Lolailo Sundress

With the summer at an end, one must take profit of time and sew sundresses! I had this stretch fabric since last summer, so I've spent some time thinking what to do about it. Finally I remembered this pattern (Burda magazine) from some summers ago, which was complete success in two previous projects, and I think it has been a winner.
Another good decision was to line the bodice with red jersey. I had a small piece hanging around and also, there was not enough fabric to do the lining. You can see the red underlining in the back of the dress, in the knot.
All in all, an easy, fast project, very refreshing and with a practical result.I love wearing sundresses in summer because you are dressed in a moment. These days I am following a Craftsy course, and I needed some easy labour to keep my hands busy while I watch the videos.

Mind my new shoes!
They are Swedish Hasbeens Savanah and I am completely in love with them!

Blue Sundress

Hello!

We were in Denmark on holiday last July, and there I discovered people is sewing and Knitting a lot, it is very popular as one can see for the lots of shops selling knitting kits or fabric. I found this in Copenhagen, http://stof2000.dk/, and of course, I bought myself a couple of potential dresses. This one is a high quality cotton, crisp and with a beautiful liberty pattern.

























The last two summers I have been seeing lots of lady dresses like this

 and I thought this cotton would be lovely for one. I used again the Burda skirt pattern, and made a new pattern for the top. I followed Aldrich's instructions from the "Close Fitting Bodice Block". First, I shaped the side seam and armsythes. Second, I shaped the waist, and decided to combine the waist and bust darts, obtaining a big waist dart (there are multiple choices to place the bust dart, it is wonderful). Finally, I draw a neck line, deciding to make it as deep (it is hot!) both in front and in the back, in a round shape. I placed a zip in the back, so that there is nothing at the sides to compromise its close fit to my body.

I finished the skirt fisrt, and sew it to an underlined waist band. Then I completed the bodice and attached to the waist bans so that this was ocult. In this way, the dress sits perfect and confortable around my waist.

The result is wonderful, very flatterng to my old sillouette, confortable, ellegant and lively. I only had to modify the bodice length, making it 2 cm longer. It is amazing, i won't tire of exclaiming, how the custom made patterns sit wonderfully in my body!

Black Minishorts

Basic piece one has to have in her summer wardrobre, for sure, the black minishorts. Wear them with flat sandals, and you have a casual, comfortable outfit, wear them with high heels and a blouse and you will have some sexy yet elegant ensemble.
The pattern is selfmade, from Aldrich's book (Hipster Jeans), and the fabric is some wonderful black cotton I bought in Leeds last year. It has some ellastan into it, and it is thick and a touch shiny, just perfect. I still have some left to make a black dress. All in all, I am quite happy with the result.

Little Black Not-Leather Dress

Something good and something bad have come out of this project. Bad first? Well, although a good imitation this fabric is nothing more than plastic, so you can imagine how I was sweating inside it in a rock concert I wore it to. To be positive, one can say it was like a sauna session. The fact that it is sleeveless, means that is has to be warm to wear it, but then this non-transpiration problem makes this a waste of time and money (not much of the last, it was a cheap bargain)

Now the good news: the idea and the design are, if we do not count the fabric choice) perfect. So, the positive outcome is double: first, it becomes a new project (I must find some real leather and make it again, but transpirable); second, I learnt something really important: never use non-transpirable, faux leather fabric ever again.

In the making of the dress, I kind of learnt some tricks to sew the faux leather in the machine. If the fabric is sticky and makes it difficult for the machine teeth to move it, cover the seam to sew with some pattern paper strips and remove them after having sewn it. It works perfect.

Here I am wearing it with my wonderful new Dr. Martens kick ass boots, beautiful with long socks.

Vogue Wrap Dress

This is my second and improved attempt to the wrap dress. When I made the first version of this pattern, I still did not know Americans included seam allowances in their patterns, so I made it 1.5 cm wider all around. After reading some books, watching some videos and following some blogs, I figured out how other civilizations sew. Having seam allowances included, they tend to pin and sew the pieces together in the machine. I learned to sew from my mom, and all the women sewers around me follow the same method. We cut the pattern without seam allowances, pin it to the fabric, and cut this with wide seam allowances, specailly in the doubious places. Then we mark it with tailor tucks, take the tissue away, cut the tucks and baste the pieces together by hand for the first try. Only when it is perfect and ready, having made all the necessary adjustments, we sew it by the machine. After that, we take the basting thread out and proceed to finish the garment. Having followed this method all my sewing life -more than 20 years- I am not for change now. Besides, I believe this method makes more sense than simply pin the pieces together and machine sew it by imaginary lines.
Anyways, here is the seocnd version of the wrap dress, now in my perfect size. It feels wonderful, I think, because the fabric, a soft brown knit has a wonderful hang to the body and great movement when I walk.
Hope you like it. I have yet another version of this dress in mind for next winter.

Blue Assimetrical Jersey

This is yet another example of the possibilities of my T-Shirt Universal pattern. This time, I decides to cut a shoulder lower than the other and give some movement to this piece, which otherwise would be too classic. The result is really nice and wearable now in the spring, with a blue tank top under it and a pair of blue jeans. It received a lot of compliments when I wore to school, specially for the colours and texture of the knit, which I found in an opshop. How do you like it?

Who Wears the Pants?

Well, the answer is obvious, isn't it?
I was so enthusiastic about Aldrich's book for women that I decided to buy the masculine version:

What I had in mind was to make a new and better version of the corduroy trousers I had made for my boyfriend, which after being redimensioned form a magazine pattern, did not look as good as they should. With my own patterns, the result was as good as this:

I took measures, I draw the basic block, and made a  muslim from there. I had to make some minor adjustments to the muslim, and now I have the perfect pattern for corduroy pants, if my sweetheart does not gain any volume!
Some parts, like the zipper, o the belt loops are delicate and you need some practice to do them well. In fact these are my first perfect belt loops so far!

Well, my boyfriend is so happy with the result that he has decided to reserve them for dressing up occasions, when they were meant for work. He finds the corduroy mustard yellow perfect, so I am very happy with the job done.

Since I started constructing my own patterns, I am moving away from magazines' The fit is so perfect I can only recommend every seamstress to go for it.

We are now in December 2013. I've made a second version of this pattern, since I kept my toile fo further occasions. It is a cinamon corduroy this time, and the result, as good as the firts one, of course: