Sunday, July 29, 2012

Karlsruhe & München

Pretty much the summary of how I spent my summer vacation. Traveled to Karlsruhe and München. I loved both cities, despite the cloudy and rainy weather. Both beautiful, full of green surfaces, with amazing botanical gardens, especially München with its garden next to the Nymphenburg palace. 

München, Neues Rathaus
Karlsruhe, view from the Schloss tower
Now, I know you all know this trip of mine didn't go without some yarn shopping. I didn't get to do any yarn searching in Karlsruhe, because it was the weekend, everything was closed anyway. 

But I made up for it in München.I want to move there and spend every day in one of its yarn shops. I only visited three stores that were in the center of the city, the ones I could reach on foot while sightseeing. I told myself I would only buy a skein from each, like a little yarn souvenir. 


But then I went inside and lost all my sanity. 



Friday, July 6, 2012

Blouses and my questionable taste in fabrics

Here's what I don't like about sewing: in order for something to fit right, you have to make a ton of adjustments, there's loads of pinning and trying on and you basically sew everything at least three times. At least I do. So far, I made all my muslins from old sheets. But now I ran out of old sheets. So I decided to take a walk on the wild side and make a wearable muslin from my stash fabric. And I do have a stash of fabric. A stash of some of the ugliest prints known to man. I know I liked it when I bought it, so what happened? Has my taste changed that much since last year? 

Anyway, here's a blouse I made completely according to the pattern from Burda. I'm too lazy to check which one, maybe it's this years June edition. 

 

My first time making anything with a collar. Obviously I messed up in a couple of steps. The interfacing I used is too flimsy, so the collar doesn't stand up nice and crisp like all good collars do. I failed to match up the ends of the buttonhole placket, so my collar ends don't meet up when I button the shirt all the way through. And I misread a whole section on sewing the bias tape on the neck, turning something on the buttonhole placket this way or the other - the collar is basically a complete mess. But it somehow works.

The sleeves could be a little shorter, but I'm pretty satisfied with how I set them in. This thing also has darts. Those long darts with two points. Scary, I know.

The fabric is practically transparent, some sort of cottony stuff. It wrinkles easily and I'm not too crazy about the print. Questionable fabric choices, indeed.

After finishing my shirt, I felt pretty confident in my shirt making skills, so I made one for my mom. A different pattern, but also from Burda. Don't even ask about the fabric. I don't know why I bought this. My mom likes green, and they didn't have solid colors. It's viscose.

I still need to add buttons.


This pattern had better collar instructions, so this one came out perfectly. Just look at those crisp edges. I guess practice really does make perfect. 

Or does it? Introducing my third regrettable fabric purchase. A yellow Miss Sixty jersey with white flowers print. It was supposed to be my beach dress. In this one I learned that I need to cut my binding strips way shorter than I did here, to make the neckline and the armholes gape less. The original plan was to add elastics to the waist (so that I can wear it with the top slightly over the elastic so that it looks like a two-part dress) But I gave up on that. It's not likely I will ever go out in public in this. I mean - it's yellow. The armholes are too big. The hem is probably a bit askew. And it's very, very yellow.


It is very comfortable though. I've been wearing it around the house and with these ridiculously high temperatures lately it's been a life saver.