Saturday, May 26, 2012

Bluse - Sommer-Symphonie

Sewing! Why are you so hard? I honestly feel like I need to glue some sort of motivational poster on my sewing machine. Maybe a quote from Galaxy Quest: Never give up, never surrender!
Or the ever applicable Gargamel with his "I'll get you, I'll get all of you if that's the last thing I ever do!"
Do you hear that, sewing patterns? I'm not giving up.

Even if it means producing a bunch of ugly fitting clothes until I finally get the hang of it.

During the past couple of weeks I've been busy sewing, reading a bunch of sewing blogs and figuring out my body measurements. The whole thing led to a few horrifying conclusions. Turns out I'm completely deformed – one leg shorter than the other, bad posture and dropped shoulders (not to mention the fact that my right shoulder – my bag carrying shoulder - literally has a dent from schlepping all the heavy crap I put in my purse. A dent!!!!). Following a sewing pattern exactly as printed with my body being all asymmetric leads to ill fitting clothes. (Okay, my beginner sewing skills may also play a part in it.)
So what I need to do is:
1) learn more about how to adjust the patterns to fit me better
2) carry nothing in my purse besides my wallet and cellphone (an actual dent in my shoulder!!!)
3) probably spend less time hunched over said sewing patterns/knitting or
4) sign up for some sort of corrective exercise program (is there such a thing as stand-up-straight pilates?)

I'm going to be honest – point 1 is the only one that has a chance of actually coming true. Until it does, here's a Burda blouse that I spent a week sewing.


  
Made 3 different muslins, and after going a few sizes down made a blouse that fits me so long as I stand perfectly still and with my back completely straight. I probably went too far with the alterations – I'm pretty sure I made the upper back too narrow, because it pulls a bit tight if I bend over. Or maybe it's the cap sleeves. Either way – upper body mobility is somewhat limited. Guess I need to walk around with straight posture and my head held high ;-) 
 



Invisible zipper sewn with an invisible zipper foot. Also took some practice. I just wish I trimmed the top of the zipper a bit more, to avoid that little gap.




The fabric is light batiste, very soft and flowy. Very difficult to sew, because it keeps slipping. Hemming the finished blouse turned out to be a nightmare – I sewed and unpicked the hem three times – I just couldn't get it to be straight.

All in all – a learning experience. The zipper and the sleeves don't look all that bad, right? Little sewing mistakes and the fit problems are okay, I can live with them. Here's my biggest problem with this blouse - the pattern choice. What was I thinking? The pleats at the bust and the light fabric make it look like a freaking maternity top. Not a good look on me. New goal: Learn how to choose patterns that look good on you.

Here it is tucked in. Much better. 



 
And with a cardigan. Thank God for cardigans. (This one's from H&M) 


 

New new goal: Knit some cardigans for future coverage of my sewing disasters. Feel free to recommend some cardigan patterns for me to knit.

7 comments:

  1. Ovakoooo, ja ću ti reći istinu, pa ti vidi jesam li ti postala najomraženija blogerica .. koliko vidim po slikama proporcionalno si građena, nemaš problema s viškom kilograma i mlada si, dakle skoro da nemaš ograničenja u izboru modela. Zašto biraš modele koji te pokrivaju i ninakoji način ne ističu pozitivne kvalitete tvoje građe, totalno je izvan mog poimanja. I ona donja bluza, jednako kao i ova su vrećaste i sakrivaju ti tijelo kao da u najmanju ruku imaš ne znam kakve defekte koje treba sakriti. Tvoja šivalačka vještina svakako napreduje, ali kod izbora kroja trebala bi naglasiti svoju mladenačku ženstvenost.
    Ne želim ti nametati ukus, ali zašto ne probaš s ovako nečim:
    http://voguepatterns.mccall.com/v7876-products-63.php?page_id=259
    ili ova tunika DOnne Karan:
    http://voguepatterns.mccall.com/v1168-products-10768.php?page_id=260
    nešto jednostavno poput ovoga:
    http://butterick.mccall.com/b5645-products-14497.php?page_id=366
    http://mccallpattern.mccall.com/m6399-products-14662.php?page_id=481
    http://mccallpattern.mccall.com/m6078-products-10889.php?page_id=481
    Ovdje mislim da bi mogla pronaći nekoliko jednostavnih modela koji bi ti lijepo pristajali.
    Iz iskustva ti govorim da je najbolje odabrati model koji ti se dopada i onda krenuti u kupovinu platna, kada platno kupiš onako impulsivno bez konkretne ideje što od njega napraviti kasnije je daleko teže spariti to platno s odgovarajućim modelom. Ako ti kažem da doma imam platna kupljena prije nekih skoro 20 godina i do dana današnjeg nisam uspjela pronaći što s njima :-(

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    1. Drago mi je da si napisala iskreno mišljenje, od tebe sam stvarno svašta naučila što se pletenja tiče. U šivanju sam još uvijek početnik i zato i biram one modele koji su u Burdi označeni kao jednostavni. Naravno da su svi široki i sa šavom samo sa strane i na ramenima, mislim da je u tome i poanta - početnik će lakše na sebe navući nešto preširoko, nego se truditi tjedan dana i završti s preuskom bluzicom. Da ne spominjem da je to sada očito moderno, u Zari i H&M-u, gdje uglavnom kupujem odjeću, većina je modela takva, široka i lepršava. Pa na neki način pokušavam šivanjem kopirati ono što bih inače kupila u trgovini. Tu mi očito fali onaj dio isprobavanja robe - ne znam kako će mi nešto pristajati dok ne sašijem, i do sada sam uglavnom fulala, no na greškama se uči.
      A što se tiče kupovanja tkanina, kupujem ih kao što kupujem vunu, bez plana i programa. Tu mi očito nema pomoći, hrčak mentalitet prevladava racionalno razmišljanje.

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    2. evo mene opet ;-)
      U jednoj online engleskoj trgovini povremeno nude krojačke lutke po povoljnoj cijeni, možda ne bi bila loša idjea investirati u kupovinu, jer je očigledno da voliš šivati i da nećeš odustati. Krojačka lutka bi ti riješila probleme što se isprobavanja tiče. lakše je i neke preinake raditi na lutki nego na sebi.
      Što se tiče burdinih easy krojeva, znam da se radi o upravo kako sama veliš jednostavnim linijama, zato sam ti i linkala uglavnom jednostavne linije, ali koje ipak imaju nekakvu formu. Već imaš određeno iskustvo, imaš volju i zato se nemoj ograničavati idejom da si početnica ... to ti je kao kada netko u pletenju stalno plete šalove jer se ne želi uhvatiti u koštac s konstrukcijom pulovera, nakon jednog šala i naučenih osnovnih očica znaš dovoljno da kreneš u pletenje džempera ... tako i ti sa šivanjem, znaš spojiti komade, već si i hlače šivala, trudiš se prišiti rubove i ciferšluse kako spada, dakle nisi više početnica :-)

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  2. Well, if you can't do "stand-up-straight pilates", you can always sew a "stand-up-straight blouse". Just kidding :) But I think Romantales is right. It's more about the choice of pattern and fabric, than it is about dents in the shoulder (I have one, too. A dent, I mean. Shoulders I have two :)) I do, however, really like the blouse you made, especially knowing how much work you've put into it.

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    1. Phew, glad I'm not the only one with the dent ;-)

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  3. I, ja moram da se slozim sa Romantales- sa tvojim telom je sve u redu i zaista mozes da nosis sve sto pozelis.:) Vremenom ces otkriti sta je ono sto bi ti najbolje stajalo. Verovatno nam se svima to desava da nam se svidi neki model (i u sivenju i u pletenju) a onda kada ga napravimo vidimo da to nije to- da to nama ne stoji. Pokusaj da napravis neki malo drugaciji model, mozda se iznenadis:)

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  4. You can try swimming,that in my opinion the best solution for posture. Great blouse, I want to make similar for my mother.

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