Another McCalls Shirtdress and a new iron!

First of all, thanks a lot for all your lovely comments about my last stash diet post! Your comments about what to make from my 1 m of fabrics were really helpful and you can expect to see some blouses soon :) January is almost over, but I managed to finish my first garment of 2014 before the end of the month, yeah! I made another McCalls Shirt Dress (you can find the first version here)!

Pattern: McCalls M6167, Version C, which has three tucks at the bodice front.

Fabric: Shirt fabric from my stash!!! It actually was not in the photos I uploaded last week, because I had already started to cut out the pattern. I bought the fabric in Brighton last autumn for this shirt dress :) and I am so happy that I finally used it. I was dreading to cut out this pattern, because there are so many pieces, you have to match plaids and you have to hand sew a lot (and I almost hate hand sewing).

Construction: As always the plaid matching took me ages! And as the fabric seemed not to be straight/ on grain, I was not able to match all seams. I have the problem of off-grain fabric quite often and I have started to wonder, if I treat the fabric wrong when I dry it and that's why its off grain? I usually tend to dry the fabric outside on a long clothes line. So my question for you:

How are you drying your fabrics? Any tips? 

I have no idea where this massive fold at the top button is coming from. It was not there before I put my coat on top! Can you spot the tucks? There are three rows.

But I am proud that the shoulders almost match the front bodice! I have made the pattern before, but without the tucks, thus it came together without any major problems. I am still not 100% happy about how my cuffs turned out. But hopefully I am getting better with time. I also bought the Craftsy Class "The classic tailored shirt", so that should help me out next time. And next time will be a shirt for Lescha!

Placket and cuffs. The buttons were from my stash as well! And here you can actually see the tucks!

Have I worn it yet? Only for the photo shoot. Because I am working from home at the moment, I am just not in the mood to wear pretty clothes.

I stitched a rolled hem with my overlocker, so neat!!!

Do I like it? Yes a lot! Although I would like it more if I had matched the plaids correctly. And I am a bit disappointed that you can't see the tucks. I guess I should have known, because the fabric is a busy print. It it just annoying that I put so much time and care into these tucks and now you can't see them! But at least now I know ;)

Philips GC7619/20 PerfectCare Steam Generator Iron Review

When making this shirt dress I used my new iron that I got from my mum for Christmas for the first time and I just thought I say a few words about it for anybody who is interested! I got a Philips GC7619/20 PerfectCare Steam Generator Iron, which you can fill up with 1.5l of water - so loads of ironing fun! The good thing about it is that you don't have to adjust the temperature because it does this by itself thanks to its OptimalTemp Technology. I really like this feature, because I managed to shrink fabrics before when I forgot to change the temperature on my old iron. Up to now I only ironed cotton fabrics and polyester lining with it, which was fine. 

There are only a couple of things that I have to get used to:
 (i) if you need steam, you have to keep pressing a button on the irons handle the whole time (my old iron always had steam on), if by accident you press it twice it releases a steam boost and I managed to burn my fingers because of this when pressing a dart.
(ii) It shuts off automatically (again my old iron didn't) and I keep forgetting about it. Luckily it does take only 2 min to heat up again...
(iii) when you are done ironing, you have to empty the water tank if there is any water left. And as you can't lock the iron to the tank, it is always a bit complicated when holding both above the sink and I am scarred that the iron falls down. I have to admit, when buying this iron I knew a new version would be out soon where you can lock iron and tank to carry them around. But I thought, who needs that? Might have been useful.

But all in all, the iron works lovely and I really like it. No water dripping from the iron onto my clothes, just perfect :)

Christmas pressies!

Now that Christmas is over, I can finally reveal the gifts I made! And yes, I made most of them. That's a first for me, because usually I would buy most presents and make only a handful. So, yeah!

Kindle cover: My sister and my mum both got a kindle after having finally gotten over there fear of not holding a proper book (3 years ago, when the kindle was hardly known in Germany, they just couldn't understand why I loved it so much)! So, I made a kindle cover for both. I used this amazing tutorial by Ashley from Mommy by Day and Crafter by Night.

left: for my sis and right: for my mum :)

The corners of the kindle are just covered.

I had only one problem: I was not sure at which position I should put the elastic so that it does not cover the screen. I looked up the dimensions of the kindle (mine is an old version, so a giant in comparison to the new ones) and made the cover the right size, but unluckily and very frustrating the elastic is too far out and only touches the edges of the kindle. Nonetheless, my mum and sister loved it. And as they both are not travelling much, the fit shouldn't be a big problem. As you might have guessed the one with the matrioskas is for my sis and the one with the roses for my mum :)

Table cloth: Then I made a quilted table cloth for my mum. I used the butterfly blocks I had left over from her birthday quilt. As I was in a hurry to finish the table cloth, I only free motion quilted it with stippling.

That't the quilt I gave my mum for her Birthday!

Knitting bags: For my sister I also made a little bag from the leftover matrioska fabric. I have made the same bag for myself to store my knitting in. I even added 2 small pockets for my sisters version. I sewed a similar bag for a friend, who told me she would like to start knitting as well. (I forgot to take a pic, buh). And to really encourage her, I gave her some pink wool, knitting needles and the wheat scarf pattern from tin can knits. I haven't heard back from her yet, but hopefully she liked it :)

Pockets inside

Cushions: My grandparents loved their cushions and couldn't believe that I made them myself :) You can have a look here, if you want to know more about the cushions. And these were actually the presents that took me longest!

Vest: For Lescha, I knitted a "self-drafted" vest! I just finished it in time for New Year, which is when Father Frost brings presents in Ukraine. I am still blocking the vest, so he has to wait until it is dry to wear it. As soon as this is done, I will take some photos and write a post about it. So, stay tuned!

Sewing box for me: I also got some sewing related presents, yeah. My little sis gave me a lovely sewing box, in which I can store my quilting threads and some bias tape. She got a wooden box, whose lid she covered with owl fabric (and there is plenty left, so I am playing with the thought to use it as a lining for a blazer I want to make) and then she painted it white and even added a little lock. So, much detail. Thanks so much, sis!!!

So cute!

The lock almost looks like a beak :)

Who is going to love ironing? The rest of my family contributed to my new ironing board and steam generator iron station! I only had a tiny Ikea ironing board, which is not very stable and starting to fall apart. As for my iron? I hated it, because after 10 years of use the water was constantly leaking out of it causing near misses like dropping from the ironing board into the floor socket. I also couldn't iron on my tailors hem as in a vertical position the water would immediately come out of the iron. So ironing was a real nightmare for me! My mum told me then about these steam generator iron stations and thus I decided to invest in one of these! I haven't gotten it yet, but will keep you posted about my experience :)

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and had as much fun as I had when giving (and getting!) my presents! I wish you all a Happy New Year 2014!!!!