Merino Cardigan

This post will be short, but as I am trying to publish everything I sew, I cannot omit this cardigan. The fabric comes from a bundle of merino jerseys I had bought some time ago and am sewing through. I ordered everything from The Fabric Store and basically bought different weights and colours so that I can play with it. I mostly had different shades of grey. 

I took some time to look for the right pattern and in the end settled on Burda 104-10/2020, my October issue had just arrived by that point. I remember changing it a lot, though.

Not sure if these pictures do it justice as I mostly wear this cardigan with black dresses or t-shirts under it. It is rather practical, warm and soft and the colour fits my wardrobe. 

I am definitely planning on sewing some more merino cardigans, but next time, I will use a standard sleevehead and not the fallen sleeve - I feel like it is not the best look on me.

Bella Dress in Petrol

This is not new, but it is as amazing as my previous versions of the Bella Dress from LMV. I have sewn this pattern two times already and I definitely do not regret this third version. I bought the silk crepe in petrol little bit by chance when ordering something else. When it arrived, it was just perfect, the colour was exactly as I had imagined it and the silk crepe gives it such a nice shine, well, it is just magic.

I bought it without a specific idea on what to do with it, and then one day, it stroke me: I just need another Bella. And it was without doubt the best idea.

I really do not have anything to say to this pattern, I absolutely love wearing it in summer and the crepe just has the perfect weight for it. The bodice is lined with the same fabric and the skirt part is also doubled. 

The best thing is that the pattern is so well tested that I do not need to try it on, just cut out the fabric and sew it up. Instant gratification. Sometimes just simple sewing like this is just amazing.

Yet Another Merino

My BF started running this year (yes, the pandemic does not have only negative effects) and despite myself buying him a few running clothes pieces, he definitely prefers his RTW merino t-shirt. This piece was just in such a regular rotation, that he almost wanted to wear it two times. So even though merino does not smell bad even if you sweat in it, I do not think it is always a great idea.

I just remembered I still had about a meter of merino sports jersey from The Fabric Store and decided one week-end to cut into it. It was originally "reserved" for a cardigan for me, but I am still undecided which kind of cardigan I would like to have, so that is not happening any time soon. I believe a sports t-shirt will have a much more utility now.

This is just a basic, so in terms of sewing, there is not much to say apart from the fact that I copied his RTW t-shirt and sewed it with a flatlock seam. I wanted to add a little something, so used an old scrap of cotton jersey around the neck and a little "etiquette" on the left side for days when he does not now where the front and the back is.

The t-shirt got instantly worn and is in regular rotation since - my BF currently runs 3 times a week, so he is at least covered for two of them with merino. On the other side, the weather is getting warmer, so I believe that he will start wearing regular sports shirts soon.

Liberty Cuteness

I do not think I have ever bought and sewn Liberty fabric, but I am afraid that I will try that again, because this was pure joy. First, I must admit that I was never particularly drawn to Liberty, as a lot of their designs are in fine, pink and blue colours, i.e. not my style. Also, I try not to wear a lot of little flower designs.

However, when I saw this one, all alarms started beeping: ochre, green, red and black, ALL YOUR COLOURS, please buy me!!! and have a look, from faraway it does not even look like flowers. Well, I was weak and ordered it. When the fabric arrived, it was even better in real life than in the pictures and also, the fabric is so fine and soft. Well, it did not stay in my stash for long.

Of course, I had to find the right pattern, but I figured out that when buying Liberty, I should go for the classics, and sew a little cute dress. I was hesitating a little on whether I really want to have an all flower dress, but then, we are in the middle of the pandemics, I will mostly wear this at home or on vacation, so let's go for it.

I used Burda 108-11/2020, with a few modifications: I did not want to have the buttons on the skirt, so I added a side zip and I certainly did not want the sleeve ruffles :) I cannot have both, little flowers AND ruffles, let's be reasonable here. I was also hesitating on putting in some skirt lining, but in the end, I decided against it, fearing it would add too much of the volume.

The fabric was just magic to sew, I seem to always say that when sewing with simple cottons, as it is just sooo easy compared to jerseys, silk or basically anything else. This does not mean I want to only sew cottons, but it is great to make such a nice project from time to time.

The nacre buttons are from my enormous button stash, so a great win for no additional spend.

Verdict: I love the dress. It has just the right amount of cuteness and romanticism, but it still works with dark shoes. I am pretty sure I will wear it in summer with sneakers, but it was way too cold when we took these pictures.

Now, where can I find some more cute Liberty...

Velvet Dress n°2

Aka the grey one.

Hmmm, velvet, good or bad idea? I was a teenager in the 90s, so basically grew up with high-waisted jeans, pinafores and crushed velvet which was a big hit at that time. What comes next? t-shirts under summer dresses and black bras under white t-shirts, urghhh. Ok you got it, I am not a big fan of the current fashion comebacks. Never mind, but a basic velvet, that cannot be such a bad idea, right? At worse I will only wear it at home.

With that in mind, I ordered 2 velvet fabrics just before x-mas, one piece was also used for a little cute baby number. And during my x-mas staycation I sewed two dresses.

The grey fabric is a mix of cotton and viscose as is therefore thinner and drapier. I used a Knipmode pattern (10/23) mixed with my jersey dress block. I do not think there was anything complicated, the dress whizzed through my serger in no time and it was done.

And it was worn almost once a week since. I am sometimes pondering on shortening it by 1-2 cm but at the moment cannot be bothered. It is warm, cosy, comfy, just the perfect stay-at-home-dress. It looks good on zoom and my BF likes it as well.

I am almost wondering why I do not have an entire winter wardrobe made of velvet :)

Velvet Dress n°1

Aka the green one, or the x-mas one. I actually wore it on New Year's Eve, but whatever, you got the idea.

I had order some velvet fabric at the end of the last year, one was a mix with viscose and this one 100% cotton. The cotton is much heavier than the viscose, but as soft, so great for some season-appropriate dress.

I had this pattern from Burda 118 from March 2020 in mind earmarked, so I figured this could be a good idea. Hmm, in the end not so much, as the fabric is way too heavy for that and there is just too much fabric for that on your waist, but it is a great and comfy dress and I loved wearing it on New Year's Eve. Btw, my BF is a big fan :)

The pattern is really great, the cleavage is somehow deep, but closed enough so when you stay standing, there is absolutely no way flashing anything. I think that is pretty darn good. Even relaxing on the couch, it does not open so much, so it is really well designed. In any case, I could always put in 2-3 safety stitches if needed.

You might have seen that the sleeves are not hemmed, actually, I must have cut them out too short, so they were just right not hemmed - this is a cotton jersey, it does not frau so I just let it go.

The dress creates a great silhouette of course, and I really managed to have waist sitting on the waist, which definitely helps, thank you Burda for being consistent with your sizes, as I can just blindly do a few standard adjustments and have a dress ready.

Drops cardigan

This post is super overdue, I just checked my tracking spreadsheet and it says this thing was finished in May 2020. Oh well..

I have dreamed about a casual black/not-so-black cardigan for some time. So when I found this drops cotton jacquard, I had to buy it. I was motivated enough to get it sewn rather quickly but I was looking for the right pattern.

The thing is, most cardigan pattern are not meant for really drapey fabrics and Burda is not a big cardigan source. Check StyleArc or some indies, which I basically never sew, and you will find many of them. But not the right one for my fabric.

After some ponderation, I decided to go for this Burda pattern: 119-08/2018 - it looks really cute on the model and is quite original.

Pattern downloaded, printed, fabric cut out, it all took only a few hours. The problem is that I was not happy with how it looked on me. Once I saw it on myself, I realized my mistake: the model is a slim tall person on which almost anything looks cute. Not my case, right? It added volume on the shoulders and around the top of my body which I did not like at all. I tried to slim it down on the sides but it only accentuated the volume on the upper part.

On side it went, I just did not want to lose the amazing fabric so I started thinking about how I could salvage it.

After some thinking about the Bianca wrap, I finally decided to copy an RTW cardigan of mine. Fortunately, I still had some fabric to cut out the sleeves, the body was cut out from the original version.

I am now much more happy with the result, it really looks good and fits my style much more.