30's inspired skirt

Erinnert ihr euch an den Sketch, den ich zu der 30er Bluse gemacht habe? Da gehörte ja auch noch ein Rock dazu. Also habe ich ungefähr eine Woche, nachdem ich den Post geschrieben habe, den Stoff (Polyester Crepe) dafür geholt. Den habe ich dann in die Wäsche geschmissen und prompt die Bluse, plus ein paar andere weiße Klamotten, leicht pink eingefärbt. Ups... Zum Glück hat es die Bluse nicht zu schlimm erwischt, und auch die anderen Kleidungsstücke haben die pinke Färbung nach ein paar Wäschen wieder verloren.

Ich habe (am Anfang) wieder VeraVenus' Tutorial für Röcke benutzt, allerdings wollte ich 6 statt 8 Bahnen, also habe ich nach einer Weile meine eigenen Berechnungen angestellt. 

Remember the sketch from the blouse? I wanted to make a skirt to go with it. About a week after that post went up, I went and got the fabric (poly crepe), threw it in the wash, and promplty dyed said blouse and a couple of other white garments kinda pinkish. Oops... Luckily, the blouse wasn't hit too badly, and everything else lost the pink stain after some more washes. 

I (kinda) used VeraVenus' skirt draftig tutorial, only I wanted 6 instead of 8 panels, so I did my own math after some time. 

Ich habe mal wieder vergessen, nebenher auch Bilder zu machen, also kriegt ihr stattdessen ein Foto von dem Stoff auf meinem Wäscheständer :P

I forgot to take construction pictures again, so you get a picture of the fabric on my drying-rack instead :P

Ich hatte keine Lust, die Godets so einzufügen  wie im Tutorial beschrieben, sondern habe sie auf meine eigene (faule) Art eingesetzt (man nähe ein Godet an die linke Rockbahn und behandle dann Rockbahn und Godet wie ein einziges Stück, wenn man die andere Rockbahn annäht). Ich bin mir außerdem ziemlich sicher, dass ich eines der vorderen Seitenstücke falsch herum eingesetzt habe, aber da der Stoff relativ dehnbar ist, scheint das keinen großen Effekt zuhaben. Die Nahtzugaben habe ich alle relativ kurz geschnitten und mit einem Zickzackstich versäubert, außerdem habe ich alle Nähte noch einmal von rechts abgesteppt. An der Seite sitzt ein Reißverschluss, und den Taillenbund habe ich länger gemacht als nötig, damit ich Taille bei Bedarf etwas enger machen kann (und damit ich eine Schleife binden kann. Schleifen sind cool).

I opted to forgo all the construction tips in the tutorial on how to insert godets and sewed them in my own, lazy way (attach to one side and then treat as a continuous piece when attatching the other side) and I'm pretty sure I managed to turn one of the side-front panels around, but since the fabric has a bit of a stretch, it doesn't matter. I cut all seam allowances pretty short, finished them with a zig-zag-stitch and topstitched along all seams. The side closes with a zipper and the waistband is longer than necessary, so that I can tie a bow (because I wanted to be able to adjust the width a little bit. Also, bows are cute).

An der Schneiderpuppe sieht das Ganze etwas traurig aus, klar, aber das ist auch nur ein schnelles whatsapp-Bild. An mir sieht es besser aus ;)

Looks a bit sad on the dressform, I know, but it was just a quick picture I sent someone with my phone, it does look better in person ;)

Den Saum habe ich mit einem Shell-hem (Muschelsaum?) per Hand versäubert, der hätte wahrscheinlich an einem dünneren bzw. weicheren Stoff besser ausgesehen. Ist aber nicht so schlimm, dafür kommen die Rüschen unten jetzt besser raus.

I finished the bottom by hand with a shell hem, which probably would have looked a bit better on a softer fabric, but whatever. It makes the flounced bottom stand out more.

Ich mit Fingerwellen, einem Faux-Bob und dem kompletten 30er Outfit an einem Sonntag, an dem ich nichts Besseres zu tun hatte und keine andere Möglichkeit, Fotos zu machen. Ist die Schleife nicht niedlich?

Ich habe den Rock auch schon mit anderen, modernen Blusen angezogen, um ihn alltagstauglich zu machen. Alles in allem ist es ein sehr vielseitiger Rock, und ich liiiebe die Farbe. Ich finde, er passt sehr gut zu der Bluse und das ganze ist ein guter Anfang für meine (hoffentlich bald wachsende) Vintage Garderobe ;)

This is me trying out finger waves, a faux-bob and the 30's outfit one lazy sunday without any better photo-opportunities. Isn't the bow cute? 

I have also paired the skirt with other, modern blouses, to wear in an every-day setting. All in all I think it's a very versatile skirt, and I love the colour. I think it's a great addition to the blouse and a good starting point for a more vintage wardrobe ;)

Christmas presents

For some reason, I decided some time in october/november last year to gift my family knitted christmas presents. I had just moved to a new city that was a four hour train-ride away from my parents, so I figured I'd have enough time on my hands for that. Also, moving to a new city after the start of semester meant that I had neither friends nor many courses to take up my time, so knitting three different projects in two months seemed doable.

The other thing that certainly helped was that I found three projects that seemed perfect for the three respective family members I wanted to make them for, which is also why I didn't make anything for my father (yet) - he doesn't like knitted garments.

So, in order of their finishing, here are my three handmade christmas presents:

• Gradient cowl for my younger brother. I really liked the subtle colour change in the "sweetgrass palette" (scroll down a little on that link), and after I googled what seed stitch was it seemed like an easy and quick project. Mind you, I didn't actually order that bundle, but went to my local yarn store and picked out some colours that I thought would work well together (and got asked if I was expecting, because I chose a soft baby-yarn....). After that it was just a question of deciding on an order, a width and using my mother's kitchen-scales to know when to change colours.

This was the order I decided on in the end. The best part: my younger brother went away over new year's eve and forgot the cowl at my parents', so my mother took to wearing it. She liked it so much that she's currently knitting one for herself, albeit with a slightly different colourway ;)

The actual cowl. Couldn't get my brother to model it for my, though...

• Hilda Mittens for my mother. I didn't strictly follow the pattern (when do I ever?) and, again, used some very soft wool - I know that my mother doesn't mind, but I can't even wear normal sock-wool, because it feels so scratchy. The red base of the mittens is a bit tight, but wearable, and I ended up making them a lot longer than in the pattern - which in turn meant more repeats for the lace-pattern on top, but that worked out just fine. The important part is, my mother likes them, and has already worn them :)

Once on my hand and once flat on the table. They're kinda thin, I think, for the temperatures we've had these past couple of weeks, but should be good for early/late winter.

• Mountain Range sweater for my older brother. I stumbled across this pattern on tumblr, and really liked the idea of it. Not so much, however, that I'd be willing to pay 12$, especially considering that I'd have to find the yarn and needle size and so on to get the gauge right for the picture chart.... Instead, I used this pattern on how to knit a top-down sweater, and my trusty knitPro web app to turn some black and white mountain drawings into a knitting chart. Lo and behold:

It's all in cotton to make the washing easier, also, it's too short. My brother prefers long sweaters, and I couldn't ask him to try it on before christmas (naturally), so after christmas, I took it back and am currently lenghtening everything. Well, you live and you learn, I guess :)

Also: so many ends to weave in!

Well, these are the christmas presents, while writing these up I realized that I'd recently finished another sweater and a poncho for myself that I've written nothing about so far, plus I bought fabric for and am in the ealry stages of two different carneval costumes. Look forward to these as soon as I am done with my exams ;)

Lady Bug Costume

Carnival season is back, folks, and it's gonna be a long one this year. So I think it's fitting that I decided to make not one, but two new costumes this year!
I've been wanting to make a lady bug costume for ages (they're my favourite animal and I used to have a really cute lady bug costume as a toddler), but I never knew how to make one that would look different from a store-bought costume and still be kinda cute. Well, recently I got inspired and drew this:

It was an idea on how to do the wings, because that's the most important part, and for the rest I could just put on a black dress or shirt.
This week is finals week, which meant that I had exams on Monday,  Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  So of course I had to go out and buy the fabric for the wings on Wednesday after the exam (5pm) and use my study breaks that evening to start making a pattern for a small bolero - my genius idea for how to make the wings wearable. (You'll notice there's no such thing on the drawing - even while in the fabric store I figured I'd mount the wings on some grosgrain ribbon and fasten that with safety-pins,  it was only when I couldn't find a suitable ribbon in the store that I began to think about alternatives).
On Thursday,  I wrote my exam, went home, ate lunch and did some revision for the exam the next day. When my head really couldn't take anything in anymore, I started sewing. (Well, I did bits and pieces during my study breaks before, but that was only 5-20 minutes, so it doesn't count).

Bolero pieces in my study break.
The wings are made of red polyester satin and white organza, 1m each. The bolero and the dots are made out of that great black fabric I got from my brother years ago - it truly is a gift that keeps on giving.
I bag-lined the bolero and fixed the wings in the shoulder seam of the outer layer. Other than the fact that I sewed on one of the front pieces back to front and couldn't turn the front pieces after bag-lining, because my visual-spatial imagination abandoned me today, it went together very well. I ended up opening up the side-seams to turn the front pieces, then closed each piece with top stitching and finally closed the side-seam again with a big zig-zag-stitch. No-one's gonna be looking under my arms in any case.

I used my sugar-bowl-lid as a template for the dots. Another great attribute of the fabric: it hardly frays, especially not when handled carefully.

I used fabric glue to fix the dots to the red wings, and I think, that's already it! Here'so the finished result (on my dressform, because none of my mirrors are big enough to take a decent costume-selfie).

From the back...









...and from the front. It's a bit tight around the arms, but other than that, I really like it. It was a nice way to take my mind of finals :)
Wish me luck for my exam tomorrow!