Summer sewing - wearables (more or less)

These past few days I've been sewing like a maniac. Fabric storage has become a problem lately - there is just no room in my tiny apartment to put it all. Don't even let me get started on the yarn. My yarn storage is not the most elegant solution, interior design-ly speaking.

I honesty thought all my yarn would all fit in the green box.

But back to fabric. Same problem, it's just stuffed in my closet along with my clothes. The super smart solution to this problem - use the fabric to make clothes. That I will have no place to put. 

I really should start to sew for other people, but as far as my technique goes,  I'm not just there yet and I don't want my friends to give me the side-eye when I gift them with a too short/tight/long/wide piece of clothing. 

I'll just stop my moaning now and post some pictures. 

Pajama pants. Cotton. No lion - he sleeps tonight ;)

 

 

Burda shorts from the 3/2011 issue.

Pockets and a front zipper. The zipper nearly did me in. 

 

Very thin and see-trough jersey tank.

Messed up the back a bit.

The jersey top was sewn following the tutorial Sewing with knits tutorial from Noodlehead. Let me tell you something about sewing with knits - it's hell! From the cutting to the sewing - nothing went nice and smooth. I hate jersey. I hate the fact that I still have jersey fabric in my stash. But I love to wear jersey clothes. It's comfy. So I guess I'm in for more jersey frustration. 

I left the edges of the top unfinished, because that seems to be very trendy right now (at least on my shirts from Zara or h&m). I just might wear this one out in public.

How a potato stopped my knitting

On my needles right now: Uhura. I was in Zagreb recently, came back home with a load of Unitas cotton (yes, after I said I wasn't going to add more to my stash. What can I tell you, I'm weak.), including this blue Dada, a cotton/viscose blend. I was pumped to knit this, I'm on vacation, have all the time in the world, there was no stopping me. 

Except all it took to stop me was a potato. And a sharp knife. Yup, I went to peel a potato, but peeled half of my fingertip instead. There was more blood than on an episode of Walking Dead. And it turned out that my left middle finger is one of my knitting fingers. Go figure. 

It's better now, but I'm trying not to make it worse by adding pressure to the finger. And the band-aid keeps snagging on the yarn and pulling the viscose fibers. So the knitting is now on a break.

But sewing isn't. It would seem that the left middle finger doesn't play such an important role when it comes to sewing. So I made a fishing hat. 

I adapted a Burda pattern for a baby hat, more or less successfully. 
My measurement was a little off, so there's some bunching of the fabric on the rim. 

Also here's another embarrassing confession: I had to google the formula for circumference of a circle. It would seem my math skills (if I ever had any) have completely evaporated. 

And I sewed the rim a bit unevenly, so it's longer on one side than on the other. But I guess it can pass as extra protection from the sun.

So I'm ready for the beach. I just wish it would stop raining every single day. C'mon, I'm on vacation!

118-13

Don't you just love the name of DROPS patterns? So easy to remember. I'm kidding, of course. 

My latest DROPS project is 118-13 Waistcoat in ”Muskat” with patterned rib border.

I did it in Mirabela cotton, so I had to adjust the CO number, but that was it as far as changing the pattern goes. A quick and easy summer knit. 

My plan was to wear it with a cotton tank top underneath as soon as I finished it, but with these temperatures wearing two tops just looks seems like suicide by overheating. I guess I'll just have to wait until it's a little cooler. 

I also started this Leaf Peeper Bandit, a scarf in sock yarn. 

But I don't like the way it's turning out, the yarn I picked is all wrong for this project and I kind of feel like it's felting under my sweaty hands. So I guess I'll just rip it and make socks in the winter. Goodbye, Leaf Peeper Bandit. It was fun while it lasted. 

The Burda adventure. Or lamentation.

I've bought maybe three Burda magazines in my entire life. I looked at the modeled pictures of the finished garments, thought some of them were cute, got the delusion I could make some of that stuff and then opened the pattern 'thing' - a piece of folded paper as big as my entire apartment, filled with a bunch of interlocking lines - and gave up. 

But as it turns out, Burda also publishes a simpler edition, for those of us who don't want to spend an entire day sitting on the floor looking at a bunch of lines, whispering 'where is it' and slowly going crazy while trying to find the pattern we want to make. 

Enter Burda Easy. Each pattern on it's own part of the giant paper. I was very happy when I found that. I chose the German version because I speak German (the alternative was Italian, which I totally forgot).  I chose the only pattern for a pair of shorts that was in the magazine. It was high waist, but the model was working it, so why couldn't I. 

Image from burda.de

So I got the Burda, got some fabric I bought ages ago for a bag but never used and my super awesome knowledge of the German language - I was all set.

BUT THEN! As it turns out, I don't speak Burda German. At all. The detailed instructions for a simple pair of shorts that were supposed to be easy gave me so much grief you wouldn't believe. Freaking German and its composite words. I re-read everything at least ten times and still only got maybe half of it. Some of these words aren't even in the dictionary, okay? So I said: whatever, let's take some measures and cut the fabric. 

It turned out I'm between sizes - big butt, small waist. I chose the larger size, cut everything, ironed it out, and went back to reading the step-by-step instructions before sewing everything together. Spent more time reading than actually sewing.

Successfully managed to sew two back pockets and install a side pocket. Made darts on the pant fronts and backs. Managed to sew a not-so-invisible invisible zipper. Sewed the pants together. Sewed a top border, folded it down and attached it to the zipper sides. And then I tried it on. 

The pants were too big in the waist. As it was to be expected. I had to rip out the top border and adjust the darts to make it fit better around my waist. It wasn't enough, but I left it as it was - had I taken it more in, I wouldn't have been able to pull the pants over my ass.

Final steps included figuring out how to use the blind hem stitch on my machine to hem the pant legs. Haven't quite mastered that, the stitches show on the front a bit too much. 

But all in all, after a day and a half I managed to produce my first garment made from a Burda pattern - a pair of high-waist shorts too wide in the waist area, made out of material that matches absolutely nothing in my closet.

But still, I'm pretty proud of myself. Maybe now I can try to sew something from the 'real Burda'. 

Are you ready for pictures? 

Maybe a belt?

Belt, definitely.

Yes, the zipper is blue. It's the only one I had.

This pocket is the straightest thing I've ever sewn.

It was a nice day for a...

... white wedding. 

Not mine, just so we're clear. A friend got married, I was only the creative committee. That explains my absence from the blog for the past month or so. I've been busy making ring pillows, confetti pouches and was generally up to my neck in red and white ribbons and fabrics. 

So let's see what I made. First up - confetti. It's a custom in Croatia to hand out decorated confetti at weddings. The confetti themselves are just almonds in a rock-hard white sugar shell. They're really disgusting to eat, so nobody actually eats them, they just end up gathering dust on a shelf or in a drawer of the wedding guest. Confetti are a kind of a way of saying 'thank you for coming to our wedding'.

The bride, Ana, chose the colors red and white, and wanted roses,  so I went from there. I borrowed something from various creative magazines and images of other confetti I found online, and finally ended up with this: 

The bride and groom chose the quote, it's from the Bible, Genesis 2:24: For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. Not what I would have chosen, but it's not my wedding, ad thus not my place to comment. 

I made 90 of them. It took forever. Made me realize I'm not one for mass production. And that it's highly unlikely I'll ever be making confetti again. 

Next up - the ring pillow. I couldn't decide on the concept, so I made them two. They chose the first one. 

 

                               

The fabric is satin. Slippery. Hard to work with. And delicate. I had to tape pieces together with scotch tape before sewing. It's highly unlikely I'll be working with satin again. 

So, now that the wedding is done, I'm free to do some knitting. I don't know what, but it has to be with yarn from my stash. This summer will be stash summer. I mean it. Really. No more yarn until I use up the stuff I have. Yeah, even as I'm typing this I know I'll fail in my determination and buy some bright colorful cotton. Damn. ;)