Dirndlbluse

Fragt mich nicht, warum, aber irgendwie hatte ich dieses Jahr Lust auf eine hochgeschlossene Dirndlbluse mit geraden Ärmeln. Vielleicht als Gegenpol zu den riesigen Puffärmeln der ersten Bluse, die ich zu meinem Eisbonbon-Dirndl genäht habe?

Auf jeden Fall habe ich den Sommer über Pinterest nach schönen Dirndlblusen durchforscht und mir, wie so häufig, ausgesucht, welche Elemente ich haben wollte. Schlussendlich habe ich mich für einfache Biesen und ein bisschen Häkel(?)-Spitze, die von einem anderen Projekt übrig war, als Verzierung entschieden.

Don't ask why, but for some reason I felt like having a high-necked blouse with straight sleeves for my dirndl this year. Maybe as a kind of antithesis to the gigantic puffed sleeves of the first blouse I made to go with my candy-wrapper-dirndl?

In any case, I spent this summer browsing pinterest for pretty dirndl-blouses and selected which elements I wanted to include. Eventually I decided on simple pintucks and a bit of crochet(?) lace, that I had left over from another project, as trim.

Der Stoff ist weißer Baumwoll-Batist, der noch von meinem Circular Gallifreyan Shirt übrig war, plus ein wenig weiße Ikea-Baumwolle für die Druckknopfleiste. Als Schnittmuster habe ich meinen gewohnten Oberteilblock genommen, den Seitenabnäher vorne nach unten verlagert und knapp unterhalb der Brust mit Gummizug gerafft. Den Ärmel habe ich entsprechend der Maße gedraftet, dabei aber zu wenig Spiel im Oberarm gelassen, was dazu führte, dass ich in der fertigen Bluse die Arme nicht über 45° von meinem Körper abspreizen konnte. Ich konnte das Ganze mit einem in der Unterarmnaht eingesetzten Zwickel(?) beheben, und da dieser Fehler bei mir häufiger vorkommt, heißt das wohl, dass demnächst auch meine anderen selbst-entworfenen Ärmel überholt werden müssen :)

The fabric is white cotton-batiste that was left over from my Circular-Gallifreyan-Shirt, plus some white Ikea-cotton as backing for the snap-closure. I took the pattern from my trustet bodice-block, moved the side-darts to the bottom and gathered the bottom hem right underneath the chest with an elastic. I drafted the sleeves, but didn't account for enough ease in the upper arm, which led to me not being able to lift my arms above 45° after setting in the sleeves. Luckily, I could fix that by inserting a small gusset into the underarm-seam, and since that mistake tends to happen to me frequently, I guess I'm gonna go and fix all my self-drafted sleeves some time soon.

Ich habe zuerst die Biesen genäht, und dann das Muster ausgeschnitten. 

I first sewed the pintucks and cut out the pattern afterwards.

Die Spitze wurde von hand angenäht, und der Verschluss sind wie gesagt Druckknöpfe. Ich persönlich muss sagen, ich finde die Bluse sehr gut gelungen! Sie war sehr bequem und hat wegen der kleinen Ärmel auch gut unter meine Strickjacke gepasst. Ein voller Erfolg!

I attached the lace by hand, the closure consist of snaps, as I mentioned before. I have to say I think the blouse turned out very well! It was pretty comfy and because of the small sleeves, I didn't have any trouble wearing my cardigan on top. A complete sucess!

Ratespiel

Lust auf ein Ratespiel? Na? Wer bin ich?

Who's up fo a guessing game? Well? Who am I?

Ich gebe zu, ohne die langen, blonden Haare ist das ganze vielleicht etwas schwieriger, aber ihr werdet schon noch drauf kommen.

I'll admit that the lack of long, blond hair makes it a little bit harder to guess, but you'll get there in the end.

Warum ausgerechnet Cersei Lannister? Die Idee kam mir, als mir Anfang Januar eine Freundin erzählte, dass sie angefangen habe, Song of Ice and Fire zu lesen. Da besagte Freundin lange, blonde Haare hat und ich sie in der Fasnet sowieso immer mit Kostümen versorge, dachte ich sofort, dass ein Cersei-Kostüm gut für sie passen würde. Leider hatte ich kein Kleid zuhause, das auch nur annähernd für Cersei passen würde, also konnte ich ihr für den Ball an diesem Abend nicht helfen, aber die Idee ließ mich nicht mehr los.

Über die Kostüme der Serie, und über die Symbolik und Überlegungen hinter den Designs findet man zum Glück viele Informationen online (thecostumevault hat zum Beispiel eine tolle Analyse geschrieben), und im Zusammenspiel mit ganz vielen Google Images Searches hatte ich am Ende eine Liste von Elementen, die ich in das Kleid einbauen wollte.

• Wickelkleid mit Schnüren an einer Seite
• Die Farben Rot und Gold
• Weite Ärmel
• Seitengodets und Ärmelfutter in gold
• Goldene Stickerei auf den Ärmeln

Why Cersei Lannister? I got the idea in january, when a friend of mine told me that she'd started reading A Song of Ice and Fire. Since said friend has long, blond hair and mostly relies on me for costumes during carneval anyways, I immediately thought that a Cersei-costume would be a good fit. Sadly, I didn't have any dress at home that would have come even close to Cersei, so I couldn't help her out for the ball that night, but the idea stuck with me.

Luckily, there's a wealth of information online on the costumes and the symbolism behind the designs (thecostumevault wrote a great piece, for example) and together with a lot of Google Images Searches I ended up with a list of elements I wanted to incorporate into the dress.

• A Wrapping gown with ties at the side
• The colours red and gold
• Wide sleeves
• Side godets and Sleeve-lining in gold
• Golden embroidery on the sleeves

Mein Referenzbild, wobei ich die Schnittmusterzeichnungen größtenteils ignoriert habe

My reference picture, although I mostly ignored the pattern drawings.

Den Stoff habe ich relativ billig von Buttinette  bestellt, deshalb besteht der rote Stoff auch zu 100% aus Polyester. Ich muss allerdings zugeben, dass der Stoff sich a) gut nähen ließ und b) einen schönen Fall hatte, auch wenn ein Polyester-Kleid mit langen Ärmeln sehr schnell sehr warm wird. Der goldene Stoff ist Baumwoll-Satin.

I got the fabric relatively cheap from Buttinette, which is why the red fabric is 100% polyester. I have to admit, though, that the fabric a) was surprisingly easy to work with and b) had a nice drape, even though a polyester-dress with long sleeves gets pretty warm pretty quickly. The golden fabric is cotton-satin.

Das Schnittmuster für das Oberteil habe ich auf meiner Schneiderpuppe drapiert (?), den Ärmel auf Papier erstellt, wobei ich für Umfang und Form der Ärmelkugel einfach mein biegsames Maßband verwendet habe... ich war selber überrascht, dass das so gut funktioniert hat!

I draped the bodice-pattern on my dressform and drafted the sleeve, using my measuring tape to get the form and length of the upper end right... I was surprised how well that worked!

Die restliche Konstruktion bestand mehr oder minder aus Recht- und Dreiecken, wie man hier sehr gut sehen kann. Auch der untere Ärmelteil besteht aus einem 50cm x 100cm Rechteck, einmal in der Mitte gefaltet, dessen untere Ecke abgerundet wurde. Nur der untere (sichtbare) Ärmel ist gefüttert. 

The rest of construction consisted more or less of rectangles and triangles, as you can see here. Even the lower part of the sleeve consists of a 50cm x 100cm rectangle, folded down the middle, with the lower corner rounded. Only the lower (visible) part of the sleeve is lined.

Abschließend habe ich noch die Ärmel bestickt, was man glaube ich im allerersten Bild am besten sieht. Ich kann nicht sonderlich gut sticken, aber ich finde, dass das dem Kleid nochmal einen gewissen Kick gibt. 

Alles in allem hat es sehr viel Spaß gemacht, dieses Kleid zu nähen und zu tragen - ich wollte es nach Fasching gar nicht mehr ausziehen! - und vielleicht kann ich es ja nächstes Jahr meiner Freundin ausleihen.

Finally I embroidered the sleeves, which is probably most visible in the very first picture. I'm not that good at embroidery, but I feel that it gives the dress a certain kick.

All in all I had a lot of fun sewing and wearing this dress - I really didn't want to take it off again after carneval! - and maybe next year I can lend it to my friend.

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!

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 - 

Hello world

Look, I'm back! I'm sorry for being off the grid for so long, but I put myself under the obligation not to sew (or rather: bring out the sewing machine) until I had finished my thesis, and that (unexpectedly, I might add) took until the end of August. In order to stay sane during those long months, though, I did a lot of knitting (which did involve some handsewing for finishing, I admit). I still have the problem of getting things properly photographed, so here's a list (and sometimes, blurry photos) of things I worked on/finished in the last 9 months.

• finished the Ramona Mittens in January

• The green-metallic sweater spontaneously gained some lace sleeves (the medici pattern again, by now I can do it by heart) and was finished sometime in early April. Here's a not quite finished picture:

• Started and finished the Sofia Shawl, I'm pretty sure it took me less than a month or so and was finished in the middle of August. Here it is being blocked (excuse the beachtowel beneath, I didn't want to get my parent's couch wet)

• And, last but not least, I am working on a cardigan to go with my dirndl , using yet another of Nadelspiel's patterns - slightly modified to be worked in rows instead of rounds. It's only missing a sleeve, which is currently on the needles, and some kind of closure.

There's some more projects I'm still working on, or tried and abandoned, or simply didn't take any pictures of, but all in all this is my creative output over the last 9 months. Considering the struggles I had writing my thesis and the fact that I started a full-time internship in June, I still think it's pretty good. My life is slowly getting back to a more settled rhythm, so I think there'll be more time and energy to sew in the future - it's not like I haven't had any ideas in all this time ;)