Flower Power

I was inspired by Gaby's pink sleeveless blouse and decided to make a similar one for myself. More so, that I have so many pieces of fabric in my fabric drawer, that I have to sew some day.

This particular georgette was purchased last year for Gaby, but she thought it didn't suit her completion, so I left it for myself. While she is "winter", I am definitely "warm autumn" and all of these warm colors are right up my alley. 

The pattern is again Burda 6840, reduced to size 34 and shortened by 7 cm, that is additional 2 cm, compared to Gaby's pink blouse. I like the shortening, but next time I might move the shortening lines above and below the waist and leave the height above the armscye. 

 

Pattern: Burda 6840

Size: 34, modified, shortened by 7 cm

Fabric: polyester georgette

Time to make: five days

The pattern has its own long sleeves, but I wanted flared sleeves, so I changed them based on my Purple Burda Blouse 108 12/2023. Initially I planned to add an elastic at the end of the sleeves, but it somehow cheapened the look of the blouse for me. Then I thought of adding the elastic in a tunnel some 4-5 cm above the hem - I love such sleeves. I might still do it, but as I already have a blouse with such sleeves, in the end I though it might be cool just to leave the sleeves wide and bell-shaped and see how I felt about them - I can always add the elastic later.

Among the minor modifications I added to the pattern is again the collar, which I made angular and not rounded, as in the pattern - somehow I find the angular look better.

The flared sleeves in combination with my flared jeans give a very flower power vibe, which I adore :)

The Quiet Place, Vladaya, 2024

Although we've been living in Sofia for decades and hiking Vitosha for years, there are still places we haven't visited and trails we haven't explored. 

Today we continued with our experiments with another circular trail on Vitosha, that we concocted ourselves, based on the map. The trail included some tracks, that we've hiked before, as well as connecting parts, that were new to us, so the entire experience was that of exploration and adventure.

We started from a place, called the Quiet Place (Tihiyat kut), where we left the car and took the trail to Vladaya. We've hiked the path from Vladaya to Zlatnite mostove and back several times, but driving to the village of Vladaya is a hassle in Sofia's traffic and we had been avoiding it for years. And it turned out we could drive some 20 min from home into the mountain, leave the car at the Quiet Place and reach Vladaya in only some 30-40 minuted along a path through Vitosha.

The entire trail from the Quiet Place, through Vladaya to Zlatnite mostove was fairy-tale beautiful, green and flowery.

Hike info:

Date: 25 May 2024

Destination: Zlatnite Mostove

Mountain: Vitosha

Total length: 10.8 km

Elevation gain: 490 m

Total duration (plus picnic and rests): 3 hours

Average difficulty: 3 / 10

The trail from the village of Vladaya to Zlatnite is probably one of the most picturesque on Vitosha, as it runs along the beautiful Vladaya river. I couldn't stop taking pictures of the river all the way. The beauty of the place makes up for the altitude gain, which is not at all negligible - approx. 500 m over less than 5 km.

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

Husband: boxers, Shkatulka raglan blouse

I: lingerie, Sabrina Slims II, Burda Hoodie

One of my favourite places along the path - the so-called market place. There were information boards there with very interesting data about the history of this place, related to the Ottoman rule, gold mining and forest bandits / freedom fighters :)

We had our lunch on the meadow near Zlatnite mostove and headed back to our car along the alternative trail in the direction of  Knyazevo.

A rocky macaron :) along the way down

Pink Sleeveless Shirt for Gaby

This is the last item I made for Gaby in April. The shirt was kind of an afterthought after  had finished with the jeans. I bought the fabric last summer, but let it marinate in my fabrics drawer with a lot of other fabric pieces - yes, these tend to increase faster than I manage to sew them, I'm sure it's a tendency known to all seamstresses worldwide :)

I'm not sure what type of fabric it is, but it is something like gauze - fairly loosely woven and slightly transparent, with tweed like insertions of colorful threads. The threads run horizontally, but I though the vertical striping made more sense, so I cut the fabric across the grain. 

I've made this pattern before in red viscose and I knew it fit Gaby well. The original pattern starts from size 36, but I had drawn the 34 size myself, based on the proportions of the given sizes. Cutting the shirt this time was super easy, as I already had the pattern pieces prepared.

I played a little with the stripes, as one does, cutting the yoke so, that the stripes run horizontally. All of the seams are french seams and the yoke seams are enclosed, using the burrito method.

As the main fabric is very loose weaved and frays easily, I chose to use some complementary viscose for the inside of the armhole openings.

Pattern: Burda 6840

Size: 34, modified, shortened by 5 cm

Fabric: cotton\polyester gauze

Time to make: two days

I was very happy to find the perfect colour buttons, although they could have been a tad smaller

The blouse in the photos is still unhemmed, I hemmed it after Gaby tried it on. She liked the length I had cut, so I just folded the curved end twice by 1 cm and sewed it.

Dendrarium Round Trail 2024

It is May and the weather here is catching up on all the cold and rain it failed to produce in March :) However, Saturday was sunny and even warm and dry, perfect for hiking, and Vitosha was bursting at the seams with tourists.

This week we decided to make an experimental hike - we went over the map of Vitosha and compounded a round trail, starting from the Dendrarium up to Kamen del hut, where we had our lunch and then along an alternative trail back to Momina skala and through Zlatnite mostove back to the Dendrarium. We've walked most of the tracks around Zlatnite, but the one from the Dendrarium to Kamen del hut was completely new to us and it turned out to be a hidden gem.

The track runs along one of the many small rivers on Vitosha, passing through gorgeous green meadows and beech forests

Hike info:

Date: 18 May 2024

Destination: Kamen del Hut

Mountain: Vitosha

Total length: 10 km

Elevation gain: 370 m

Total duration (plus picnic and rests): 3 hours

Average difficulty: 3 / 10

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

Husband: boxers, Knipmode cargo pants, Colorblock Burda blouse

I: lingerie, leg warmers

Although we enjoyed our picnic at Kamen del hut, next time we make this trail, we should probably have our lunch at the Momina skala meadow, which is closer to the highest point of the trail and has lots of picnic tables and gazebos. 

A salamander. These are very common on Vitosha in the rainy season.

The Dendrarium - a large picnic area with a small lake with plenty of frogs, dragonflies and turtles

Burda Jeans for Gaby

I really wish I had managed to take pictures at least of these jeans, as showing them flat is in many respects pointless - what really matters with pants is how they fit.

The third and obviously most difficult and complicated pattern I made for Gaby were these jeans. I have several Burda jeans patterns, which I've bought through the years. Last year I tried one for myself in 7/8 length and at the end of the year I finished my flared jeans, which are my current favourite pair. Gaby, however, chose a different pattern - Burda 120 04/2010. These were supposed to be straight leg low cut jeans, with a fairly wide curved waist band. They turned a bit wide, so after Gaby tried them on, I had to narrow the legs by about 4 cm each.

Pattern: Burda 120 04/2010

Size: 34, with mods

Fabric: denim with elastane, 1 m

Time to make: one week

 

Apart from being wide in the legs, the 34 size was also very wide at the waist - I had to take the back seam in by 1.5 cm on each side, and the waist band respectively. I did not like the back pockets, that go with the pattern, so I used the pockets for my flared jeans, with the same decorative stitching.

 

Once I had finished with all the mods, the jeans fit Gaby quite well and I hope she will wear them. This is the first of my Make Nine pledge for 2024 - item No 4 straight jeans. I have two more pieces of  denim, meant for new pairs of jeans for me and Gaby, but I don't think I'll be making this pattern again, I would rather go back to the flared jeans pattern, which after a few washings turned out actually very well fitting.

Boyana Waterfalls 2024

The weather, as always in May in these latitudes, is very erratic and after days of cold rain, Saturday was sunny and fairly warm. We were not in the mood for long rides with the car, so we chose again a trail close to home - the track from Dragalevsky Monastery to Boyana Waterfalls and back. We do this track usually from Dragalevsky lift station, but yesterday we were a bit lazy and decided to drive to the parking lot above the monastery and spare us the kilometer along the road from the lift to the monastery.

The beech forests on Vitosha are absolutely amazing in May, when the tall trees are covered with light green foliage.

A glimpse towards Sofia

We had our picnic on this sunny meadow with a view to Kopitoto tv tower on our way back from the waterfalls

The Boyana lake. I don't think I've seen it so full before, this year the rivers and lakes on Vitosha are overflowing, the snowfall must have been significant this winter. I can only hope the water management authorities are taking good care of city waters and not complaining of droughts in August.

Hike info:

Date: 11 May 2024

Destination: Boyana Waterfalls

Mountain: Vitosha

Total length: 12.5 km

Elevation gain: 260 m

Total duration (plus picnic and rests): 4 hours

Average difficulty: 4 / 10

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

Husband: boxers, Knipmode cargo pants, Colorblock Burda blouse

I: lingerie, knitted cardigan, leg warmers

Petrovska river was so full, that crossing it without a bridge was actually a small adventure

And here is the mighty waterfall. It is the highest and biggest on Vitosha and this year it is really beautiful and full-watered.