not after seeing all the AMAZING Laurels on flickr.

Not much to say about the make, pretty straightforward. Look at the photos, no secrets there, what you see is what you get.... I really suck at details, I have to get better at that...

The blouse is made up from black cotton eyelet, really pretty, but it doesn't come though in the photos.I just turned over the hems and sewed, no bias binding.

The dress is linen/cotton, which was very easy to sew. I used bias tape to finish the hems.

 Here are all three of my Laurels. BTW, changed the size from US upper 12/lower 14 to US 12, which is perfect!

Have you sewn any Laurels?

Later,

Johanna

Meet Laurel and Violet from Colette patterns, they're really nice!

I shared earlier that I had ordered the new pattern from Colette patterns, Laurel, and another one I've wanted for some time, Violet. I gor them in the mail last week and I already had some fabric in mind for making up some kind of wearable muslins. So fairly quickly I traced the patterns and cut the fabric for both.

Here's Laurel:

Source: colettepatterns.com via Johanna on Pinterest

And here's Violet:

Source: colettepatterns.com via Johanna on Pinterest

I chose size US12 at the bust and tapered to size US14 at the hips for both garments. For the Violet blouse that was great, but on the Laurel dress I think it was too big. When I make the Laurel dress again (because I will!) I'm thinking of making the front size US12 and the back size US10 tapered to size US 12 at the hips. The upper back part was really big and I had to make two extra sort of darts in the back going from the neckline down to the actual back double darts. It doesn't look bad, but it shouldn't be necessary...

Here are some photos of Laurel and me. :)

Yep, that's me wearing a wig for once...

Don't tell me hair doesn't make a difference.... It does!

Used a decorative stitch for the neckline. Could not be bothered to handstitch the bias binding...ugh...

Decorative stitch on the sleeves too...

This is a first! I used my blind hem foot for the first time to make a machine stitched blind hem!

Can you see the back darts? No, I didn't think so... :)

Here's Voilet and me:

Here's Violet paired with my recent cropped jean trousers. And a different wig...

And a photo without the hair...

Ugh, do not like the neckline facing.... Have to try something else next time...

I'm quite happy with the two garments except for two things:
1. The size of the dress
2. The length of the blouse
Luckily enough, both issues are easily resolved. :)

BTW, the fabric I used for the dress is what I believe to be a 30-35 year old table cloth and the fabric for the blouse is a striped cotton sateen bed sheet often found in hotel beds! The first is a thrift find and the second is from my  mum.

What is the weirdest fabric you have used to make clothes?

Bye for now,

Johanna

3 x Quick & Easy top

After making my gorgeous coat I felt like something easier and quicker and decided to try Miss Ps self-drafted kimono-sleeve top. I used her directions and made the top to fit me.

Last Friday I made this version in cotton lawn (I guess that's what it is, it's cotton anyway). I didn't have a lot of fabric and there was a big hole in the middle. Because of the hole, I had to arrange the pattern piece (yes, there's only ONE!) so that in the front the stripes are horizontal and in the back they are vertical. I'm totally OK with that, I even think it looks cool.

Here you can see the stripes NOT matching!

On Wednesday I was in town and got some cheap printed jersey to make more versions of this top. One turned out a little longer, more tunic-like.

I added black edges to the last one, to get a different look and it turned out really well.

I very much recommend this pattern if you want a quick and easy top. I adore kimono-sleeves, so this was perfect for me! I used my overlocker for most of the job, which made everything SO easy and fast. Love it!

Until next time,

Johanna

Printing, taping, cutting...

I've been feeling a little under the weather lately (couldn't even enjoy my birthday on Tuesday properly), so I haven't exactly been up to sewing. But while reading some of the blogs on my blog list I found an interesting and inspiring FREE PDF-pattern. Through Portias blog Miss P I found another great blog, Dixie DIY, with a cute, free blouse/tunic pattern. So I decided to download it and print it out.

When I ordered from Sewing patterns a while ago I also bought a PDF-pattern  for a cute bolero/jacket. I had already printed it so yesterday I had a printing, taping, cutting-session. Fortunately none of the two patterns were more than 20 pages. I would guess that a dress pattern would be almost unmanageable as a PDF-pattern...

The Dixie DIY pattern was easy enough to understand while the other one, can't remember the pattern company, has very fuzzy instructions. The pattern pieces aren't named or numbered, so I had to guess...  Well, now they're ready to use anyway. Always the most boring part of sewing, I think, to prepare the pattern pieces. I always trace the patterns, because you never know when you might need another size. My pattern collections will be a goldmine for someone in the future, becasue all my patterns are intact... :) Hopefully one of my children will be interested in sewing and want to have them.

Anyway, we'll see when I get to make those garments, I guess they have to be put in my mental to do-pile for the time being.

Bye for now,

Johanna

Celebrating Midsummer in a new Burda blouse

Today we celebrate Midsummer here in Sweden, one of the big holidays here (for some almost as important as Christmas...). My family is here celebrating with my husband, my kids and me. It's my mum, my sister, her husband and their two children. I'm so glad they're here with us.

Midsummer is VERY Swedish, decorations go in blue and yellow as the Swedish flag and we eat pickled herring and strawberries. It's always nice to have a special reason to create a new garment, and so I thought that Midsummer was a reason as good as any.

I got some yellow cotton fabric from mum when she cleared out her stash. It has white flowers on it and is very sweet... almost too sweet... But I thought that it would make a comfortable blouse for the summer, so I started making another Burda Easy blouse, because I'm so happy with the one I already have.

I wanted to make some changes, so it wasn't exactly like the first one, so I thought about finishing the sleeves with bias tape or something. In the box where I keep my bias tape I also had the cuffs from my hot pink hot pink Lisette dress (Simplicity 2245). They're black with white swiss-dots. They were a perfect fit for the blouse, both in size and colour!

I matched the cuffs with a black button at the neck closing and a tiny black bow in the front. I'm quite happy with the result. I made this version about two inches longer than the first one, since that one turned out a tiny bit too short. Otherwise no other changes.

On the first Burda Easy blouse I used ribbon for the neck closing, but in this one I took some thin elastic to make a button loop (got the idea from one of my daughter's dresses). Unfortunately, it's not very visible in the picture.

Today I matched it with my Ginger denim skirt, for that Swedish blue and yellow-look... :)

Have a great day, I know I will! :)

Bye for now,

Johanna

P.S. Don't forget to participate in my GIVEAWAY!

And I'm back in the game! - Blouse from Burda Easy (spring/summer issue)

It's been such a long week for me, sewing wise, because I have all these projects lined upp and somehow I just froze up and couldn't make myself get started on anything. All this even though the projects aren't difficult or time-comsuming. I started hestitating about the fabric choices and that became an obstacle.

But today, I finally made myself put out the pattern pieces on the fabric and cut! And this is what happened:

I found this cute blouse in the latest issue of Burda Easy, model no. 4. In the magazine there was one version made of fake suede, a dress version made of crepe and a sleeveless dress version made of knit jersey. But since I like cotton I stuck with that. The fabric comes from my stash, it's one I got from mum. A very light cotton, dark blue with tiny white and red flowers, so sweet.

There are two pleats at the front neckline.

 The instructions called for a button closing in the back of the neck, but I put some ribbon in instead to tie a bow. It turned out well I think.

I was able to make French seams everywhere, except for the hems of course.

I'm really happy with this and I will make this pattern again. But next time I will lengthen it even more. This time I added about 2 cm, but next time I will have to make that 7 cm, because it is a tiny bit short for my taste. Otherwise, it was really easy to make and I totally recommend to go out and get that magazine and sew one for yourself.

About sewing magazines, I really like them, you get a lot of patterns for very little money and there are many inspiring pictures inside. It's can be really boring and sometimes hard to trace the patterns because there are so many on the same pattern sheat. Burda Easy was great that way, that the sheats ressembled regular sewing patterns. How about you, do you like sewing magazine patterns or do you prefer regular sewing patterns?

Well, I'm happy to have gotten over my sewing freeze and hope to be on to my next project tomorrow already. Have a lovely evening!

Bye for now,

Johanna