In case you’ve been wondering why it’s been a little quite around here lately…
…we’re moving! It’s exciting and annoying at the same time – I’m really looking forward to moving houses, but it’s always at the most inconvenient time possible. Same old, same old.
Well, this weekend I finally have to pack the last bits (including my lovely sewing machine – not happy about this!). Last term of uni (ever!) is also almost over, which means I’m basically drowning in work right now.
#9 of my 27 Dresses Challenge is done and ready for a trip to the park.
I finally realised that I seem to always sew dresses that are pretty, but which I almost never wear. Furthermore they tend to take several days to make (with all my unpicking…) and this often isn’t very motivating. That’s why I decided to sew something very casual, summery and which would be easy and quick to finish.
I rummaged through all my Burdastyle magazines and found this cute pattern of a summer wrap blouse. It’s in the Burda issue 4/2013, #120A (the black one). They also have the same blouse in white, but without the shirring on the sleeves (tie blouse #120B).
Wow, it’s been ages since the last “5 tip for the weekend” post, I know. It’s back again!
Btw, I recently noticed that some of your comments ended up in my spam folder – now I keep checking it regularly before deleting the spam comments (although that’s totally annoying…), but in case your comment went missing before I started doing that – I’m sorry! I love all your lovely comments!!! Maybe I just need to get a better spam-filter.
#1 craft idea: paint some shoes!
source: E-outfit.com
#2 movie you should see
“Coco before Chanel” 2009
Hope you all enjoyed the long weekend (if you had one)! Did you use the long weekend for something crafty? Well, I did. Nothing too crazy, but I got a few projects done that had waited to be finished for a while.
I was sewing up a cute summer blouse and while desperately trying to press the darts into a nice shape, I thought I finally needed to tackle the tailor’s ham project I planned weeks ago.
I found a brilliant tutorial by Kristiann (the Victory Patterns lady!) who did a great guest post over at Tilly and the Buttons. Check out her site for the instructions and the patterns.
May I present…Her Ugliness! Dress #8 of the 27 Dresses Challenge is all sewn up, but I’m not too happy about it. I actually considered NOT to post a picture of this tragedy, but this blog is not only about making progress in dressmaking, it’s also about making mistakes and learning from them. And this definitely was a mistake (and I’m pretty sure I learnt from making it…).
The pattern is actually pretty awesome (Burda issue 2/2013, #115) and since it was labeled “masterpiece” I had to try it (of course). It wasn’t too complicated and I love how this pattern is constructed.
Now that exams are over, I had a little time here and there to sew and finish some things that were lying around for months. Dress #8 of my 27 Dresses Challenge is practically finished. The weather here in London just hasn’t been good enough to take proper pictures. So check out the blog at the beginning of the week if you’re interested in seeing the ‘ugliest dress I’ve ever sewn’ 
Until then, here’s a quick and easy tutorial for the weekend.
It’s time for upcycling some old scarfs for summer!
All you need:
As promised, here’s the tutorial for the pleated skirt and suspenders I made on the weekend.
It’s a fairly easy sewing project and you won’t need any special skills to tackle it. The trickiest part is probably inserting the invisible zip, but this post also includes a tutorial on how to do it. So no worries, your skirt will turn out to be awesome! Let’s get cracking!
You won’t need a pattern to make this skirt.
All you need:
- fabric (about 1m/40” wide and 1,5/60” long, depending on your waist measurements and the length of the skirt you prefer)
May I present…? #7 of my 27 Dresses Challenge!
I really didn’t plan to make this fun vintage-style pleated skirt with suspenders. I was admiring Debi’s newest vintage make last week – a beautiful blouse with the prettiest vintage trim the world has seen.
While I was still marvelling at the trim, I stumbled upon Cloth Magazine’s facebook page where they advertised their newest issue – including 2m of exactly the trim Debi had used for her blouse – the swooping swallows.
Well, you know what happened then 
Hello again! I had a lovely sunny start into the week and hope you did, too! As there are signs everywhere of spring finally having badly kicked winter’s ass, here’s a really quick spring nails tutorial.
Nails? Yep, I know normally I don’t ‘do beauty tutorials’ and my nails are most of the time looking rather damaged by all my pins and needles, but I found this lovely peachy nail colour the other day. I had the idea of combining it with a neon pink nail colour I never wear and I think it turned out great.
Phew, after a whole day of sewing and unpicking (but mostly unpicking) dress #6 of my 27 Dresses Challenge is done!
I have to admit, I’m proud of this one. This one was quite a challenge for many reasons. I drafted the bodice pattern using intructions from the Burdastyle Sewing Vintage Modern book. I’ve never sewn something so fitted and I’ve never used polyester boning before. But it turned out good and it fits perfectly.
Except for the bodice, I made all the other patterns myself.
A whole month of no sewing (craaaaaazy!), no blogging but way too much non-stop studying.
Finally. Exams are over, all deadlines met and I have (at least part of) my life back. After four weeks of not having the chance to discharge all my creative energy I’m loaded with ideas. And guess what? Yes, I started sewing right away.
But not before relaxing a bit in Regent’s Park which is so damn pretty right now. Here are some impressions of the park and a sneak peek at what’s coming up:
Yes – I’m still there! In case you’ve wondered whether I’ve got the blogging blues – nope, I don’t. I’d love to blog more at the moment, but unfortunately I can’t. Life’s quite stressful at the moment and I’m basically studying for finals and writing on my dissertation non-stop.
Nevertheless, I try to sew a seam here and there whenever I’ve earned me some sewing time after days of studying. Not enough though for finishing the next dress for my 27 Dresses Challenge. The fabric is all cut out and waiting for me to return to my sewing machine in a few weeks time.
After quite a stressful term at uni and before heading home for the Easter weekend I treated myself with three new sewing magazines I’ve never read before. I don’t buy a lot of magazines. They can be quite expensive and end up in the dustbin anyway. The only ones I keep are the Burdastyle magazines since you can reuse the patterns for as many times as you want and combine the different pattern parts of different issues to create new looks.
However, I recently bought three magazines that looked quite promising – Sewstylish, Threads and Cloth. In case you’re looking for new reads for the weekend, I summarised the pros and cons:
Exactly two months ago I started my Blogging Basics Series with the aim of sharing blogging tips from “newbie to newbie” – all the tips and tricks and blogging basics I learnt in the first weeks and months. All the things I found most helpful and wished I would have known from the start.
Now, there are so many things to keep in mind about blogging that I could go on forever. I won’t. Of course, there’s so much more to say and think of but the most basics things (and this was my objective) I’ve already covered.
Lovely news!
Lovely Freya May who blogs over at The Dressmaking Diaries nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award! I love her blog and can’t wait for all the great stuff she’s gonna make in the future! Check out her blog – it’s totally worth it!
One doesn’t get an award for nothing, so here are the rules:
We all love pattern hacks, don’t we? I really do like patterns, especially the Burdastyle ones, and there are so many that I’ll never be able to sew them all. Nevertheless, sometimes you just want to add your own personal touch. And when you have a certain design in mind, but you just can’t find that particular pattern you’re looking for anywhere, you probably have to.
Summer is (hopefully) coming soon and last year’s asymmetrical hem maxi dresses are in stores again (I like!). I actually didn’t buy any last summer, but I’m totally planning on sewing loads this spring. A lot of the patterns I have are from last year and older and Burdastyle didn’t have too many good asymmetrical hem dresses so far.
Jeans-mending day – not my favorite day!
Today I finally had a few minutes to mend a pair of jeans that has been waiting for treatment quite a while. The boyfriend wore them until they almost fell apart, so I wasn’t even sure if I could save them or not. Holey moley! Way too many holes. Since it was his favourite pair I gave it a try.
I followed Suzannah’s very helpful instructions. She blogs over at Adventures in Dressmaking, which is one of my faaaaavourite blogs.
Click on the picture to get to Adventures in Dressmaking’s jeans mending tutorial!
Hi! Thanks for stopping by and welcome to part 7 of my Blogging Basics series!
…you’re an absolute Blogging Newbie
…you just started blogging and you feel like you could need some helpful tips and tricks
…you have been blogging for a while but somehow feel like you might have missed out some vital steps
…you have been blogging for years but somehow you have trouble getting people to read your blog and subscribe
Last time I told you about what I’ve learnt about growing your blog. Today I give you a rather brief overview about steps and stuff you should consider to make your blog legal.
This is a very quick DIY I did on the weekend. My messy boxes full of sewing supplies had been bothering me for quite a while. Normally I use plastic organising containers or empty cookie boxes, but buying containers can be quite expensive when you need a lot of them and I never find things after I put them in cookie boxes. I just have too many of them.
This DIY was inspired by a friend who sent me a picture of a craft/sewing room at IKEA Berlin. They had thread sorted in jars by colour. I liked the idea a lot – it looks so much better than plastic containers, is see-through (which is great for finding stuff!) and inexpensive.
Just in case some of you wondered where the annouced part 7 of the Blogging Basics Series is – it’s on its way!
I had a pretty busy weekend and couldn’t write it up on time. I didn’t want to write it on the fly, so this time you have to wait a few days longer – sorry for that!
If you haven’t read all the other parts, here they are:
Read Part 1 {Get People to Look at you}
Read Part 2 {Layout}
Read Part 3 {Content #1}
Read Part 4 {Content #2}
Read Part 5 {Invest your time wisely}
Read Part 6 {Grow your traffic}