Ladyskater No2 - Do I like it? I am not so sure...

I couldn't decide if I want to show you this dress, because I am not really happy with how it turned out. Especially after I made a Ladyskater before. But then, I like to show all the garments I have ever made on my blog. I actually love to scroll down my "Made by Me" page and see what I have made so far! It keeps me motivated to do more and gives me the feeling that I have accomplished something :) Anybody else has similar feelings when looking at your makes (blog, Flickr, wardrobe)?

But back to the dress in question! It gave me a big reminder that my learning curve in sewing and especially sewing with knits is still steep!

Fabric: I used a stable knit. It is a lovely knit I bought in Goldhawk Road and it was only £3.50/meter (or £4.50/m - I can't remember, but I found it really cheap for a print). I knew immediately it would be the perfect Ladyskater dress. It would have been, if I would have gone up one size at the bust and sleeves, because that's the areas where the dress is too tight!

More wrinkles at the back.

Unresolved fitting problems: You see the wrinkles under my armpits? Thea pointed out that these might be because my armhole is too tight. Actually I noticed that I have that problem on several knits, so I will scoop the armpits a bit out next time (yeah there will be a next time).

I also have to change the sleeves slightly - I am not a fan of these drag lines!

To make my whole sewing experience more difficult, I also forgot that the pattern has only a 3/8" seam allowance. Luckily, I realised that before starting to sew the dress together. But when I marked the notches on my dress, I accidentally cut to deep and as you can imagine this became a problem at the sleeve/shoulder seam! So, I had to sew the curve like 2/8" deeper. (Are you thinking now: no wonder that it doesn't fit you there?)

I am always amazed by the seamstresses that finish a garment in one day. And because I had made the dress before, I told myself I should be able to do this as well. So, when I realised that I didn't have enough clear elastic to stabilise my shoulder and waist seams, I just took out some cotton twill tape. This might have been working for the shoulders, but not for the waist seams. I had enough elastic for the shoulders and for the front waist seam. So, I put the twill tape at the back waist seam. (It was not my best idea.) The seam is stable, but not stretchy at all. Luckily, the front is stretchy enough so that I can get the dress on and off!!

Are you still with me? Or have you left because of all this silliness (I don't want to say stupidity)?

Do I like the dress? I do love the print! And I have worn the dress several times - you might have actually seen me wearing it during my shoemaking class. :) So if you had the feeling, you have seen the dress before - you are right! The dress is really warm, so perfect for winter weather.

Will I make it again? I will and I have already the jersey in my stash! It is much thinner, has more stretch and is pink. So it will be a lovely summer dress with short sleeves! I might change the neckline of the dress a bit, because I have been totally inspired by Charlies lovely boat neck version! Her dress has puff-sleeves as well!!!

What did I learn?
- Take your time when sewing and don't put yourself under pressure! Enjoy the experience!
- Even if you have made a pattern before, take the time and check the instructions.
- Don't make you notches to deep!
- If working with a jersey, test the stretch before cutting. If in doubt, go one size up!
- Gather your notions before starting the project!
Have I forgotten anything?

So, now I am back to finishing up my thesis - one week to go!!! And after handing-in, I am hopefully going to Ukraine for a lovely and much needed Easter break!

Shoes (made by ME)!

Pink shoes! Oh lala, I am a lady...

Can you imagine, I made a pair of shoes!!! They are pink, they are soft, they fit and I love them! I am sure you wonder, how come I made my own shoes? I went to a shoemaking class that I got as a present from Lescha for my birthday in March! I was so surprised and it was the perfect gift!

The class was in Central London at Prescott and Mackay. It was a really exhausting, but amazing, weekend class and the only thing we had to bring was some fabric or leather to make the shoes from. I bought some really soft suede leather from Walter Reginald. They have a massive leather outlet in London and when I went there I was totally overwhelmed. I had no idea what to choose and after asking I was pointed in a general direction and saw this pink suede (I believe it is goat). It was only £8.50 for the whole skin, which I thought was quite cheap for such a soft material.

At the shoemaking class we were only 6 Ladies plus our instructor Caterina Belluardo. Caterina is a footwear designer and an amazing instructor. She was constantly helping and motivating us :) Believe me there were moments when I actually thought, what the hell are you doing here? Are you crazy trying to make shoes? There was a moment that actually reminded me a lot of my first try to set in a sleeve: you had to ease and form the leather around the tip of the shoe.

Even the heels are covered in leather.

So the first day was a lot of cutting and you cut the leather with a scalpel. The scalpel gets blunt very quickly and you have to apply loads of pressure to still be able to cut. Hello, blister. Because that's what I got at the tip of my index finger (after thinking for 2 days my finger tip is numb). But never mind all these blisters, cuts and burns, because at the end I made beautiful shoes!


Shoemaking involves a lot of hammering and nailing, because you have to first nail the leather and lining to the shoe sole before you can can glue everything together! Believe me, I managed to bend loads of nails! But I can report that my hammering and nailing skills improved at the end of day two, yeah.

I am not going to bore you with all the details of 15 hours of shoemaking, hehe. But we were able to choose from 3 designs: flat and round; thistle toe and heel; pointy and heel. Then you could also choose the design of the upper part of the shoe. You can have a look here in the Flickr group of Prescott and Mackays to see what the other participants made :) All shoes turned out amazing. One of the ladies even used a Liberty print!

Here is my soon-to-be shoe on the last (the yellow thing). Can you see all the little nails? We had to pull them all out again!

On day two, the shoes actually started to look like shoes. We did loads more hammering and nailing, more gluing, and then finally came the moment we could glue the sole to the shoe. It was like magic! One moment you had this kind of yeah might be a shoe and then a minute later you had this beautiful shoe! I decided to add straps to my shoe, because usually I can't walk on heels (even tiny ones) if they are not tied to my ankle.


The last thing I have to do - before I can wear these shoes - is to bring them to a cobbler. We only glued the heel on and it would break off when walking. So the cobbler has to nail it on. I am a little worried about it, because I am scarred he will ruin my shoe! And will it still be my shoe?

Here you can see the lining.

I have to admit, I am really hooked now. I would love to make another pair and it is actually not that difficult to get all the supplies you need. But as every hobby, it is expensive! So, at the moment I am just looking into all the possibilities and do a lot of dreaming about my own shoes (imagine to make your own wedding dress and shoes! Not that I need to, I am still waiting for the proposal ;) ).

So, what do you think? Would you like to try something new? Make your own shoes or lingerie (that's next on my list)?

You can see that they are a bit different ;) But I don't mind...

I know you want to see a picture with me wearing the shoes :) But be patient, as soon as it gets a bit warmer you will. I just couldn't convince myself today to go outside in these shoes - it was cold, rainy and my legs are all white :P

Quilting time!

Today I want to share my latest make with you - it is a quilt I started to make last year in March. I actually finished it this year February, but due to all my thesis writing (only one month to go, yeah!) it's hard at the moment to find time to write posts :P But hopefully after Easter, I am back at my sewing machine and blog!

Spring Quilt

Pattern: Amazingly, the pattern and instructions for this quilt are free. You learn to make the quilt in a patchworking class with Amy Gibson (check out her fabulous blog) on Craftsy! So if you always wanted to learn how to patchwork, but were afraid because of the difficult blocks, just have a look. Amy does an amazing job - I really loved her class.

You see that spiral on the top left corner? That was most difficult to quilt, because it was in the middle of the quilt and because you go round and round a had to squeeze so much. All that massive quilt under my small sewing machine. The block on the bottom left corner is actually quilted with feathers. Can you see them? Me neither :P because this design I just couldn't get in my head!

For the actual quilting I bought the class with Leah Day on Craftsy. Leah does loads of free motion quilting and you might already be aware that this is my favorite way of quilting :) Leah actually has this free motion quilting project going, where she shows you how to make many different designs. Just check out her website! (Note: I am not getting paid by Craftsy by telling you all this. It's just, I love it!)

Fabric: Everything I could find in my boxes and then I bought another piece from time to time :) I tried to go with one color theme that does not only include pink! I think I managed quite well! Although for the quilting, I just couldn't resist!

The flower on the bottom right corner is one of my favorite designs, its called Dresden plate.

Construction: I could have finished this quilt in less than a year. I actually had assembled the quilt top since last summer, but then I started to make my mums butterfly quilt for her birthday and had to stop working on this quilt. It lived in my sleeping room on the basket for the dirty clothes. Thus before washing it, I actually had to go over it with a lint roller just to remove all the dust. Next time, I will put the quilt in a bag :P Luckily this time, none of the colors leaked onto the white background - I must have been extremely unlucky with my mums quilt (possibly because it was a present, something had to just go wrong!)

The "butterfly" on the bottom right corner is made from hexies, that you have to handstitch together! Did I mention that I don't like handstitching? But I survived and actually enjoyed the process :)

The quilting took many hours and I strained quite hard to finish the sashing. You see all these little spirals? I love them, but it was really hard to get them in. I have one confession to make: I didn't unpick a single stitch! There are some really big quilting mistakes in this quilt, areas were I just couldn't keep a straight line or didn't get the pattern right. But you know what? I don't care. The quilt is so busy, you can't spot these mistakes that easily. And as I am not planning to participate in any quilting shows, I really don't mind these mistakes!

The quilt lives now in my living room! I would have liked to hang it onto a wall, but sadly the only wall big enough is in the dining room. I don't want to put it there because I am afraid of the grease and fumes from the kitchen  - we don't have a kitchen door. So it is now on my couch making a beautiful living room decoration.

So, I will leave you with a few more detail pics from my most loved quilted block. It's called flying geese!

The binding reminds me of candy and lollipops!

Although the quilting of this block took about 2 hours, I just love the design! 

And that's the back! Summer yellow!

Deer and Doe Plantain adventure!

I finally jumped onto the bandwagon and made a Plantain! I had some problems with the fit and although I did some adjustments I am not fully happy with the fit yet!

My final Plantain version.

Pattern: Plantain from Deer and Doe, which is available for free from here!

Fabric: I bought a super cosy jersey from Goldhawk Road. It was £4.50 the meter and I managed to cut the three-quarter sleeve version from only 1 m of fabric! There was loads of squeezing and shuffling involved. For the elbow patches I used some leftover jersey from my latest ladyskater dress - that you haven't seen yet. :) But be patient, I will show it to you soon! If you wonder, no these fabrics were not in my stash, but I made allowances for jersey anyway. I looooooooove jersey. Most of my bought clothes are actually jersey!

Pattern alterations: I graded from size 36 bust to size 40 hip. Sloping shoulder adjustment - I added 5/8" to the back shoulder seam and removed 5/8" from the front. To not move the sleeve cap, I added 5/8" at the sleeve back seam and removed it from the sleeve front seam. I think because of this the sleeves are not sitting properly - next time I will just move the sleeve cap. Swayback adjustment - I took out 1". But looking at the fit, I will have to take out more!

Construction: It was a slight nightmare adventure! For my first attempt, I just used the pattern as it was and because I was sewing with my overlocker that went really fast. But when I tried on the Plantain, I realised that a boxy style just doesn't suit me! I looked like wearing a tent and there were massive pools of fabric at the waist to hip area. I thought, no problem, you can just tuck it into a skirt - there was no way I could do that because it looked even worse. I also used the wrong settings on my overlocker and the seams were puckering. It just looked awful on me. And that although there are so many beautiful versions out there...

Uhh, all these drag lines.

This meant, I took everything apart. And what joy it is to open overlocked seams. My new best friend was the lint roller! The threads were just everywhere. To get a better fit at the hips, I took my Burda dress pattern out, aligned it with the center back and front of Plantain and marked the new seam lines. I then carefully pinned the seams together and using the right settings on my overlocker went sewing. And that is how I ended up with my version of the Plantain. Slightly better fitted and not boxy at all!

I am not happy with the fit of the sleeves and back yet and will have to address this for my next version. I bought already a white jersey with little gold stripes in it. So keep your eyes peeled!

Ahem, I had to take the sleeves apart a second time, because I actually forgot to stitch the elbow patches on :( I could have left them out, but I really wanted to add them. Although I pinned the patches very well they still stretched a bit and are now a bit bulky. But luckily you can't see it when I am wearing the Plantain!

Lastly, I broke my twin needle (and it was the only one I ever owned!) when attempting to topstitch the neckband! I am just happy that it only bent and no pieces were flying around!

Do I like it? I am not in love with it because of all the struggles I had. And because the fit is not great. Maybe I should just get the Renfrew pattern to make a snug jersey top!

Have I worn it yet? I have - in combination with my Beignet skirt. I actually wanted to make a T-Shirt that I can wear with my Beignet, because somehow my wardrobe hardly has any basics that I can wear it with. I guess, I just chose the wrong pattern. The Plantain is a T-Shirt that you can better wear with trousers, but not tugged into a skirt.

I made an apron - let's get baking!

I felt a little bit as if I would be cheating on my stash diet when I made this cute apron :) And actually having finished it and seeing the fabrics together, I thought they would have made a nice dress as well. But too late, now they make a cute apron!

I felt a bit embarrassed taking pictures outside in the garden, but our kitchen is
too dark and was a mess when these pics were taken!

Pattern: I used the free pattern from Amy hearts it. It is easy to follow and I finished the apron in about 2 hours - but I sewed slow and was cutting the fabric whenever I needed the next bit.

Fabric: I used two fabrics from my stash, yeah, that I got at a blogger meet-up last year. I still have some leftovers, but these will go into a quilt! I love stripy binding.

The apron does not reach the bum, but I don't mind because I always
wipe my hands on the front :)

Construction: I finished the insides with french seams, because I didn't want any raw edges to show. I made the apron strings from the whole width of the fabric, because I wanted to tie them in the front. I also sewed them right sides together and then turned the right side out. Other than that, I followed Amy's instructions.

You can just make out the pleats under the waist seam.

Have I worn it yet? I have! I actually made the apron two weeks ago and now that I am daily in the kitchen, I really need it.

Do I like it? Loads! I feel pretty in it :) I love the big bows, its gathered neckline and the little pleats at the waist. I couldn't have asked for more.

And one more from the back!

Knitting: A Cropped Sweater for Winter

I finished another sweater! (No, I didn't make the skirt.)

Pattern: Andi Satterlund's cropped sweater for winter (which is a free pattern!)

Size: I knitted with 5 mm needles size XS for the bust and size S for the waist. To get size S at the waist, I just did less decreases. The sleeves are also size S - here I picked up a few more stitches.

Yarn: Cascade Yarns Cascade 220 in mystic purple and rose.

Ignore my bad posture...

Construction: The pattern is really straight forward and thanks to the many photographs easy to follow. I only had problems with the scalloping - I actually had to unravel it three times! It was my first time knitting with two colors and after my first attempt, the scalloped part was too tight and I had problems getting the sweater over my bust. On my second try, the tension was alright, but I had made a mistake when knitting the scallops. So I frogged again. Finally, my third attempt turned out perfect :)

Another difficult part for me were the sleeves! The armscye is shaped with short rows and when knitting the first sleeve I somehow miscounted the stitches. I ended up having only half of the required rows - I noticed it only when knitting the second sleeve. So, if you have an eagle eye, you will see that one of my sleeves sits much better on the shoulders than the other. I am only saying that to you :) I am not going to point anybody else towards it! I wet blocked the sweater, which enormously improved the fit of the scallops.

I do have a question though: Do I have to block a wool sweater every time I washed it? Or is it fine, when I just dry it flat?

Scallops! The ribbing looks also much nicer after the blocking!

Do I like it? Wrong question! I absolutely love it!!! The colors are my favorite ones. And the fit is just perfect :) The sweater goes perfectly with high-waisted skirts and even fits over my Hawthorn Shirtdress!

Have I worn it yet? I have! I wore it to work, but nobody noticed. I was a tiny bit disappointed :P But Lescha said it is actually a compliment because the jumper does not look home made :) Yeah, such a nice guy!

Ribbed neckline.

What's next? Winter is not over yet and I am still in knitting mood. I think I need another cardigan to go with my dresses. Next on my project list is the Agatha sweater, also a pattern from Andi - I just love her designs. I have the pattern already and was a bit shocked. I wanted to challenge myself and that's why I went for a lace pattern. But seeing the pattern, I am a bit scared! I will get the wool for my birthday (which is beginning of March).

Another question: The wool will be Cascade yarns. I am getting it in yellow. But I still have some red one at home from my owl sweater. Can I use the the red wool to make a swatch, or is it better to wait for the yellow one that I am actually going to use? I just thought they might behave differently because of bleaching or dyeing? 

What is she doing? I am holding the washing line out of the way :)

Wardrobe Staples: Corduroy Skirt

One of my favorite basics to wear is a skirt that I bought 3 years ago at H&M. It is a really simple skirt that sits on your hips and I love to wear it with a shirt tugged into it or with the shirttails hanging out. So, I thought it is a good idea to make one :)

I made a corduroy skirt, yeah!

Pattern: I used the New Look pattern 6053 as a template. It is a simple skirt, without waistband, with facings and a lapped zipper. The skirt has two darts at the back and front, but I removed the ones at the front because I didn't want them to point on my belly :P I also moved the side zipper to the back. I was thinking about adding a waistband, but in the end I just wasn't in the mood to draft this as well (I drafted a lining). I wanted a quick project...

source

Fabric: 1 m embroidered corduroy from my stash. I bought it last year in Goldhawk Road. It was in the remnant bin and they sold it for £1 only! I also used some leftover lining and cotton for facings from my stash.

my version

original

Construction: After tracing and cutting the tissue pattern, I just put the pattern pieces on top of the H&M skirt and shaped it at the waist and also shortened the length. Then I altered the facings and drafted my own lining. I just subtracted the facing pieces from the skirt back and front. As I wanted to sew the lining to the facing, I then added 3 cm (corresponding to the 1.5 cm seam allowance of facing and lining together) to the top of the lining.

Pretty inside. 

It was my first time working with corduroy and despite reading all these helpful tips, I still struggled - you might notice the sheen on the skirt! I not only struggled with ironing, but also with sewing. I had read that you should use a walking foot because otherwise your fabric layers will shift. They did, but because I used the walking foot. So after switching to the normal foot, the problem was solved. When ironing, I used another layer of cord to prevent the flattening of the ribs. This was fine until the point where I tried to iron fusible interfacing to the back to stabilize the zipper. It just didn't stick. I got angry and forgot that I should press carefully. Yep, I could see the shape of my iron on my skirt. You can still see it at the back seam, but hopefully it will wash out?

Too much ironing - lesson learnt.

Can you see it sticking out at the bottom?

The lapped zipper (my first one) went in like a breeze - after watching this tutorial by Lauren from Rosie Wednesday. So if you scarred like me about putting in zippers, I can highly recommend her tutorial! The only difficulty I had, was to attach the facing+lining to the actual zipper. I handstitched it and it took my three trials until I was finally happy with the result.

Lapped zipper and embroidery detail.

Do I like the skirt? Yes, I do. Although I am a bit annoyed about the back seam sticking out at the bottom. It looks a bit like a propeller and I really don't understand where it comes from. Any ideas? Is it because of the zipper? Otherwise, I think this skirt will be a great wardrobe staple and will be worn loads of times. And no, I haven't worn it yet, because I am still writing my PhD thesis from home and to be honest I can do this in trainers, hehe.