Pants & Pyjamas

Was passiert, wenn lemonfairy feststellt, dass ihre Wohnung im Sommer viel zu warm zum Schlafen ist und sie gerne Pyjama-Shorts hätte? Richtig, sie schnappt sich Stoffreste (übrig geblieben von diesem Kleid, den Stoff habe ich eigentlich für ein anderes Projekt gekauft, weshalb ich immer noch davon übrig habe), ein Tutorial von VeraVenus (dem ich mal wieder nur zur Hälfte gefolgt bin) und näht sich ein paar Shorts.

What happens when lemonfairy realizes that her apartment is way too hot for sleeping in the summer and that she'd very much like to have some PJ-Shorts? That's right, she takes some left-over fabric (from this dress, the fabric was bought for another project that didn't happen, so I still have some left over), a tutorial by VeraVenus (that I, as per usual, only followed about halfway through) and sews herself some shorts.

Schritt 2: lemonfairys Mutter sieht, was lemonfairy für eine tolle Schlafanzughose hat, und wünscht sich zu Weihnachten auch eine. Und weil lemonfairy lieber zu viel als zu wenig Stoff kauft, hat sie genug übrig, um auch noch ein Oberteil zu nähen, und weil das Motto "wenn schon, dann richtig" gewesen zu sein scheint, häkelt sie auch noch die Träger und Verzierungen für den oberen Rand.

Step 2: lemonfairy's mother sees lemonfairy's pretty PJ-bottoms and asks for one for herself for Christmas. Since lemonfairy prefers buying too much fabric to too little, she has enough left over to also sew a top, and since the motto seems to have been "if you're gonna do it, you might as well do it right" she also crochets the straps and trim for the upper edge.

Schritt 3: lemonfairys Mutter verrät ihr, dass der selbstgemachte Schlafanzug ihr Lieblings-Schlafanzug ist, und wünscht sich noch einen zu ihrem Geburtstag. Diesmal ist er aus Viskose statt Baumwolle, aber unglaublich weich und leicht waschbar, und rechtzeitig zum Geburtstag per Post nach Hause geschickt.

Step 3: lemonfairy's mother tells her that the handmade Pyjama is her favourite and that she'd like to have another for her birthday. This time, I made it from viscose instead of cotton, but it's still incredibly soft and easily washable, and I managed to get it home in time for her birthday by mail.

Schritt 4: lemonfairy nimmt zu und passt nicht mehr in ihre kurzen Hosen. Ups... Da ich mit dem Shorts-Muster so gute Erfahrungen gemacht habe und sowieso schon länger den High-Waist-Look ausprobieren wollte, habe ich eine wunderbar weiche schwarze Viskose besorgt (ich wollte ursprünglich eigentlich ein dunkles Rot, das gab es aber nicht und der schwarze Stoff lag gerade offen da und hat sich so toll angefühlt) und dann prompt ein, zwei Wochen liegen gelassen. Während dieser Zeit habe ich den Schlafanzug genäht und mich mehrmals umentschieden, wie die Hose denn letztendlich aussehen sollte. Am Ende habe ich mich aber für ein Design entschieden:

Step 4: lemonfairy gains weight and can't fit into her shorts anymore. Oops... Since my experiences with the shorts-pattern had been very positive and I'd been meaning to try the high-waist-look for a long time I went and got a wonderfully soft black viscose (I wanted dark red initially, but they didn't have it, and the black fabric was just lying around in the open and felt so good) to promptly leave it lying around for one of two weeks. During that time I made the PJs and changed my mind several times as to the design of my pants. In the end, I settled on this:

Gumizug hinten, Paperbag/Bundfalten vorne. Da ich gerade keinen schwarzen kurzen Reißverschluss da hatte, schließt das ganze vorne mit einer verdeckten Knopfleiste.

Auf den Fotos ist die Hose noch nicht versäumt, da ich heute erst dazu gekommen bin und die Hose seither nicht mehr ausgezogen habe (so bequem!) um Fotos zu  machen. Schwarzer Stoff ist sowieso schwer zu fotografieren. Gesäumt endet die Hose kurz unter meinem Knie, der Saum ist 10cm breit. Da an mir die Öffnung etwas aufklafft, habe ich das ganze mit einem Gürtel (*hustHaarbandhust*) gestylt, im Moment arbeite ich an einem längeren Gürtel aus dem schwarzen Stoff.

Für einen ersten (und hochgradig improvisierten!) Versuch ist das ganze meiner Meinung nach ein ziemlicher Erfolg, und ich freue mich schon darauf, die Hose häufig zu tragen und mehr Variationen dieses Musters zu nähen. Habe ich schon erwähnt, dass sie unglaublich bequem ist? :D

Elastic in the back, paperbag/folds in the front. Since I didn't have any short black zipper at home it closes with hidden buttons.

The pants aren't hemmed in the pictures since I only got to that today and haven't taken off the pants in order to take pictures of them since (so comfy!). Black fabric is hard to photograph anyway. The hemmed pants end shortly below my knees and the hem is 10cm deep. Since the opening gapes a little when I wear them, I styled them with a belt (*coughhairbandcough*) and am currently working on a longer belt from the same fabric.

For a first (and highly improvised!) trial I think it's a pretty success and I'm very much looking forward to wearing the pants and sew more variations of this pattern. And did I mention they're incredibly comfy? :D

Hemdblusenkleid

Dieses Jahr war die Erste Februarwoche voll mit Deadlines: während ich mein Kostüm für den 08.02.18 in einem anderen Post beschrieben habe, war vom 08.-12.02.18 in München Rock that Swing Festival, wo ich a) unbedingt hin und b) ein neues Kleid haben wollte. 

Da das ganze relativ teuer werden kann und ich sowieso nur einen Tag Zeit hatte, habe ich mir kurzerhand Karten für das Dance-Camp und den Ball am Samstag gebucht, nicht ohne jedoch vorher meinen Bruder samt Freundin und noch ein befreundetes Pärchen bequatscht zu haben, mit zu kommen.

Ich wollte sowieso schon länger ein Hemdblusenkleid machen, das war auch einer der Gründe, warum ich ich vorletztes Jahr das Schnittmuster für die 30er-Jahre-Bluse erstellt habe. Dieses Muster habe ich auch wieder rausgeholt, die einzigen Änderungen waren ein anderer Kragen und der Bund mit Rock. 

The first week of February this year was full of deadlines: while I have described my costume for the 08.02.18 in another post,  the Rock that Swing Festival in Munich was from 08.-12.02.18; and I really wanted to go and I really wanted a new dress to wear to that. Since the whole thing can get quite expensive and I only had one free day in any case, I quickly bought tickets for the dance camp and ball on Saturday, not without talking my brother and his girlfriend and another couple I'm friends with into attending.

I've been wanting to make a shirtwaist dress for a couple of years now, it was my initial motivation for drafting a shirt pattern for the 30's inspired blouse some years ago. I used the same pattern, the only alterations I made were another collar and to add the waistband and Skirt.

Weil die Zeit knapp war, habe ich zwischendurch kaum Fotos gemacht. Ich habe versucht, ein wenig mit dem Streifenmuster des Stoffes zu spielen, ich finde, das ist mir gut gelungen.

Because of the lack of time I hardly took any photos of the process. I tried playing around with the striped fabric, I think successfully.

Das Kleid schließt mit einer durchgehenden Knopfleiste und hat einen Gürtel zum Binden. Die Verzierungen und Gürtelschlaufen bestehen aus einem aufgesetzten, dunkelblauen Band. Das Kleid eignet sich sowohl zum Tanzen, als auch als Sommerkleid, und ich bin sehr zufrieden damit.

The dress closes with a full button-down closure and has a belt to tie. The trimming and belt loops are made from a dark blue ribbon. The dress was perfect for dancing as well as a nice summer dress, and I'm very happy with it. 

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 ;)

30's (inspired) blouse

I finally took out my sewing machine again, and made - a laundry bag. Not very exciting, I know, but I recently moved and needed one and it seemed like a quick and easy project to get back into sewing - remember, last time I did anything on my sewing machine was way back in january.

So after that was done, I felt confident enough to move on to a bigger project, one that has been on my wishlist for quite some time now: a blouse. I have quite a collection of plaid button-down shirts and always liked the idea of a simple, white blouse that would go as well with jeans as with skirts or more formal pants, I just never found one that I liked the fit and/or the fabric of. 

Also, over summer, I toyed with the idea of a shirtwaist-dress (not one that I've given up on just yet, either, it's just right now way too cold to be thinking of summer dresses ;) ), so the obvious solution was to get out my (mother's) trusted pattern-making book and make my own, basic blouse-pattern.

The town I moved to has quite an active Lindy Hop scene, so I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone and make my blouse the first part of a danceable outfit, hence the 30's (inspired) title.

I started by looking at a google-images search of 30's blouses (mostly pattern-envelopes, I think) and noting down which elements I liked and felt fit the theme. Then, and this is kinda new for me, I made a sketch I actually liked!

You can see the list of pattern-elements I wanted to include, an idea for fabric and the fact that I mean to pair it with a skirt that is still very much on my wish-/to-do-list. The elements are:

• A Yoke
• Puffed Sleeves
• Button-down closure
• Round collar (I think they're called Peter-Pan-Collars in English)

After rummaging the well-stocked fabric store here in town and getting excellent help from the employees, I decided on an off-white viscose fabric and square buttons. The viscose mostly was a dream to work with, and if I had a bigger table, I think I could scratch the word "mostly". As it is, I ripped the fabric into smaller rectangles according to the size of the pattern pieces to prevent it from slipping off my table all the time. It should also be noted that the viscose wrinkled very easily, but was just as easily ironed, even without steam (but on the highest heat setting).

I'm afraid I neither took pictures of the pattern making nor of the assembly, so I'll spare you the lenghty write-up. I did however use some new-to-me techniques, so here's a list of them:

• Button-down closure: the drafting, the construction, all new
• Drafting and attaching a collar (and, to be perfectly honest, I'll try a different way of attaching it next time)
• Drafting Sleeves and altering them to puffed sleeves

I also never worked with a yoke before, but I found the concept pretty straight-forward, so there's that. Here's the finished blouse on my dressform:

Final thoughts:

I'm pleasantly surprised at how well this project came together. Other than the fact that it's a bit too see-through for my liking and ended up shorter than intended, I really have nothing to complain about, and while the former is easily mended by wearing a top underneath, the latter doesn't signify much since it's still cute as hell when worn. The viscose feels amazing and is easily washable, so that's another plus.

I kinda wanna make another one, with some variations (long sleeves, puffed differently; lower hem; shaped sides instead of straight ones, maybe even waist darts or -gathering; collar attached differently) but I still have the fabric and pattern for a 60's style dress and I have to finish all my christmas presents before, you know, christmas. But I'm definitely glad my reintroduction to sewing went so smoothly and will keep you  updated on what I do next :)

Until then -