Button Up Dress

Finally, today I found the time to take pictures of a linen dress I made about a month ago. This is probably the most creative I've gotten with sewing so far, unfortunately the pictures do not give justice to the way I feel in this dress, as imperfect as it is.

The dress is a hybrid between a free pattern by Peppermint Magazine, designed by In the Folds and Burda # 118 03 / 2013 to get something similar to a ready-to-wear dress I saw while googling button-up dresses. Initially I had decided to make the In The Folds dress, I even printed, glued and cut the pattern and then I reconsidered. I did not like the rather roomy and shapeless form of their dress and I was not sure it was at all my style.

So I googled button-up dresses and decided to take a fitted shift dress from Burda and make it into a button-up dress. I followed the way the In The Folds dress was constructed in front and made my own lining based on the lining for their dress. I also followed the very detailed and helpful instructions, provided by the Peppermint Magazine while sewing my hybrid dress. There were some tricks, concerning the attachment of the lining, which were very interesting and I would have never come up with them on my own.

The fabric of the dress is also very special to me, as this is the first fabric I've dyed before making a garment. The original fabric was linen in bright orange yellow, which was gifted to me. I loved the fabric, but the color wasn't me. So I prepared a solution of hot water and salt and bordeaux cotton dye and I worked the fabric in it for at least half an hour. I do mean "worked" - I knew from experience, that if I simply left the fabric in the pot, it would dye unevenly, so I moved and squeezed it constantly, until most of the dye was absorbed. Then I let the fabric dry and fixed the dye by ironing the fabric at the highest temp on my iron. I still haven't washed the dress, but some tests I did on the cuttings showed some loss of color during washing, so I'm still not declaring the experiment a success.

I love linen, but I'm not convinced I'll be making another dress out of linen soon, not if it creases as this linen. On these photos I had just ironed the dress and travelled in the car for less than 15 min and it's all creased - so impractical :( Next time, probably next summer, I'm thinking of a repetition of the pattern, but in chambray.

Something about the belt. Initially I hadn't thought of a belt at all, but after I finished the dress it looked to me kind of missing something, so I gathered the bigger remnants of the fabric (I had only 1.30 m and barely squeezed a full sized dress) and made a belt. But I'm not happy with it either. When I fasten it, it creates a puff on the back and tends to cover the central button. So next time one more mod of the pattern would be a belt, which is part of the dress.

I can't decide whether to keep the belt ends in front

or at the back. I can wear it with a thin leather belt too, but a waist band would be better.

Burda Linen Shirt

A few shots from today's walk in the park in my new linen shirt- Burda 3 / 2013 #124:

:: with the side patch arrows, buttoned inside to the hidden buttons:

:with the side patch arrows, buttoned outside:

:open, as a jacket over a sleeveless T-shirt:

: the side arrows:

Sewing and Cooking

Yesterday I made my first cheesecake. I've made many cakes and muffins and such but I had never tried my hands at cheesecakes. I followed the recipe of one of my favourite food youtubers - Benedetta. It was a lot of work but quite a success at home and I'll probably make it again, maybe with some modifications (this one came a bit big for my cake dish.)

And my latest finished object - the Burda # 124 3/2013 linen shirt. Back in May 2013 I bought this issue of Burda and planned on sewing a hundred things from it and never got to actually doing it until last week.
The fabric is some fairly thick linen which I had bought with the idea for this shirt last year, together with some suitable thread. The pattern is of average difficulty, with sleeves, patches, a collar with neck facing and it even requires buttonholes.

Because standard Burda patterns are designed for height 168 cm and I'm only 156 cm, I had to modify the pattern. I traced it on transparent kitchen paper, measured myself and calculated that I needed to shorted the shirt above the waist with about 2 cm and 3 cm below the waist. Instructions on Burda site recommend removing 1/3 of the excess length at the level of the sleeve and 2/3 below the sleeve and above the waist:

Then I transferred the modified pieces on brown paper.

This is one of the elements that troubled me most - attaching a collar with neck facing. Burda patterns have very short instructions (the fact that my issue is in German and I don't speak German is another matter :), but I couldn't find any youtube videos for such collars, so I improvised. I think it turned alright, but I wish I knew the right sequence of steps, as it was  a bit tricky.

The elements that I like most about this shirt - the arrow patches.

Although my fabric is not delicate, it is very loosely woven and subject to raveling, so I finished most of my seams as French seams. I also added a button on the inside of the side seams to hide the arrow patch for when I want to wear the shirt straight. And I made all of my buttonholes myself on my sewing machine! I was quite afraid and did have to undo two of them, but they turned OK in the end. Sorry for the crinkles on my shirt, but this linen fabric is impossible to keep ironed.

And a final bite of my strawberry cheesecake :)

Jeans Bag with Knitted Front

Last summer I got the idea to make a small crossover jeans bag with a knitted front. I had some cotton-linen yarn left from Gaby's Freya cardigan and I knitted in into a rectangular panel. The initial idea was for two panels, as wide as the bag, but one shorter in height, so that the jeans panel under it would show partially on the front. However the yarn turned insufficient for two panels and then when I reached the desired size of the knitting, it was not symmetrical to the pattern, so I continued knitting until I had two full repeats of the pattern. But this made the panel too high for my initial idea, in hindsight I should have stuck to my plan, regardless of the asymmetry. Now the knitted panel looks unnatural on the bag, like a patch. The good news is that the stitches could be unpicked and the patch removed and with a couple of decorative pockets the bag would be a regular jeans bag. And this is probably what I'll do after a while.

The jeans textile is recycled from Alex's old jeans and the inside of the bag is made of strong cotton textile.

The bag is closed with a recessed zipper. The lining has one big pocket.

The handle is long and adjustable.

The bag is very light, but big enough for a wallet, phone, keys and my old Kindle, so it's all I need for the summer.

A quick shot of me and the bag fresh out of the sewing machine in the local supermarket.

Freya Cardigan Modeled

So here's Freya - a small spring/summer cardi for extra warmth on a chilly morning or evening in a neutral natural color. The yarn - Italian bobbin, 70% cotton, 30% linen, is very thick and coarse and the cardigan is heavy for such a small piece - approx. 425 g. The buttoning can be done in sections, but I'm not sure if this is practical - time will show.

Pattern: Freya Cardigan (personal pattern)
Yarn: Italian bobbin cotton/linen, 425 g
Needle: 3 mm rib, 3.5 mm body
Time to knit: three weeks

These days Facebook is abundant with photos of people with the new statue of Bulgarian writer and founder of the organized tourist movement in Bulgaria - Aleko Konstantinov, so, to be in line with the trend - Gaby with Aleko :)

WIP - Freya Cardigan

My current work - a short cotton/linen cardigan. I'm not using a written pattern but rather designing it as I go. The yarn is Italian bobbin yarn, 70% cotton, 30% linen in natural color. It is in the form of a fairly broad band and is a bit coarse and thick. This short cardigan will weigh at least 420 g, I had to order an additional 100g bobbin, as my initial 400 g decreased rather quickly as I knit the rib band.
The name Freya - the Norse goddess of love, beauty and spring came to me as I was listening to a series of lectures on the Vikings and I thought it matched well my perception of this cardigan.

The lace is a combination of 4-stitch cables and a classic 5-stitch YO and k2tog lace in a rib-like structure.

The body is knit back and fronts  together up to the armholes, with a broad rib band at the waist.

The button bands are knit together with the fronts and the buttonholes are three clusters of three close placed holes for small buttons.

I've knit the two sleeves, the back and one front, so I have to finish the second front, do the neckband and Gaby will have a new cardigan.