Completed: two 30's outfits!

Inspired by my love for the 30s look, my realisation that maybe I've been avoiding the 30s for all the wrong reasons, and of course all the lovely comments from you guys on whether I should try it, I decided before summer to make a 30s summer outfit with a skirt and a blouse. "Summer?", you may be wondering, "but Erika, it's fall now!"
I know, I know! But... well, I didn't get done in time... and the skirt fought back... and somehow I ended up making a second skirt + top outfit...

Alright, outfit number one:

A bias cut A-line skirt with side-buttons, and a blouse with a tie-collar and snaps in the side. The skirt is in a lovely faric, it's matka silk! Matka is a plain weave with double strands in both warp and weft. The fabric is coarse and has a lot of body, but at the same time it has a slight slight lustre that's too polite to be called a shine, and even though it has body, it still has some drape. Wonderful!

So how did the skirt fight back? Basically, it was the fabric. When I bought it they said it could be machine washed, but even after a gentle wash with silk-detergent it came out stiff as cardboard. After a good rinse with fabric softener (worked better than vineger, tried both on test squares. And yes, of course I should have machine washed a test square as well...) and ironing it dry, it regained some softness and drape. I'd seriously recommend against machine washing matka, no matter what the salespeople say!

The skirt closes in the side with buttons and handmade buttonholes.

The skirt sits in my natural waist and the waistband is straight, folded. I lenghtened it considerably after looking at old fashion- and pattern magazines, and measuring the few 30s pattern I own, so it hits just below mid-calf.

The blouse is made from leftovers from last year's big dress+jacket project. I used a combination of different patterns I've made before, it took a couple of toilles, and the fit is still a bit off. I have two major issues I need to adress before making it again, first is the bubbliness at the front, second is the excess in the peplum. 30s peplum laid very slim and close to the hips, while the bodice bloused against the waist (opposite that of 50s peplum blouses/dresses). I love the style, though! So easy to wear, cool and soft, not restricting the movement at all, yet with a feeling of elegance.

The blouse closes in the side with snaps.

Second outfit!
 

Remeber the jerseydress I showed you in the last post? I loved that fabric so much I went back for another 1,5 metre! I had already found a nice linen on a 50% sale, so I figured it would be great to have a 30s outfit that's easier to wash and iron. Hence a linen skirt and a jersey top!

The skirt is tea-dyed (I bought it as a bleached white) and cut on the bias. However, since the first skirt has a tendency to pull a little over the hips I figured it would be better with a bit more room in the skirt and made it just a few cm wider. Unfortunatly, it didn't make the sideseam lay flat, quite the opposite...

Another part in the problem may be that I was a little bit short on fabric, and did a "design feature" at the top. It might be a coincidence that the skirt pulls the most just below the "V", but I doubt it.

Also, the zipper buggled. This is the third installation, and I've done all I can think of. I'm leaving it be, it's time for fall sewing and either the fabric will shrink a little during washing, or I'll wear something over the top of the skirt, or... It's a later problem =)

The top is a version of my by now TNT jerseydress pattern, not much to say about it.

Except that I love the fit in the back!!! With my narrow back, nothing RTW has ever fit and I still get a little giddy everytime I see myself wearing a garment that fits my back =)

This is just a short presentation, I'll be returning soon with some thoughts on drafting patterns that are based on a specific period, and of course a bit more about the silk skirt. It was an epic make ; )

Love, Erika

A red blouse

I've made (another) blouse! Using my self-drafted blouse pattern and leftover fabric from my red rayon dress, so... hmm... not much new. But it does mean I have another blouse! =) And one that's appropriate for winter, which I really needed.

Maybe I need to start on another blouse pattern now? Three of the same pattern might be eunough... =)

Usually, I see theese thin and airy, often floral, fabrics and think "yes, perfect blouse material!" And they are, but then I never use them during winter as they just feel too summery. This one, though thin, has a quite heavy drape, and a colour that goes beautifully with most of my winter skirts.

Yay! =D

Oh, and something is new! I've finally mastered the rolled-hem foot! All this time I've been wondering (well, not activly wondering, just not using the foot because I didn't like the result) how to start and finish the hem in a neat way, and how to pass the rolled hem-foot over a seam neatly, when I ought to just have looked it up on youtube. So easy, once you know the trick!

Someone else finding the rolled-hem foot fiddly? Here's a tutorial I found helpful... Not the shortest, but good information.

I still opted for my favorite handsewed rolled hem for the sleeves, as the handsewn hem stretches and moves with the fabric better than the machine-stitched one. Eh... so you don't actually see the machinestitched one in the pictures...

This was a really fun, fast little project. So much easier when there's nothing to tweak with the pattern and I've even worked with the fabric for another project. I didn't even have to buy thread! Only thing for me to watch out with is so these projects don't end up in an UFO-pile, as the very simplicity of them doesn't tickle my imagination and inspiration. So I'm quite pleased - I sewed something with minimum fuss, and it turned out good and very wearable. Not terribly exciting, but... pleasant. Horay for finished projects! =)

Love, Erika

Polkadot blouse

Before the summer I made this cute little polkadot blouse. It's a variation of my usual blousepattern, I closed up the front, skipped the collar and made fabric covered buttons down the back.

It turned out ok, but it has an unfortunate tendency to wander back, so the neckline climbs up, the shoulder seams move a bit out of place and the back becomes very blousy-saggy. Any idea of what I could do remedy this on a future make, save raising the neckline? It worked on the dress (see previous post), but then of course the bodice was attached to a skirt...

From the front. There's a bustdart to create room without adding bulk to the waist. The necline is faced. (A sidenote: That little building in the background is the in reality quite big outdoors dance-floor we use a couple of times during the summer)

The skirt is actually even better than new: it's an old make that needed some small fix-up's, and I've finally done them! I made this skirt in December 2009, over two years ago, for a Christmas danceperformance (the colour in the old post is very different from the one in this post - the truth lands somewhere in between). It was a last minute-no-time-for-finesse sewing project, so I didn't have time to let the skirt hang before hemming. A short while after it looked like this:

I put it on my dressdummy, measured a new length, cut and re-hemmed and voila! A usable skirt =)

Also, I was a little bit slimmer around the waist and hips two years ago, and the skirt came out on the tight side from the start. I had done a very dodgy waistband, which now had the benefit of being easily adjusted. I had to wrestle down my instinctive desire to remove the entire waistband and sew one on properly. But seriously, this skirt clings to everything, it wrinkles for nothing and while it was well worth the time to re-hem and adjust it a bit in the side, it would have been overkill to make a proper waistband. Even though my sewing-conscious is writhing, I'm trying to learn that it doesn't have to be perfect every time =)

I love this blouse and skirt combo! It feel very 50s college-student, esp with the keds and the ponytail. Quite fitting for this going back to school time of the year =)

Love, Erika

Challenges and projects

In June I participated in MeMadeJune, an internet challenge run by Zoe, where I pledged to wear one me-made item every day. I actually finished it, but I didn't have time to document, so I'm afraid you're just going to have to take my word for it =) Now another challenge is running: Self Stitched September began yesterday. I very much wanted to participate this time around as well, but I feel that I haven't filled up the gaps in my homesewn wardrobe I discovered in June, and I will instead focus on sewing.

So what did I learn from MMJ? First, that taking daily pictures are time-consuming and a big challenge in itself. If I didn't want my living room as a backdrop for every single outfit I had to find photo spots outdoors. Not a huge problem, but a time-thief... It was fun, though! I discovered lots of nice little photo-places in my near surroundings, places otherwise never would have occured to me.

Second, that I have some huge gaps:
-Tops and blouses, and not just of the homemade version. I just simply have too little variation in that departement.
- Comfy clothes to wear around the house
-Work-out wear
-Outerwear

It also wouldn't hurt to have a few more dresses, both for winter and for summer. My plan is to sew soft jersey dresses to slouch around at home in during winter, and be comfy in all summer.

But is there a plan to rectify these gaps, you might wonder? Indeed there is! But then I always have plans... I sometimes fear that I actually prefer dreaming of sewing while fabric-hoarding to real sewing =) One reason why I'm so slow in finishing projects is that sewing is just one of my favorite hobbies, and dancing takes a lot of time and energy. Not to mention the full time job and the 3 times a week gym-work out ordered by the doctor (Literally. Or at least ordered by the physical therapist the doctor sent me to.).
My current projects, and why they are not finished, sort of sums up the other reasons so few things are proclaimed ready. A small list:

My late, paternal grandmother's dressing robe. The only visible flaw that needed fixing up was the lining. I could have just patched it, and it would have been done. But anything worth doing is worth doing well... So I'm inserting a new lining and finishing all the robe's selvedges.

Time consuming, but the robe is 65 years old, and with a little love I will be able to wear it for many more years.

A holk-sleeve blouse with a fit I'm far from happy with. Just look at those awful strainlines from the shoulder!

Also the blouse is a bit snug around the hips. I'm tricky to fit, and anything meant for my upperbody takes more than one toile. I need to make a new toile for this pattern before I cut into this beautiful pure silk:

I love, love, love this fabric, and I'm comfortable cutting into it since I know where to get more (a much more important factor for me than the price, which was quite dear). But I still want a pattern I belive in before I start cutting.


Johanne's pants (no pictures yet). Men's wear + pants, need I say more? I'm tossing the old pattern out and am making a new pattern and toile. When attempting garments that are outside my skill-zone I learn things, but it does not make for fast sewing. Fun, though =)

Then there are of course the eternal projects, but these are the one's I'm actively working on right now. What about you, do you whip out a new garment in an evening? Do you frequently think "Who's going to know? Let's sew!"? Or do you lose yourself in the quest for perfection until nothing is ever proclaimed ready, and none of your creations has your full approval? Or do you manage to balance the fine line inbetween?

Have a great weekend!
Love, Erika

Blouses, silk, pressing - the internet is for inspiration!

Blouses has been - and still are - a huge gap in my closet, so in preparation for Me Made June I've been mulling patterns, fabrics and sewing blouses.

How about something like these patterns?

 Source

Source

Source

Holksleeves. Some sort of open pleats around the waistline (to reduce the bulk at the tuck-in). Either a simple roundneck with buttons down the back, or a button-front with a soft collar. Comfortable in hot weather, fits under a cardigan during night (and during the rest of the year), and flattering - at least in theory, I guess it depends on how a succesfull pattern I make =)

So what about fabrics? I can't believe how long it took me to think of silk! Drape-y, thin, cool. But apparently a nightmare to work with, according to some. Others swears by it, and recommends it for everything. A round up of some posts I've happened upon while trying to figure out how best to sew in this fabric:

A fashionable stitch - Tips and tricks on working with silk
Gertie - A couple tips for Sewing Slippery Fabric
Tasia - Tips on sewing with silk
Colette Patterns Blog - About silk
Casey's elegant musings - 30s sweetheart, some tips and lots of inspiration

I'd love to read more tips and tricks concerning silk, so please leave a link in the comments if you have some reading-tips for me. Or leave your own tips and tricks, I'd love to hear them!

From Sunni at A fashionable stitch, I followed a link to Gorgeous Fabrics. It's about pressing, and let me tell you, I had missed a great deal of her tips. I've always pressed the seams open while sewing (not leaving for a final pressing), but the rest was news to me. And it really makes a huge difference! Can't wait to try it out! I wonder though if makes the same big difference for linen or thicker cottons that it does for the silk in her example... I see a load of trial and error in the future for me =)

After all my reading, and my understanding that silk is slippery, delicate to press and wash, tricky to pin without leaving marks etc, the thing that still scares me the most about sewing with silk? Adjusting the thread tension. One of the reasons my machine sews like an absolute dream: I've never changed the tension. It's perfectly balanced and has worked on everything from tents to thin cottons (ok, not great on thin cottons, but ok and a lot better than most other machines I've used). I feel a bit like I'm taking a blind leap into a dark void here... But there's a silk out there with my name on it, so into the void I go!

Have a great weekend! I'm off to start some patternmaking =)
Love, Erika

Is summer around the corner?

We had a heat wave a few weeks ago, but that seems as distant as last year's summer now. The winter was very long, very cold, and very dark. By now it should be warm, but the heat is a bit slow in coming this year. We are all waiting eagerly =)

In anticipating of warmer weather ahed, I fell head over heels for the blouse above when I found it at Ebay/Tradera. I was a bit sceptic at first, since I don't usually wear orange. Then I thought "what does it go with?". A solid dark blue skirt would be lovely with this blouse, and solid dark blue skirts are the true basics in my wardrobe (seriously, why do I always fall for the blue skirt? It's gone so far that I've forbidden myself to buy any more dark blue clothes or fabrics!). So of course, I had to buy the blouse =)

Another purchase for the summer; short sheer lace socks, from H&M I have to admit. They were too cute to just pass!
The past week I've been working for me very unusual hours (leaving the house at 6 in the morning just isn't right ;) ), and I have one more week on this scheduale. After that I'll hopefully be back among the living! But now it's weekend, and I've had a great weekend so far, Friday was dance-night, yesterday Kajsa came over for sewing and movie-night. We saw The Notebook, a movie I've heard a lot about (and everybody seems to have seen) but that had somehow managed to slip me by. I loved it! If there's anyone reading this who hasn't seen it, I very much recomend it!
Now I'm off to the gym, and then tea with Kattis and then more sewing with Kajsa. Hope you're having a great weekend!
Love, Erika