Embroidered Advent Calendar

I was going to name this post "Festive Madness", but I've gone there before, and it's really no use complaining anymore. I'm fine, just busy, and if anyone has a recipe for making sewing time in between all the year-end festivities and preparations, please share!

Debi inspired me to put up a post on embroidery. Embroidery/cross-stitch was my sanity-to-go when spending weeks at the hospital during my pregnancy with DD, and later when she got sick a lot and I stayed home with her. During this last phase, in her first year, I made this cross-stitch advent calendar. It's a counted cross-stitch from a magazine. I framed it with red silk, and hung it up with the aid of a drumstick (DH is a drummer; clever, no?).

As you see, on the day before December 1st, the calendar has not been filled. Aaaah, madness...

Festive Girl's Dress

Sewing therapy, anyone?

One simply can't maintain the blahs or blues when sewing yards and yards of pink duchesse satin, rose-embroidered taffeta and deliciously rustling silk organza!

(Front)

I reviewed this season's "social calendar" (mostly consisting of family birthdays, holidays and, yes, my ballet recital!) and, in a spur-of-the moment sewing decision, resolved to sew DD an all-out party/"princess" dress. Here it is!

(Back)

DD, if I haven't mentioned it before, is a very girly girl. No pink is too sweet, no glitter too bright, and no day too ordinary to put on a sparkly crown.


I think this hits the nail on the head!

(Note the stylish leggings and socks!)

Since my stash of satin and taffeta is rather small, I hit the nearest department store and paid double the fabric market price, boo. I also used some silk organza originally bought for the legions of Chanel-style jackets I will make someday (right). While I own some silk garments, I hadn't sewn with silk before. The incomparable sound of rustling organza made every Austen novel I've ever read come alive!



Some info:

I used Burdastyle 11/2010/151 for the bodice pattern, width graded down, length graded up, and added almost 3 inches on the bottom because the pattern has a strong empire line.
The sash is made of two bands sewn of both fashion fabrics and sandwiched between the front and back bodice pieces when sewing the side seams.
I then gathered all available width of skirt fabric (about 140 cm) and sewed that to the bodice.
I fully lined the dress, with a light blue polka dot cotton on top and twice the skirt width of organza on the bottom. I also bound the bottom of the underskirt with a pink lining fabric so it would look pretty when peeking through!

(Inside out, and from below.)

I also took some technique inspiration from the beautiful dresses seen around the internet and added a lapped, pickstitched zipper and understitched the neckline so the satin would lie as smoothly as possible.

DD reserves her right to wear things her way. In this case, bow in front ("Much prettier!").

Happy dress. Happy girl. Happy sewing!

Leggings Kwik Sew 3661

Now this was a qick project. Estimated sewing time (after having cut them out with the leotard), um, 15 minutes?



Not hemming them helped, of course. Look how short they are, unhemmed. Almost shorter than on the envelope model.

Now this can't be right, because while I'm not short, I'm most definitely short-legged. As evidenced by these pictures of the whole ensemble:

I also have a long torso and added over an inch in length to the leotard. The instructions were very helpful, giving exact crotch and back length measurements, and telling me how to lengthen it. Now this may be my first leotard I won't have to continually tug down!

I'm not sure whether I'll sew the ballet skirt or just another leotard with the remnants. The only person who ever wore a skirt when I was a kid in ballet class was the elderly teacher... Am I there yet?

What do you think? Is a ballet skirt a yea or a nay?

Ode to Liberty's

I don't normally go for "brand" names. Unless I'm truly convinced they stand for superior quality or design. Unless the brand/store embodies all I find beautiful. Unless the brand/store makes shopping a purely enjoyable experience - no ugly attacks on the eyes/ears/nose like most high street and department stores offer.

(The gallery at Liberty's with a giant flower installation/art/decor.)

Aaaah. Liberty.

The only negatives I have to offer are the ugly makeover they gave their tea room (why??) and the prices. To be honest though, their fabric goes far beyond what I can buy at fabric markets for 5-15 Euros per metre. So here's about 5-10 fabric markets metre's worth of Liberty fabric:

Dear friends, I have two questions. One, how dare I ever cut into it? Two, what pattern to use? I have 1,5 metres (it's wool and silk), and I'd like to make a blouse/tunic, as usual from Burda Style or maybe Ottobre Woman patterns.

I also bought some cotton duck at Cath Kidston with a cutesy London print I'm probably too old for but will still make into a bag or tote of some sort:

DH upon entering Cath Kidston's said "Now here's a real girl's store!". I think he's right, and too much Cath Kidston might make for a toothache. But it's still fun to see Asian tourists pile their shopping baskets full of flowery knick-knacks! And, I love that she doesn't just sell the stuff but the fabrics, too.

We're Back!

And I've had my fill of

• Tube hopping
• Bus riding
• Museum strolling
• Cream tea
• Fish'n chips

(Challenge: Which picture doesn't have at least two self-stitched garments in it?)

• Bookstore browsing
• Window shopping
• Park ambling
• Monument gazing
• Squirrel watching
• Palace stalking
• Playground visiting.

Next up: My hideously expensive, beautiful Liberty fabric!

Sewing Ballet Clothes: Leotard Kwik Sew 3661

After a month of dressing in whatever decades-old exercisewear I could unearth from the closet, I placed my order for shiny, pink Lycra fabric, fought off DD who wanted it all for herself, and made the leotard (leggings, skirt and other things to follow - possibly).

I don't remember what possessed me to show off my bikini in person (sun induced happy hormones?), but it probably won't happen with this leotard. Can you say lumps and bumps?? (And what made me go for shiny and pink in the first place? There's a reason over 50 % in my ladies' ballet class (average age, umm, mine?) wear black from head to toe. Anyway.)

As you can see (or maybe you're kind enough to overlook it), the seam finishes kind of announce: "Homemade! And she doesn't ever own a serger, coverlock or will use twin needles!" Here's the clou: I like it, anyway. And I'll wear it. That is what Me-Made-May and Self-Stitched September will do for you. If you have unloved homesewn garments hanging in your closet, I say, join us for Me-Made March 2011, and you'll wear it all!

On another note, I'm going to my favorite city in the world next week:

London, here I come!

This will be a family holiday, so there may quite possibly be no fabric shopping but lots of sightseeing. Which is absolutely okay, since I never properly saw the sights anyway, and the children will have a blast looking at a real Queen's palace etc. (I had a bit of a hard time convincing DS that yes, the English really have a Queen. No, royalty doesn't just exist in fairy tales!)

We're leaving next week, but there's a family wedding before that, so I may not be blogging for the next couple of weeks or so. Happy sewing!

(Parting shot: A fine fitting pair of pants, with a side order of mud.)

Boy's Pants "Pont Neuf", Ottobre 4/2010

I sew quite a bit, but I have to admit that I mostly buy the vast amounts of pattern magazines for my own entertainment; if I calculated the average number of garments sewn from one magazine that would be somewhere in the 0.1 vicinity.

The current Ottobre children's magazine, however, has already paid for itself! I made not only the girl's coat, but also these boy's pants from it:



I'd already made a pair of girl's pants from this corduroy fabric (a total fabric market steal, I think it was 5 Euros for 2.5 metres) and wasn't sure at first about the color for boy's pants. I'm very happy with the result though.

I hadn't realized from the pattern that these were - not typical for Ottobre - "skinny pants". I dared cut them really small width-wise, and they fit like a glove. I used a dark olive stretch fabric for the inserts/coin pockets and hope I now have enough left for a skirt. I also used a quilt fabric for the inner waistband and added a hook at DS's request. Details:

As you see, I even added a real zip fly! (And it didn't kill me! Dare I try a pair of grown-up pants soon?) I think I will use this pattern again; it's a really good cut for (slim, long-legged) DS.

Thank you for your encouraging comments regarding the last post! The children seem to be on the mend, and I'm just so thankful to live in this age of modern medicine...