Ahoi!

I had the idea for the bag in my head for quite a while and on Sunday I managed to make the idea come to life. The fabric was easy to work with. The natural coloured is this one. I could also imagine to use it for a dress or a blazer. The blue fabric with white dots was a left over from my dress.

Did I say I won't buy fabric ?

Glamour L.A. 2

I could not let this chance go to get this gorgeous fabric at work. It is currently the "Fabric of the Week" and therefore it was only 1,99€ the metre. Who could say no at such a price ? I got 3 m and plan to make a drapey cardigan and a fancy top. This evening I sewed up my other purchase:

This looks like Panne Velvet but is actually a jersey with burn out print. It's very stretchy with this interesting texture and I made it into a simple top.

Since the fabric is very see through it's necessary to wear a top underneath or use a lining. The pattern has just 4 seams so it was very quick to sew. I made French seams because I don't have a serger at home right now. I think in total it took 2 and a half hours ( cutting and sewing, dinner break included). If I make it again I will change the neckline, it is a bit too wide for my taste. I think a smaller neckline is more flattering. I'll probably change the neckline soon, maybe use a binding and gather it.

Platz ist in der kleinsten Hütte

I know, I know, I usually post in English but here I couldn't restrain of using this German saying which means something like "Space is in the smallest room". As I already mentioned before I live in Hamburg now and I only rent a room in the house of a family. Therefore I had to accomodate my sewing room into this small room. I succeded by leaving much of my stuff behind and only taking scraps that are large enough to make something. On one of my sewing frenzy weekends I managed to use quite an amount of fabrics so soon I will be able to shop again for fabric. Of course it is very alluring if you work with fabrics the whole day and see what will be in stock soon, but so far I restricted myself to buy only a piece of lining and a high quality bamboo silk mix. The lining was used already for the dress from one of my last posts.
Anyway I wanted to show you, how I make the most of the small space that I have.
This is one corner of my room where I store all the pattern magazines, cut out patterns and my sewing machine. The Burda magazine from 7/2000 is my favourite issue so far. I already made a couple of garments from that issue and many of my simple tops were drafted using a top from this issue as a pattern.

 I store all my fabrics in this plastic container. It fits underneath my bed and makes use of the space, that would otherwise be useless. I don't have a cutting table or anything, it's back to the floor, but the parquet that I have is very good for cutting.

I got this little box in the hardware store and small items fit perfectly into the container.

Mother Africa

I made this skirt a while ago.It's really simple, just two rectangles which are gathered by an elastic in the waist. But the skirt has pockets! The fabric is an African cotton print that I got at Oxfam in Düsseldorf when I was still working there.

Sew happy!

This weekend I decided to spend a whole day in front of the sewing machine. The weather was a mix of sunshine and hail , so I wasn't unhappy about spending the day indoors. I managed to make quite a lot of items that were on my To-Sew list.
One of my friends is getting married in a month and of course I need a new dress for that. I haven't sewn a dress for quite a while now and for a long time no dress made out of a woven fabric so I had some fitting issues. I cut out a German 44 but because from the measurement table it seemed that I needed a larger size I added some centimetres on the back and in the side seam. When I first tried it, it was to big so in the end I took in the side seams as much as I added before. Well , I used some fabric which I had in my stash for quite a while now, so I take this dress as a muslin. Next time I'm going to use the pattern as suggested. I still have enough time until the wedding to make a second version. What do you think ? Should I wear this, or make it again ?

There is also the problem that the straps are a tad to wide for my shoulders and I need to think of a way to fix them and also hide my bra straps. I'm still not sure if I'll wear this or make something different. What you can't see because of the dotted fabric is that there are princess seams in the front and in the back. I think this pattern would be great in a coulour blocked version or with a print and a solid colour.

It's dress number 102 from April 2004.
In the next days I'll show you the other projects that I made.