3 purple dresses

A I am currently sick and unable to do much sewing, I´m posting dresses I did last winter. My two collegues and me (the same ones as the Atonement-girls) wanted matching dresses, but not exactly the same, for the christmas recital. So we decided to use the Simplicity 2959 pattern and three different shades of purple. Adjusting the pattern war quite...astonishing actually. I am a solid size 10. Both of my collegues are 10, too, although from the bust measurement  would have to adjust the pattern to size 14, for one in the back and one in the front:)
So I made mine first and gave it to both of them to try on, to see how much I would have to alter. Amazingly, it fitted both of them perfectly. I have no idea how but it did:)
The fabric is a duchess fabric which I love because it has a really nice drape to it and looks a quite glamorous. I did the draping with black lace which you can tie in front or back.
Here are the three dresses (The hem is not ironed in the pictures - that´s why it looks a little weird)

On the hem I sewed a small lace trim:

Here´s the back view:

And last but not least, a picture of the three of us all dressed up:)

Couture project - sleeve facing

The sleeve hem is getting a hair canvas interfacing, too. After I closed the underarm seam I stitched the interfacing with catchstitches invisibly to the wrong side of the fabric.

After that I sewed the facing on with the right sides together, clipped the corners, trimmed the seam allowence and turned it to the wrong side.

 

I secured the hemlines and edges with pickstitches.

So far so good, more pictures will follow when I start with the lining.

 

Couture project - the collar

Yesterday I made the collar. I padstitchted it (on this picture there´s only half the stichting showing - I hadn´t had the other half done yet).

With the collar stitchted to the jacket it looks like this. For the pictures I already put the shoulder pads inside:

Couture project - in progress

I just LOVE sewing with these techniques! Never in a million years I would have guessed to enjoy it that much.
There´s a lot of hand sewing to do which I´m usually to lazy for.

It´s my fist time working with hair canvas and I imagined it mucn more difficult. Once steamed and pressed it´s easy to handle und has the perfect thickness for my wool fabric.
The seamline of the front and lapel has to be edged with stay tape or bias tape that has been stretched and ironed. I had only bias tape with hearts at home, but as it is on the inside, nobody will see:) 

The pocket has a fold detail which I hand basted for now:

 

First time to try it on my bust - perfect!

My favorite part yet is the seam facing. From the right side it´s completly invisible...

...and that´s how it looks from the left side:

It gives the whole jacket a completly different drape and just looks wonderful. Such a small piece of fabric for such a great effect:)

And that´s how far I got today:

The base is build and fits perfectly. Tomorrow I´ll start on the collar and the sleeves.

Couture project - my tweed jacket

I have my heart set on a new project. I want to try to make a tweed blazer using couture techniques. So, today I bought Vogue 8333 which I will use in size 10.
I also bought a great tweed fabric with 95% wool and 5%silk and hair canvas (real horsehair - so weird!).

Today I just cut out the paper pattern pieces, tomorrow I will start. I´m very excited as I never made anything using couture techniques. There will be a lot of hand sewing, I hope I´ll be patient:)

Hat´n´roll

I have so many scraps of fabric that I don´t want to throw out but are too small to make anything for me. So, I´m making hats for kids. It´s a great way to use all of the leftover fabric pieces. I´ll take them to work as spare hats for the kids.

Katwise coats

I just found this awesome textile artist Katwise! 
Her coats are all made out of sweaters and I just LOVE it!

I´m thinking about buying her tutorial and making one of these...

I just have to collect 20 sweaters now=)

Oh, I´m absolutley hooked!

Photoshootingcrazy

I love the photoshootings with my cousin. It´s always fun and the end result is never what we intended it to be. It´s even better!

I made the green dress myself, it´s Simplicity 2043. I shortend it and took a lot of tulle out. I think I used only half of the amount of fabric than I was supposed to. 

Well, here are the pictures:

Summer is ending - I need new clothes!

The end of summer is here - wheaterwise.

So, I need new everyday clothes=)

I made two short-sleeved shirts out of cotton jersey. I used the pattern "Shelley" from Farbenmix.

And I made a long sleeved shirt out of cotton jersey, too. This pattern is "Albi" from Schnittquelle.

I love the little deers on the fabric, although my husand says they look more like Chiwawa dogs.
The overlenght sleeves are very cozy and warm, very good for  chronical cold me=)

Dirndl - finish line

I finished my Dirndl! Only the blouse is missing, but I can´t decide on the design yet...

Dirndl - almost the end

I´m almost finished. Almost!
I sewed on the hooks by hand - and in the end I saw that they´re uneven. So, I´m going to take them out and try to get them in the right place this time...
After the hooks are in the right place I´ll make an apron green lacing cord.

I made a decorative stripe of jaquard on the apron, so there´s more of the dark green. So far I just love the dress. Both the fabrics have a nice volume due to the fork pleats so it has a nice twirl=)

Dirndl - Hardcore "Froschgoscherling"

Yesterday I attached the skirt which I made with fork pleats. I love the green shade of the jaquard!

For the neckline I made a "Froschgoscherl"-Ribbon. Froschgoscherl is the name for the mouth of a frog in austrian german dialect. I had to cut a 4,5m long cross grain ribbon to make this. It didn´t turn out perfect, it´s crooked in some places (as in the picture), but that´s fine by me. All in all the neckline has now 64 Froschgoscherl all around and now my eyes are spinning=)

Tomorrow I´ll make the apron, then I´ll have to think about how to make the blouse. I´m not sure if I want off shoulder sleeves or more the traditional style with the puffed sleeves...

My Dirndl - fighting with the bodice

Yesterady I started on the bodice. I ironed bias seam tape on the neckline and armhole edges, the linen is very stubborn...

I wanted to do the green contrast piping along the back and front seams. The linen and the taffeta were both very uncooperative and kept pulling in different directions. So, it´s not perfect but I like it:)

 I also did a neckline piping. I used the same brown linen for lining. I have to do a little alteration and take 1 cm in at the side seam, it´s a little loose at the waist.

That´s how far I got yesterday, maybe today or tomorrow I can continue, I´m excited about the skirt part!

My Dirndl, pattern making

I made the basic pattern for my friend, now I have to wait until I see her again to see if it fits.

Until then, I caught the Dirndl-fever, too. So I´m making a fancy one for me.
I made the pattern myself yesterday. I wanted to have many seams in the back, so I split it in 4 pieces. The front a seam, where the hooks will be attatched. The bodice has a very low neckline, but it will be worn with a blouse underneath.

I bought the fabrics also. I got a beautiful dark green jaquard silk with deers for the skirt, a dark brown linen for the bodice and a bright green taffeta for the apron.

I want to use the apron fabric to do decoration ("Froschgoscherl" more on that later) on the bodice if I have enough fabric.

I´m not making a traditional Dirndl, as I´m not gathering the skirt, I will make pleats. And the skirt will be shorter than usual.

So, to the sewing maschine!

Helen of Troy

Good morning everybody!

As I´m too tired to sit in front of my sewing maschine this week, I´m posting a dress I already made last May.

A friend of mine from my childhood asked me for a dress to wear at a christening. She wanted one in a kind of Helen of Troy style.

So, I made the pattern according to her despcription, bought white Crepe de chine, chiffon and a lot of different beads in bronze, brown and gold colours. This is what came out:

Its knee-lenght, I don´t have a better picture...

The beading took a loooong time, but it was worth it!

I hope I can continue with the Dirndl pattern today or tomorrow...

Let´s Dirndl! - Starting point

A collegue of mine asked me if I could make her a Dirndl, a traditional austrian dress.

She has difficulties with finding a size that truly fits.

As I´m fairly new to pattern making I promised I´d try. So yesterday we had a nice chatty evening and I took her measurments. Now I´ll start drafting the pattern - wish me luck!

The dress is made out of four major pieces:

The blouse: Traditionaly ending at an empire waist. With either short, 3/4 or long sleeves, depending on the season, most of the time puffy and gathered at the hem.

  

 The bodice: It is originally made out of linen. It has a button closure at the front, sometimes it has Dirndl-hooks for lacing. The more modern Dirndl have a zipper at the side and the lacing and buttons are just decorative. The bodice is kind of low cut, but got more and more low, I think since the "Oktoberfest" (it´s a festival in munich where everyone get´s into a Dirndl and get´s drunk with beer).

The skirt: Sometimes the skirt is attached to the bodice, but if you want to be able to vary between skirts and bodices you can make it seperatly. It´s done in 3 lenghts, floor lenght, mid calf and over the knee. Traditionally the skirt is gathered with a method that´s called "hanseln":

The apron: It´s hem ends a few cm over the skirt hem. The apron is gathered with the same method as the skirt. The side you tie the bow says something about your status (married, unattached, widow).

Enough Dirndl talk - let´s start!

Hermiones red dress- photo heavy post

Two months ago I started to recreate the red dress Hermione Granger wore to Fleur & Bills wedding.

I constructed the pattern myself. After sewing a muslin and little alterations I had a finished pattern for the bodice with princes seams and darts in the back:

After this - fabric shopping!!!

 I bought 3m of very soft and flowy micro satin, 5m chiffon, a little darker glass beads and of course, an invisible zipper.

I started by making the bodice out of a double layer of micro satin and chiffon. And then the ruffles...oh yes, the ruffles. I had to run to the store because I ran out of needles...

That´s just the ruffles on the edges of the bodice...

 

After I sewed in the lining - also micro satin - more ruffles! They run from the front of the bodice over the shoulders to the back, all of them facing outwards.

I sewed the skirt in a sewing-flash, so I didn´t make good progress pictures. I made the skirt out of a 3/4 circle of micro satin and chiffon. There are  8 lines of ruffles down the skirts. These ruffles are getting narrower as they run down the skirt.

I put the zipper in the side seam, not in the back seam as the original dress, so it´s easier to close by myself.

And what´s missing? Of course more ruffles!

I did many rows of ruffles around the waist and a big flowery ruffle circle in the front.

Last I handsewed the beads in between the ruffles.

As I am no good at taking pictures of myself, I only have this lousy one, but I hope I´m able to convince somebody to take better pictures soon.

 All in all I made 32m (34yard) of chiffon stripes into ruffles!!!

But I just love this dress and hope I can wear it soon!