Corduroy Pants for My Love / Pantalons de pana pel meu amor

Carlos wears corduroy pants to work -he is a postman- and he destroys them in a couple of seasons :-(, so I make sure to construct a couple of them every season. This is my own pattern and therefore a glove for my love's slim body. I used commercial patterns in the past, but I has to downgrade a couple of sizes and the result was not nice. It took some work to make the first, muslin included, but now I have by toile pattern and I can make this real quick. And the result is flawless, in fitting and execution (excuse my modesty:-). The procedures is the following: 

1. Cutting and marking with tailor tucks
2. Pockets
3. Fly
4. Interior legs with self-enclosed seams
5. Exterior sides with self-enclosed seams (uncomfortable to sew)
6. Belt rings and waist band
7. Button and buttonhole.

El Carlos porta pantalons de pana a l'hivern per anar a treballar de carter. Així que cada tardor procuro fer-li'n al menys uns. Aquesta pana és gruixuda, de color gris fosc, molt bonica. Utilitzo el patró que jo mateixa vaig construïr amb les seves mides, i és perfecte, com si un sastre els hi fes a mida, i cada any anés a fer-se'n uns  de nous, hahaha! Ara que hi tinc pràctica, els faig en poques hores i el resultat és perfecte. Primer, tallar i marcar amb punts fluixos. Després, butxaques i cremallera. Camals interiors, amb costures entreficades i pespuntejades. El mateix ara pels camals exteriors, amb aqueslles costures tan incòmodes d'acabar, ja  que la cama ja està tancada, presilles, trinxa i botó. Aquest cop els he fet més llargs, perquè he comprovat que es van encongint amb les rentades.

Sheer Long Dress

 I've had this fabric in my little stash for some time now. I saw a long beach dress in a Burda magazine, and that was an inpiration. The fabric piece was very big, and the design is apropriate for a transparent fabric. 

The pity is I was sewing against the clock to be able to wear it in the Festival internacional de cinema fantàstic de Catalunya.
I hate this obsessive compulsive sewing disorder I seem to suffer. It happens a lot in my life. Somehow I get the urgency to finish a project for an event, regardless of the feasibility of the deadline. Moreover, I am way too optimistic with time planification, so the result is me sewing like a madwoman and getting all the possible shortcuts, which usually end up in a botched job.

This pattern is great (to keep it for future uses even), but I sewed it so fast I could have been a contestant in The Great British Sewing Bee, which I stopped watching precisely for that reason! I prefer slow and well, quality to quantity. At least, in theory. This is such a compulsive behaviour in me, and it happens so often, that I cannot even promise not to do it any more, because it will probably happen again. Some event will come up and I will have NOTHING in my wardrobe appropriate for the occasion, so I will have to sew a specific piece in a record time.
I was sewing this dress not only without previously basting the seams (as I usually do), but even without pins! I held the fabric together and machine-stitched directly!!!
As a result of such madness, the neck is a mishap, and the sleeves bottoms are different from one another, one is upsidedown!
In spite of it all, the dress is beautiful and the only standing mistake I cannot tolerate is the neck opening, which gaps a little.
I have been thinking in ways to avoid another rushy project, and the answer my brain gives me is not to buy cheap fabrics like this one. This might sound like nonsense, but I would never rush in a precious fabric. No way. So, only expensive fabrics from now on, haha!! Moreover, my wardrobe is full to the top, so I COMMINT MYSELF TO QUALITY OVER QUANTITY. Please.
 

Black Jersey Top / Samarreta negra de punt

This is a fast project for a trip. Started and finished during the same afternoon. I was going to a rock festival and needed a black long tight top. Why I did not have one, I cannot understand. Since I made it, I wear it all the time. It is a must in any wardrobe, specially in this time of the year when we transition from warm to cold.
I used my universal t-shirt pattern again (for the zillionth time), took 1 cm off at the sides to make it tighter and 3 at the sleeves. I used an overlock stitch to sew the side and sleeves seams. My machine is broken and I am about to buy a new Bernina (Oh! how cool is that???!!!) and in the meanwhile my auntie lent me her old Pfaff, that sews like and angel. I cut the neck in a boat fashion and rolled it once towards the inside. Finally, I finished all the hems with the twin needle, with perfect results.
My old compact camera also broke (I am in a demolition phase it seems), and I am using an even worse one form my school. Pictures are terrible, I know, but they will have to do for now. This was taken at Sitges.

Aquest és un projecte ràpid dels que fas en una tarda. Al dia següent viatjàvem a un festival a Bèlgica i necessitava una samarreta negra llarga per quan no fa ni fred ni calor (tot i que a Bèlgica fot un fred que pela, als interiors no, és clar).
Vaig tornar a utilitzar el meu patró de samarreta universal, per enèsima vegada. Té mànigues raglan, i funciona de perles per teixits de punt.
Com ja vaig explicar, la meva vella Alfa està trencada, i mentrestant m'estudio quina Bernina em compro (oh! què bé sona això!!!), la meva tieta m'ha deixat la seva Pfaff, que cus de meravella. Vaig utilitzar una simulació de punt overlock, tallant després la roba molt a ran perquè quedi molt poqueta, mig cm. Vaig tallar el coll per fer-lo amb forma de vaixell i vag rematar totes les costures doblegant-les cap a dins amb agulles i cosint-les amb l'agulla doble. El resultat és perfecte. No sé com podia viure sense ella, la veritat. 
La meva vella càmera també s'ha trencat (a mi els aparells se'm trenquen de tres en tres!), i mentrestant me'n compro una (va per llarg), vaig fent amb la de l'escola. Perdoneu la pèssima qualitat de les fotos.

Gingham Dress / El vestit de quadrets vichy

 Gingham is a medium-weight balanced plain-woven fabric made from dyed cotton or cotton-blend yarn.^[1] It is made of carded, medium or fine yarns, where the colouring is on the warp yarns and always along the grain (weft). Gingham has no right or wrong side with respect to colour.

Wikipedia

The inspiration was Emy Rossum /La inspiració fou l'Emmy Rossum

 

I was looking for a good black and white gingham and I found this at  Stone Fabrics. It was not cheap, but it was 100% cotton, I cannot stand plastic fibers.

For the pattern, I used Burda Magazine. It had a similar design, and I only had to make three small alterations:

• I added some space around my bust, just where the lateral front pannel and the central piece meet.
• I closed the neckline 4 cm all around, since the design was really low cut.
• I added a neck similar to Emmy's dress, which I designed with the help of Alcrich's book, and it became perfect.
• The fourth alteration was a failure, but it is worht it recording it for future projects. I added some fabric at the waist, thinking I would need it, but then the dres is too roomy in that area. Nothing a belt can't solve, but not necessary in future projects.

 

The pattern includes pockets, wich are a very practical and nice touch.

I made self enclosed seams all over the dress, and for the neck line and amrsythes I used facings that I zigzagged and secured to the dress with a blind-stitch.

I made the buttonholes with the machine, and it broke there. The cost of the reparing has helped me decide I need a new machine!
The result is very nice and confortable, it is a wonderful fabric. 

El cotó de quadrets vichy es una roba típicament de cotó, tot i que ara a les botigues de roba en trobem de polièster o barrejat.

Vaig comprar aquesta roba a Anglaterra per internet,  perquè per aquí, com sovint em passa, no era de cotó 100%. Tinc la sensació que a Catalunya no donem importància a la composició dels teixits, un fet cabdal per mi.

Vaig utilitzar el patró d'un vestit de la revista Burda, al qual vaig fer algunes modificacions:

• Vaig afegir roba al voltant del pit, un parell de cm a cada costat, entre el costadet i la peça central. La modificació va resultar perfecta.
• Vaig fer l'escot molt menys pronunciat, ja que a la revista era un vestit molt escotat. Hi vaig afegir 4 cm tot al voltant.
• Vaig dissenyar i afegir un coll similar al que porta l'Emmy. El patró el vaig dibuixar jo mateixa seguint les instruccions al llibre de Aldrich.
• La quarta modificació va ser una errada. Vagi eixamplar la cintura del cosses i la faldilla uns 8 cm en total (4 a cada costat), i va resulta massa ample. Com que va amb cinturó no hi ha cap problema, però la propera vegada he de deixar el patró tal i com està en aquesta zona.

El patró inclou butxaques, que resulten pràctiques i molt boniques.
Vaig decidir entornar totes les costures i polir-les amb repunts. A l'escolt i les sises vaig utilitzar vistes, que vaig sobrefilar a màquina, i les vaig cosir al vestit amb un punt invisible.
Vaig fer els traus a màquina. Fent els traus precisament, se'm va trencar la meva vella Alfa, i em sembla que he decidit comprar-me'n una de nova!

El resultat és força bo, el porto molt de gust.

Girlie T-Shirt Modification

Ha ha! It sounds like a The Big Bang Theory title, but this post is about a very practical and recurrent process to transform one regular t-shirt into a piece of clothing that actually fits us girls better. I love collecting my favourite bands' merch, but too often they do not have the girlie version, so I have to customize it.

I think that the pictures speak for themselves. We must use a jersey neddle in the machine and sew the seam with a very narrow zigzag for elasticity. Next to this stiching, we will make a wide and short zig zag, and we will cut the seam allowance reeeeally close to it. In that way we will have something similar to the job done by sergers, only we have to make it in three steps instead of one.

For the sleeves and bottom hem, we will roll the fabric towands the inside twice (1.5 cm each turn), and we'll machine-stitch it with a jersey double needle.

Finally, we'll remove the original t-shirt's neck and sew it again in place but in a deeper cut line. We will place the neck elastic band in the inside, under the folded neckline. We will machine stitch it with the double needle too.

And do not forget the ironing in every step.
This procedure is the same I use to adjust my boy's t-shirts when they are too big, minus the neck adjustment.

Black and White Outfit

My last two projects go so well together that I decided to make an official outfit out of it, but in fact they are different in every sense.
The fabric for these capri pants has been in my little stash for a couple of years waiting for its turn. It is a cotton sateen with some elasticity that I bought in one of our trips to Leeds, in the city market. Suddenly I realized I did not have any capri pants and I think they are wonderful for summer, spring and early fall. I love how capri pants make our shoes more visible and sexy.
I used my own pattern for these, pants' fitting being too delicate to be toying around with new experiments. Since this was elastic fabric and I wanted a tight result, I took a couple of cm off in both sides of the pattern, from the crotch downwards. It resulted too much at the first fitting and I had to adjust and try, adjust and try for A LOT of times before I got the perfect fit. I also took 2cm (x4) off the waist of the pants to make them really tight. 
After so much trial and error, I could not even record the new pattern, because every fabric has its own give into it, and I will have to adjust the basic pattern in future projects as I did with this.

I discovered the double needle for the self bound seams I always make in pants, and I made a very good job with the zipper construction following Armstrong's instructions.
The result is almost perfect,maybe a little too tight in the waist department. I cannot gain another gram if I want to wear them comfortably, hehe...

As for the top, I used some remaining viscose from a previous project, but the fabric was scarce, so I had to include a seam in the centre back. After sewing it at the machine, I realized (my boyfriend did, in fact) that the stripes were not well-matched and it was almost impossible to undo the stitching, so I decided to take it to the haberdashery to have some metal eyes installed, and pass a black ribbon to try to hide my mistake. It is also a nice detail enhancing the top, I am really happy with it. 
 


Again, I used the double needle for the seams around the neck and armholes, which are rolled in themselves 1 cm. This ending in fabulous because it looks nice, it is quick, and it has elasticity like the fabric.

Menorca Dress

We sewers-bloggers always explain three processes when we report a new project:

1.  How did we get the fabric
2.  How did we make the pattern 
3. How did we get the inspiration (which often comes along process 1 or/and 2) 

Well, this particular project was ignited by the fabric. I was on holiday in Menorca (wonderful, wonderful island), which is quite close to the place we live: inland Catalonia, we have planes in summer which fly straight there. We spent some days in Ciutadella and some more in Maó, and I explored the fabric shops in both of them. Curiously, all of them had some of the same stuff, you know, being an island... but I found one that was particularly well assorted and its owner very nice and knowing of her product. She understood my need for natural fibers at once and helped me find the perfect fabric: an embroidered white cotton. And it was the end of the bolt, so I got a very good price too!
It was only 1.2 x 1.15 m, and it had an alongside embroidered border that I wanted to save for the dress hem. 
The fabric brought the inspiration, I was not in Ibiza, but very close to it, and I had a small piece of white cotton, so I started to think about the dress I would make.
Back home I had this old summer dress, so old I only wear it around the house, comfy and becoming, so I decided to rub it off.
After rubbing off the bodice and having a fitting session with it, and saw it was small at my boobs (which I had compensated, 20 years before, by elongating the back???!!!) Curiously there was too much fabric in my upper chest, so I remembered Karen's words and decided to make a FBA, which worked wonders:

For the skirt of the dress, I folded the dress by the back zipper (its only seam all around), and after securing it with pins, I placed over the bias-folded fabric, and cut.

I saw the dress was resulting too sheer, so I ripped and old white cotton dress, and used the fabric for an underskirt, The bodice I made it double, using the inside one as facing.

For the bottom hem, I cut the embroidered detail to the thread's rim, ans stitched to the skirt bottom with an embroidered stitch my machine has:

The result is wonderful, I am really happy with it. Comfortable, cool and becoming to my summer tan.