Black-Blue “Lace” Dress

This dress was my single make in March, even though I must have started other things. 

And surprisingly, it was not a very well planned project, I even used a piece of fabric bought in the beginning of my fabric stashing. I remember buying this fabric over the internet (before learning that buying fabric on internet is not the best idea, as the reality rarely corresponds to what I thought originally) and it was meant to be a jacket to accessorise my blue silk dress for the weddings I attended that year. 

However, sewing on the deadline, I barely had time to finish the dress and also had only a meter or so of the fabric. Not talking about the fact that it is little bit stretchy and would not be the best option for a jacket.

I somehow found this piece of fabric and figured out that a little mid-season dress would actually be cool. I used my true and tested pattern which is actually a copy of a RTW dress adjusted to my little frame and which I have already sewn here. Quick decision, quick project which got worn a few times already. 

The fabric is a blend of rather stiff cotton and lycra which means that it keeps perfectly its form while being quite comfortable.

My previous version was lined only on the bodice and I think it was a mistake. So this time, I lined the dress completely.

I was thinking about matching the pattern, but

•        I did not have enough fabric to do that
•        the pattern is so messy it does not matter much
•        the colour difference is not enormous, so I can totally live with this

Just check my seam matching here….

And that is about it, I am happy I could take pics of it (merci Me-Made-May) and finally post it, which makes half of my MMM posting objective attained :o)

Inspiration: just wanted to finish a project

Pattern: RTW copy

Pattern changes: none

Technique: seam matching

Fabric: false lace in black-blue cotton

Time to Complete: 2 weeks

Total Cost: 28 EUR

Me-Made-May 2016: 1st Week

The first week is going pretty well, I managed to wear me-mades every day I went out.

Day 1: top under a flowering cherry tree

Day 2: the no-leopard top

Day 3: the grey wool dress which is becoming shorter and shorter

Day 4: brown skirt

Day 5: black cotton-silk top. This top got so much wear last summer that it is starting to be kind of washed out. Fortunately, I had some more of this great fabric and already made a copy of it :o).

The only reason I went out this day was to buy new curtains and some big chunks of wood... please don't ask...

Day 6: stayed at home at made pictures for blog

Day 7: flower viscose top

Day 8 : stayed at home, so no picture...

Apart from that: 2 older projects photographed, 1 blogged. 3 new pieces muslined, 1 project cut out from fashion fabric and 1 hopefully to be finished by this evening.

The long four-day week-end definitely helped, even though I spent quite some time on small improvements, including shortening our new curtains, what a booooooring and long thing (I had 6 meters of white polyester organza to hem, you cannot imagine how "not funny" that was).

So yey, I am on the track :o)

Little Top to Revive My Sewjo

All the moving is now over so I finally found a place for my fabric stock. It is far from properly stored as I would like to sort them out based on the type of fabric, colours etc. But I will concentrate on diminishing the stock first.

The funny thing with this top is that I have imagined it in a completely different fabric. Only when I got it out, I found out I was too far from having enough. So I went quickly back to my stash and found this fabric which I bought almost 2 years ago, originally as a lining as I considered it too much colourful and too red (yes, it can be too red, above all when you are at the end of a black-brown-grey winter period).

I even hesitated to use the wrong side which is much less punchy.

Anyhow, I am so glad I did not spend too much time thinking about it and just wanted to sew something because the top went together quickly, without any major issues (despite the slippery silk) and I must have finished it in like 2 evenings or so. So a big WIN!

The pattern is Burda 114-04/2016, so another positive point: sewing old stash with newly bought patterns. Seeing the pattern I did not do any modification, I just hoped for the best.

And voilà, it is the best…

French seams, invisible hems and one little snap which was not even necessary.

I did not follow the instructions much (had the French version of Burda and have quite difficulties to understand their vocabulary in French), and I admit I must have improvised on the end of the front slit :o)

The colour and the pattern are just so right for the sunny days which finally arrived…

Inspiration: Burda

Pattern: Burda 114-04/2016

Pattern changes: none, yes, none

Technique: French seams

Fabric: red flower silk

Time to Complete: 2 days

Total Cost: 16 EUR

April Sewing and MMM 2016

April 2016 was really a bad month sewing-wise. The truth is that we moved to a new home, so I spent the whole month between packing, cleaning, unpacking and cleaning again. Last week-end my fabric got finally unpacked and stored in its new place and that’s where I found out that I just do not have enough storage here :o)

Also, all this moving brouhaha brought me 2 packs of old bedsheets I can use as test fabric (believe me there were 6 big bags of them in our cellar, I only chose a few and I believe they will last me for some time).

This week I finally motivated myself to finish a blouse started still in the old apartment and finish another one just this week-end. A quick project (hopefully soon to be photographed and posted) which brought me back my sewing motivation.

So, I just woke up this morning realizing that May is here again and that I almost forgot to sign up for the usual challenge. This needs to be remediated:

I, Veronika from b-rouchka.blogspot.com, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '16. I endeavour to wear at least one me-made item each day for the duration of May 2016. Also I will post every week on my blog and will catch up with the blogging backlog. In addition I will sew 4 new items during the month of May.

Last year, I almost managed to follow my challenge, so this year wearing me-mades should be pretty doable. However, I find May quite different from other months, the weather goes from summer-dresses-ready to coat-and-boots. Also, due to the many bank holidays, I tend to work less, travel more or spend more time at home and I do not sew many leisure clothes.

On the other hand it is a good opportunity to get back to more sewing and start preparing summer clothes.

We will see, for the moment I am pretty confident that Me-Made-May will be a success this year.

Good luck to all participants!

The Least Black Item of This Winter

I do not wear jeans much. Like maybe once a week if I make an effort. Therefore, I do not sew many things to wear with them, but I needed a quick project so here it is: flower silk top with long sleeves.

I was hesitating whether to make long or ¾ sleeves, cut out the longer version and in the end am very happy about that. The fabric is silk and with the long sleeves it keeps me warm even in winter.

There is not much to say about it:

The pattern is an adapted Burda 125-02/2014 with modified décolleté, little bit of silk organza interfacing around the neck and the end of sleeves and that’s it.

The fabric was quite slippery, so my V-neck had to be redone, but in the end I am quite satisfied with the result.

It makes just such a difference to wear silk, the fabric is moving and feels so differently from any poly, viscose of whatever you might see in RTW.

Of course, I used French seams on the inside so it is smooth and pretty on both sides.

I believe I will be sewing at least one more top like this from the silks I bought last year in Malaysia.

Inspiration: fabric

Pattern: Burda 125-02/2014

Pattern changes: too many to remember

Technique: French seams

Fabric: black silk

Time to Complete: a week

Total Cost: 16 EUR