2015 a new challenge!

Dear lovely readers,

A new year has arrived again... So soon
And, as if my life wasn't packed enough, I set myself a challenge for the year 2015.
I want to sew every single garment out of Gretchen Hirsch's book: ' Gertie sews vintage casual'.
That makes 34 garments in one year!

I may stray occasionally and sew up one of Gretchens other garments (from her first book),
but generally I am  confident, I can manage 34 garments in a years time...
What do you guys think,
challenging and exciting or plain stupid?
That would make 2,88888 garments per month.
Is anyone in on it?

I will report my progress here of course.
In the meantime have a beautiful start into 2015,
and happy sewing everybody!
Cheers,
Milan

Burda Vintage Jumper

Hi dears,

since the release of the Burda Vintage issue I wanted to make some of the gorgeous designs presented there.
The big ball gowns are a bit too much for me to tackle at the moment, but I made a start with the Jumper "Mary".

The fabric I chose is a cotton flanell. A little too stiff, but I only found out after I tried it on... it doesn´t have much of a drape, but still, I like the outcome.

I cut and sew a straight size 36, which is a size 8 in the States, and made no alterations... 

The result is a little big in the shoulders, but otherwise, I have no complaints.
Worn with the belt, I really felt like a Lady, even though I chose skinny jeans and boots to go with it instead of a pencil skirt and heels. Seeing the pics now, I think there is a little country vibe about it, what do you think?

Worn without the belt it resembles pj´s a little too much (what with the flanell and the checks... ;-)), but I wouldn´t wear it without belt anyways.

Since I´m back in Berlin I try to spend my time as useful as possible, meaning in front of the cutting table, sewing machine or English-Test-book for the  TOEFL... I really want to live in Australia, at least for a year, so I have to convince the immigration bureau that I can support myself and also make myself understood of course.

The second thing is the thought of taking courses in pattern making, CAD, HTML and other stuff to educate myself with things around the business of creating a brand... but that´s stuff for another time.

One thing´s for sure:
Change is in the air.

Until then, 
happy sewing

Milan

A Bronte to love

Dear Sewing-lovers,

didn´t I post that the urge to sew has left me, just, say, two or three days ago?
Oh, what can I say, I coulnd´t resist to buy the Perfect Pattern Parcel #6, which just burst with fantastic patterns, so I rediscovered the sewing passion and made my first Bronte Top by Jennifer Lauren Vintage.

There have been a lot of pics and posts of gorgeous makes of this pattern, and, as usual, I´m behind the hype, but still, I have to blow into the same horn as all the other sewists before me:
The pattern has the potential to become a classic, it´s easy to sew, with the options of long or short sleeves and contrast binding (or not) just the way you like it.

I made mine in a size 8, which fitted straight out of the pdf ;-)
It came together within three easy hours, and that´s cutting and asembling the paper pattern and cutting the fabric included!

Jennifer suggests a medium to more heavy weight jersey for this shirt, but I went with a lightweight cotton jersey, which is very strechy. Turned out it was a good choice as the sleeves sit a teensy bit more snug than I like it under the armpits.

Apart from that, I´m really happy with the outcome of the pattern.
Because you don´t need much fabric it is perfect as a stashbuster, too.

There are some more Brontes to come from me, that´s for sure...(my stash is bursting with stuff, oh my god...).

Right, that´s my first make after my two month long trip in Australia and Japan.
The next countdown (to Burning Man Festival next September) will start soon.

Until then, 
happy sewing and don´t forget to let me know what you think or ask whatever you like.

Cheers,
Milan

Fabric shopping in Nippori (Japan)

Hi sewing-folks,

it´s been a while since my last post (as usual), and this time I have a really good excuse:

I spent two months on a trip to Australia and Japan!

I cannot start telling you how beautiful and overwhelming it all was, you guys should definitely go there, if you´re looking for your next holiday destination!

Unfortunately I couldn´t take my sewing-machine, so there are no new makes coming from me right now, BUT I went fabric shopping during my last three days in Tokyo, and I bought a shitload of gorgeous stuff to be made into (hopefully) gorgeous clothes...

I also fell in love with the traditional garment of the Japanese women: the kimono.

After getting a little into the subject, I soon found out that it is almost a science to learn how to put on a kimono and which and how many pieces a kimono consists of. Not to mention the meaning a particular design can imply and what is considered siutable for a woman my age and social position.
I ended up buying a vintage kimono from a thrift shop (with the friendly assistance of a native speaking gentleman and a skillfull shop-assistant), but without all the undergarments, collars, ribbons, socks and shoes that normally accompany such an outfit. The kimono alone weighs over one kilogram and I couldn´t risk to have overweight in my backpack (as airlines have hefty prices for a few kilos overweight)...

Apart from that I bought lovely linens, a few Kokka-design cottons, a lovely brokade (to be made into either a box-pleated skirt or an egg-shaped 50ies inspired jacket) and some baby-jersey for a friend.

Being home again means having all my supplies and machines back into reach, but I´m strangely uninspired at the moment. Despite all the lovely fabrics I bought, I don´t feel the spark of joy I normally get when I find the right pattern for a fabric I love. Maybe I sill lack the right patterns?

Hm. For now, I blame it on the jet-lag. I still wake up at 5am and can´t go back to sleep.
I hope it will change soon. In the meantime, I will rumage through my closet and (fall-)clean it to make room for the winter wardrobe (which I sadly have to fetch from it´s storage in the cellar now) and hope inspiration will strike me soon.

I purchased a few patterns also during my stay, two at StyleArc.com, a Melbourne-based pattern company which you shouldn´t miss out on, and of course, PerfectPatternParcel#6 (which is no longer available).
Will soon present you with some makes from those, hopefully for sure.

Until then, 
happy sewing
and let me know if you have questions or suggestions

Milan

Bombshell by accident

Hi sewing nerds,

summer´s finally decided to stay for a while, so I spent time mostly outdoors, enjoying the sun and lazy breezes here in Berlin and around at the lakes that surround our capital city.

But still, sewing is with me all the time.
I got inspired by a dress made by my favorite designer, Lena Hoschek, which she released this summer, namely: the cabrio leaves dress. A jersey dress with a pencil skirt shape with ruffles at the sideseam and knotted at the shoulders with a little waterfall neckline.

As I didn´t find any unlicensed pics online, I give you this, my own interpretation of the pattern and overall look of the dress:

This is the fabric I found for my experiment, a lightweight cotton jersey with some elastic and a similar color as the original.

The fabric and the idea then lay in my stash and waited to come to life, but I got distracted and did many ohter garments before yesterday I came across a website that sparked my interest, trashtocouture.com, by the talented Laura.

She presented a tutorial for a ruffled skirt that looked smashing and so I dove into my stash to look for a siutable fabric, coming up with the one above.

I didn´t opt for a maxi skirt though, a mid length was more to my liking.

I did the skirt and it fit me well. During my first fitting in front of the mirror suddenly I felt reminded of the cabrio leaves dress and the idea to make this skirt into a dress struck me.

I rummaged through my old Burda issues to find a pattern with a waterfall neckline, as I had never made one before and wasn´t sure about how the pieces should look. I found one in Burda 9/2012, shirt 130.

I cut the front and back pieces and added a little capsleeve as I found long sleeves wouldn´t work on this dress. But when trying it on together with the skirt it just looked old-fashioned. I didn´t like it at all.

It makes a nice shirt though :-)

I found a shirt pattern in an old magazine (from 1997) and, although it didn´t feature a waterfall neckline, it sported a knotted shoulder. 

The pattern asked for double layers, which I managed to sqeeze out of my remaining fabric. Sewn together and in front of the mirror for a fitting.

It looked promising. So I basted it together and connected skirt and top.

And to my surprise, I looked so much like one of these 1940ies Bombshelldresses! Starting this I had no idea how it would turn out, but I love the result.

The slit may be a little naughty e.g. too high, but still, I like it like that. Also the asymmetrical hem. I was shortly thinking about adding more ruffles also to the second side, then decided against it. It is much more interesting this way. What do you think?

You must excuse my pics, unfortunately there was no one near to make them, so I had to use the self-portrait button and hope for the best...

Like it a lot :-)

A little on the butt side... still like it

If I dare, I will wear it tonight at the outdoor dancing at the Bode Museum.

All in all, I think I´m going to experiment a lot more often, now that this one came out so nicely.

Watch out for new makes.

Happy sewing peeps, and keep the good spirits up!

A very retro-inspired Tiramisu

Hi folks,

let me proudly present to you my latest make:
a Tiramisu.
It´s actually my second version and much improved too :-)

I found the fabric, a soft drapey viscosejersey, at the market "Stoffmarkt Holland", a travelling fabric market that comes to Potsdam every three months for one day only. And fell in love with this aquamarine color and little white polka dots (of course).

My first version of the Tiramisu by Cake patterns was made of a similar fabric, yet I had my problems with the right sizing of the bodice. My torso is rather long and my boobs small, so I decided on going with a size 30 (the smallest available). During the first fitting I sadly found out that it was much too short. Luckily I had some fabric left and cut the bodice again, same size but about six centimeters longer than before. That did the trick. In the end I had to take in some of the sideseams (about two centimeters at eacht side) to make it fit at the waist, and I like the result alltogether.

With this version I wanted it to sit right at my natural waist, so I widened the waistband on top of the longer bodice pieces, and now I just love the result.

The white seambinding gives a nice and clean finish to it, imagine white gloves and a poodle and I could step right into a Cary Grant Movie...

I added the pockets to this one (where I omitted them with the first version) and they don´t make the hips look bigger at all (which was a concern at first).

In short, I love this dress. 
Hopefully the summer will remember to come along to play soon, or it will just hang in my drawer and wait for better weather!

I will wear it to my Salsa dance class on Sunday anyway.

Hope you like it as much as I do:-)

Cheers, and happy sewing,
Milan

A staple dress and -blouse

Hi peeps,

as usual, it´s been a while since my last post, but work is rolling in and I still didn´t manage to clone myself, so some things simply have to wait...

But then, I made some pretty stuff since I last posted, mostly dresses of which I want to show you my two versions of the staple dress which was included in the previous Perfect pattern parcel.

I found this cotton/viscose blend on my favorite fabric market, Maybachufermarkt, here in Berlin. It´s always fun to browse between the stalls, touch and feel the fabrics, have a little chat with Mahmud and his colleages and sample some of the Maroccan food thats being offered. It´s one of my favorite pasttimes on a Saturday after cleaning the flat and shopping groceries. I take a ride to Neukölln and enjoy the atmosphere at the market. Should you ever come to Berlin, don´t miss it, every Saturday from eleven am to five pm.

Back to the fabric. I love those big Hibiscus flowers on white ground, the fabric has a nice drape and is very lightweight, doesn´t crumple and feels cool against the skin.

I made the staple dress with a normal seam, maybe next time I will try the high-low seam version.

The dress came together pretty easily, ok, the pattern is for beginners and I was finished in a few hours.
Shoulder seams were made with french seams, I like the clean look that gives to the inside of a garment.
The shirring in the middle sits a little too high for my liking, a fact I eliminated with the blouse from the same pattern. Due to the lightweight fabric I decided to omit the pockets as I didn´t want my hips to be emphazised too much. I added just two rows of shirring on that one. My machine (a Singer curvy) had no problems whatsoever with the elastic in the bobbin.

I am rather pleased with the result as you can see. Only the weather changed and it is too cold to wear this dress at the moment. But hope never dies, huh?

On with number two:
A blouse from the same pattern, with a very different fabric. This time it´s a pure cotton, a little stiff but with a nice feel to it, a lovely print (or so I think) and so very easy to sew, my Machine almost purred while sewing it.... :-)
Unfortunately I cut it too short, and it looked like a bad joke when I tried it on for the first fitting...so I simply cut another 20 centimeters and added them to the hem. Now it looks hot (again only my opinion...)
and I will wear this a lot (at least if it will ever be warm again here).

But have a look for yourself and tell me what you think!

Ok, bad hair day inclusive, but not too bad or is it?

I like the blouse and the dress. All in all a time well spent. I´m thinking about a jersey version in a plain color, with pockets, just to be on the practical side for once.

And just for fun a little goodie as a nice finish:

Have fun sewing guys and keep your fingers crossed for the time to pass fast until I can finally pack my stuff for the Great Oz Experience.....

Til then,

happy sewing :-)

Lovely Nettie

Hi peeps,

here I am again.
I promised you to show off my Nettie (recently released by the talented Heather Lou) as soon as there are some adequate pictures... well, since my good friend Alexandra stayed with me last week, we made a few shots that I´m not totally ashamed of, so I can present to you my two Netties.

The third is still on my sewing table as this time I want to try out the snap crotch option and didn´t have the right supplies while making the first two versions. Number one, the high front neckline, the very low back neckline:

made from a black superthin and strechy spandex, more for dance class than actual street wear... but I like the dramatically low back.

I´m wearing an A-cup, if anything at all, so I excluded the breast-pads.

Version number two is a more everyday wearable piece, this time I made the scooped front and back neckline in a four-way-strech cotton/viscose blend in black and white stripes with red bias binding. Love this one:-)

Since I am a long-torsoed gal, I lengthened the body for about 3cm, seeing the pooling of fabirc at the back I think I will reduce that a little and make a swayback adjustment for number three. Also, the shoulders of Nettie are very narrow and tend to fall off  the shoulder... maybe I will lengthen them a little to stop the drop.

Paired with my red Hollyburn it´s a real showstopper :-)

I also like the sporty look the stripes provide.

I chose the 3/4 sleeves both times as I think this length suits me most. 

Ok, my legs are still as white as a Mozzarella cheese from Italy, but it is only the beginning of June and the sun didn´t grace us with her presence very often so far. There are still about 88 days until I leave for Down Under, so plenty of time left to accquire some tan :-)

Speaking of Australia, today I bought my first bottle of sunscreen with 50+. Never used it before, the sun isn´t that dangerous in these parts, but it´s good to be prepared.

Don´t think a Nettie will accompany me on this trip, I have to keep my luggage light. But still, I am really thrilled with this pattern and will definitely try a pattern hack with it, like cutting off the bottom and taking the top as a crop top with a high waisted pair of pants or a slim pencil skirt.... so versatile this pattern. It came together really fast and the description is easy to understand and follow. At first I thought a bodysuit is so 80´s and I never missed these pieces, but I rediscovered my passion for them. The striped one will be worn a lot this summer.

So, this is the last May post this year and I kept my pledge. Only thing I will change from now on is not to buy fabric randomly anymore, just because I like it. My stash is bursting already and it takes away from sewing sustainably and economically. 

I do sew for fun, but I want to focus more on sewing what I need not only what I like.

However, there is a new Perfect Pattern Parcel out and I would recommend it to any home sewer. This time there are even five patterns in it if you pay 28 Dollar or more. I think it´s a wonderful idea to pair up independent pattern designers and charity organisations to benefit from each other. As soon as I found out there is a new one, I got it. So the next dress on my cutting table will be the Staple dress from April Rhodes. Interested? Do pop over to Perfect pattern parcel and buy your copy of four/five lovely patterns to follow your passion and stuff your closet with beautiful selfmade garments AND do good with a donation to a charity organisation. Can´t be any better.

That´s about it for today peeps, see you in time to report about my new dress or more of these cute little cork-men I found in Berlin.

Happy sewing and stay safe.