Home Dec Projects

So this is my baby - a totally black 7-year old cat. A big sewing helper and fabric weight.

As every cat, she had her cat tree, bought almost 6 years ago which started to look really used (no idea what happened in the last year, but the cat just destroyed most of the sisal remaining) and also, it did not fit into our living room. Basically, it was time to replace it by something more appropriate. After much discussions, we decided to buy a real piece of furniture and a separate scratching post, because strangely my cat does not jump much and does not like high-positioned places.

The scratching post works well, but I promised my baby to make her another place to rest. I have already bought a cat box, but impossible to find a new one in the right dimensions. Our furniture is no Ikea and so the dimensions are not "standard". After some desperation, I decided to make it myself.

First, the basic structure was constructed with some Amazon-box cardboard. The cat tried it but was not impressed.
Then, I sewed a black fabric cover (outside, as well as inside). The outside one is of the right size, so it looks good, the inside one is slightly bigger, and more importantly not fixed inside, but that is inside and it should be OK.

For the inside cushion, I bought some black plush, but did not have the courage to sew the cushion.

Another project for home decoration is a cover for my new serger. Again, I did not use any pattern, I just measured the serger, added a few centimeters and drawed it directly to the fabric. I bought black canva to have some resistance, added some padding and used an orange remnant for the lining.

I am not a big fan of sewing this kind of things, but I am happy it is done now.

Another Out-of-Season Dress

In the serie of clothes sewn before the lockdown, and as a consequence not worn and probably not to be worn this spring, there is a new viscose dress. I actually wanted something very similar to this dress, sewn in the beginning of my "sewing career". 

The silk crepe was so soft against my skin and I was able to wear it for almost 9 months in the year - basically from September to May. Also, the little white and red flowers on the black background was just a great basics in my wardrobe. 

Unfortunately, the fabric did not resist the very often washing and also, the dress is no longer the silhouette I prefer.

However, I can still recreate a similar dress in a different silhouette. Unfortunately, I have not found a similar silk crepe, but I found a similar pattern in the viscose fibrane, so I had to do with that.

The pattern is Burda 117 from 12/2019. I was offered the Burda subscription this year, so I would like to/should sew more from Burda issues I have at home. Strangely, while I really like the fact that a new Burda arrives every month in my letterbox, I keep having troubles to get excited and sew immediately from the new issues. However, my experience has shown that I often come back to the past Burda issues, so for the moment, I am keeping them and hoping that I will use them one day.

So back to my new dress - it is lined, as usual, and I really like the lines of this dress, the fitted bodice and the blousy sleeves. 

I am keeping my dress in the wardrobe hoping to take it out one autumn day (the spring has almost evolved in summer in Paris right now).

A Never-Ending Story

This jacket took me forever. And honestly, I still do not understand why I have this procrastination tendency with jackets, because
a) they really do not take so much longer that lined dresses, if my hour statistic is to be believed
b) I have finally learned the right technique on both, sewing in the lining and making nice sleeve heads
c) I wear jackets to work as much as I do dresses, so I should definitely keep sewing them.

This time I wanted a "casual blazer", so I chose a pattern sewn by Burda in a thick jersey and I bought some grey flowery ponte for it too. Good points for following the fabric recommendations for once! It is 101 from Burda 01/2019, it has a nice, quite different lapels, but you still get welt pockets, so it is somehow a combination of class and casual.

I cut it out during the x-mas break, interfaced all the pieces for stability, managed to sew the welts and add the sleeves. Then, January took over and it remained on my mannequin for quite some time, waiting for the sleeve heads to be finished and obviously, the lining to be added.

At some point of time, I was fed up with the UFO and got to work again. I finished the sleeve heads, shoulder pads and then, in like one day, I basically finished the jacket.

What probably helped, is the fact that I announced my week-end goal to my work colleagues and the idea of wearing the jacket on Monday kept me motivated.

Obviously, the jacket is fully lined because I really do not see any reason why not to: first, it is much easier to put it on, second, you can do the HongKong seams you want, it will never be as nice finish, as a full lining and third, lining adds stability, which is kind of expected from a blazer.

So here we go, the blazer is done and worn and I am more than happy with it. It is such a neutral and at the same time, not a boring one.

Old Burda Treasures

Beginning January for whatever reason, I started searching for an old Burda issue from July 1995 from which I sewed at least 2 dresses when I was in my teens and planned at least three others. So far, I have not found it, but from one vendor in New Zealand, which would bring me to pay more in postal fees than for the magazine itself.

However, I found a few ads on old Burdas from the 2000's and beginning of the 2010' from a vendor very close by. And so I bought two lots of magazines, mostly October and February issues. When I brought them home, I was just so happy with them, it is just soo different from current Burdas (easily 50% more patterns in each issue and definitely more sophisticated patterns). What a treasure!

This, however, also meant that I need a new pattern organization. So far, I could still flip through the few magazines I own or search in the Burda catalogue online, but with the old issues, this is no longer possible.

I ended up digitalizing all of them in Trello, but I would like to have some back up in Pinterest or elsewhere. And I still need to go through my newer Burdas. Taking time to take pictures and categorizing also helped me to pick up my favourites.

And this is how I found this Burda 130-10/2013 coat. At around the same time, I went fabric shopping and HAD to bring this nice wool/linen fabric. They only sold it by coupons of 3m and I did not dare to ask to cut it in half and only buy 1,5m (they do not want to keep coupons under 1,5m). And I am happy, I did so because I definitely used little lit more than just 1,5m.

I played with the pattern little bit, because I did not want to have so much fabric around my hips and I definitely adjusted the shoulders, as usual. The pattern is a petite version, so no length adjustments needed, I just love that!

I cut out the coat just before the covid epidemics really started in Europe and finished it during our second social isolation week-end. So this spring, I will probably not wear it at all, because it will be way too warm when we finish the quarantine period. But I must admit that it was a great social isolation project. The main fabric frayed like crazy, so I ended up catch-stitching all internal seams. I also created my own sleeve-heads and underlined the whole coat for some structure. I must say I am quite proud of the sleeves and the whole silhouette.

The coat closes with little hooks but I do not expect wearing it closed very often. It is lined with some slinky silk and of, course, I had to add my etiquette and the piping.

For a brief moment, I wanted to put a bright orange piping but I did not have enough of it and locked at home, I do not think I would wait for a delivery to arrive. The deliveries of non-essentials currently take quite long which is totally understandable, but I would probably lose all the motivation to finishing the coat.

As already said, there was quite a lot of hand-stitching on this coat but it calmed me down and I really enjoyed it. And anyhow when you are locked at home, hand-stitching is a great way to relax.

The weather seems just perfect for wearing it right now, but I will have to wait :)