Saturday 23 December 2017

Xmas Sewing - Part I.

Due to logistical reason, I celebrated x-mas with my family already last week-end, so I can start sharing some of the presents I actually sewed, as they have already been given to my sister.

As last year, I decided to sew some of the presents, since it seems they have quite some success. The real clothes will be shared in the next post, but I will start with an apron (involuntarily in x-mas colours). I saw this Japanese pattern everywhere on Pinterest and thought that it would be great for my hipstery sister. I started searching for the downloadable pattern, but only found the paper version and at that point of time it was already too late to wait.

A short point on this year planning: I was actually in advance on everyhting. I knew I was going to be out 3 of the 4 pre-x-mas weekends, so I figured out I had to prepare everything before. I did almost all my x-mas shopping mid-November, well before Black Friday :o) - at least I did not have to worry about delivery times and delays which happen quite often before x-mas. Oh yes, and I ordered almost everything on the internet.
In the end, I packed most of the gifts on 1st December. And I was right - after my November marathon I got sick and was out of any energy for almost 2 weeks. The only energy remnants were spent on x-mas cookies baking (I did some 800+ of them).

Then I found a schema of the pattern and decided to give it a try and design it in real proportions on my own. And it actually worked rather well.

The apron is double-sided: first, it looks better and second, it is easier to sew the two layers together than doing bias binding. For the face, I used some batik cotton brought 2 years ago from Indonesia.

When I finished, I was thinking about what to do with the rest of the fabric and then found this cute (also Japanese) bag pattern. So not much thinking and I whipped up two double-sided bags to go with the apron.


I do not have a worn picture because we were too tired after unpacking all the gifts - so next time.
I do not think I will post anything else before the end of the year, so I wish you "Veselé vánoce a šťastný nový rok!"

Saturday 2 December 2017

60's Grey Dress

I do not like scraps. I never know what to do with them. First, I am not a patchwork or household sewing girl, and I do not have any little kids in my surroundings on whom I could use the scraps. On the other hand I rarely buy just enough fabric for one project. Much more often I just buy fabric which I like and then when I choose my project, I search in my stash. I dream of changing this, but I will first need to decrease my stash little bit (even though this year statistics looks pretty good, but more on that later).

So, from time to time, I try to check on the little pieces in my stash and sew something from them. Case in point: this dress. It is an exact copy of the Remnant dress sewn already 2 years ago (Simplicity 3833). But to be honest, it is one of my most beloved dresses and fortunately, the fabric still resists the frequent washing. I wear it regularly autumn through spring.
So creating a new one was just so obvious and this time it was again a win: two remnants busted, what should I wish more for? (moreover, the black fabric is actually thesame as on the first version of my dress, so I can only hope this one will be as resistant)


The dress is again in two colours, even though the grey-black combination is much more subtle. The lining is also a mix of black and dark green silk remnants, but it seems to be working quite fine.

As I have already sewn this dress, there is nothing more to say about it. The silhouette works perfectly with the little stiff suiting fabrics, yet, the dress is extremely comfy. And it is a part of the basics I need for winter.