The Ultimate Pencil Skirt #1 – New Sew Over It Pattern Kit!

January 24, 2015.Reading time 5 minutes.

Ultimate Pencil Skirt by Thisblogisnotforyou.com I have a new favourite pattern! No, seriously – I love it to pieces!
I was lucky to be asked by Lisa & Alex to test the new Sew Over It skirt pattern last autumn. Right now I’m totally into making skirts, is it’s easy, quick and the perfect piece to wear at work. Skirt are much more versatile than trousers (I think) and you can never have enough in your wardrobe!

Also, I am a big fan of the series Suits (Team Donna, anyone?) and I simply love the outfits of all the Suits-ladies. Rachel, a character from the show, wears the most gorgeous office clothes which usually consist of a pencil skirt and a blouse. I was thinking about recreating one of her skirts when Lisa asked me to test her pattern.

The Fabric:

Initially I picked a gorgeous cream-white Karen Millen fabric from her shop, but then came across this beautiful navy Ponte Jersey at her shop/sewing cafe opening in Islington. You seriously have to go and check out their new shop, it’s a sewist’s dream come true!

The cream-white fabric is still on my pencil skirt sewing list, but I am looking for a fabric to match it with as a completely white skirt might not be very practical.

Anyway, I decided to go for the Ponte instead, which made picking a size a bit more difficult. In the end I decided to trace the size I’d normally pick (so I wouldn’t have to trace it again when using wovens) and then fit the skirt once the pieces were cut out and basted together.

Ultimate Pencil Skirt by Thisblogisnotforyou.com The Pattern:

The pattern comes with really helpful illustrations and I really didn’t need to read the instructions at all. A glance at the illustrations was enough to make this skirt up in less than a few hours (incl. the hand-sewn bits at the hem!)

There are four pattern pieces – skirt front and back, and two pieces for the facing at the waist. All you need is an invisible zip and some interfacing. The pattern was traced in a couple of minutes; cutting out the fabric didn’t take much time either. I overlocked all pieces before sewing everything together on my regular sewing machine using a narrow zigzag stitch and a stretch/jersey needle.

The facing is under-stitched and then sewn onto the side seams and darts to keep it in place. The hem requires some hand-sewing, but that didn’t take too long. Ultimate Pencil Skirt by Thisblogisnotforyou.com

Ultimate Pencil Skirt by Thisblogisnotforyou.com The Fit:

The fit of the pattern is fabulous, I only had to take in the waist a bit as the fabric is quite stretchy. I could have taken it in a bit more; now after wearing it all the time the waist has stretched out a bit and could be a tad tighter. I keep it in place with a belt anyway.

The skirt is high-waisted and ends just below the knee. The way it is cut makes you look so much taller and your legs appear longer – it’s really flattering! I do have to say I wouldn’t wear when going out for a big meal though 🙂

Source: http://sewoverit.co.uk/pencil-skirt-kit/

All in all, I’m a big fan of Sew Over It’s newest pattern. It’s perfect for beginners as well as more experienced sewers. It’s sold in a kit – so it comes with zip, thread, interfacing, gorgeous tartan fabric and instructions.

Ultimate Pencil Skirt by Thisblogisnotforyou.com

Will I make it again? I already have! I made another one last week, this time using a striped woven wool. Lisa was so generous to send me one of the Skirt Kits last week, so you will definitely see another one in tartan soon!

Happy sewing!
♥

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Embellished Cropped Coco-Sweater

January 11, 2015.Reading time 4 minutes.

embellished cropped coco sweater by thisblogisnotforyou.com Happy New Year, folks! Hope you all had awesome holidays! It’s a bit late but I wanted to share one of my holiday makes with you: A cropped embellished sweater! It’s super cosy and the perfect thing to wear with all my sleeveless fit-and-flared dresses.

I often find it very hard to find the perfect cardigan with the perfect length. If they’re too long and paired with a flared skirt or dress they make the whole outfit look awkward and bulky. Making a sweater was on my to-do list this winter and I found some really awesome sweater fabrics lately (some of which I had ordered by accident). For the pictures I paired the sweater with one of my Hepburn dresses.

The Fabric:

I got the fabric on ebay. It was pretty much cheaper than any other tracksuit fabric I had seen in the shops, so I gave it a go (despite hating to order fabric online). I ordered it in the wrong colour by accident – I wanted school grey fabric to make a hoodie for the Mr. For some reasons I got the colours wrong and despite emailing back and forth with the seller the fabric was navy when it arrived a couple of days later. I mean, to be honest, I wasn’t disappointed or anything. Navy blue is my absolute favourite colour, the fabric was cheap and the quality very nice. And I had loads of it. So no regrets.

I bought the ribbing from the same supplier, so the colours were a perfect match. I had 1.5m of it and managed to make a Lola dress (Victory Patterns) and this sweater, the latter using up less than a metre. The Lola dress is not blogged yet, but it will be pretty soon 🙂

The acrylic sew-on gems are also from ebay, I bought a pack of 50 mixed shapes and have enough left for a second project.

embellished cropped coco sweater by thisblogisnotforyou.com The Pattern:

The sweater pattern is more or less self-drafted. I hacked Tilly’s Coco Dress, changing the neckline a bit and making the waist less fitted. The ribbing is cut a bit smaller than the waist and sleeves, so it cinches everything in nicely. I drafted a facing for the neckline, cut out from the same fabric and used understitching to keep it in place. I sewed the sweater mostly using my overlocker, and it only took 2 hours or so.

When I made the Coco dress a couple of months ago, I had to take it in a lot and it still was a bit on the wider side. So for the sweater I went with Tilly’s size 3. The fabric is quite heavy and has a bit of stretch, so the loose fit was perfect and it fits me nicely.

embellished cropped coco sweater by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Will I make it again? I love this sweater and you see a lot of these on the high street at the moment. I got more tracksuit/sweater fabric for Christmas in light grey and brown and am planning on making at least one more sweater and maybe a Lola-hack. Next time I want to try some other embellishments, maybe lace or zips but I have yet to figure out what I want it to look like. So keep your eyes peeled 🙂

Happy sewing!
♥

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A Baby Quilt – my first and probably last one ever!

December 28, 2014.Reading time 5 minutes.

baby quilt by thisblogisnotforyou.com I made a quilt! It’s my very first quilt and will probably be the last for a long time. I’m quite proud of this one, but mainly proud of the fact that I actually finished it. I do love sewing, but I found out that I really hate quilting.

I promised to make a play mat for my niece when my sister-in-law was pregnant and I still hadn’t started it by the time the baby was born. I finally started a few months ago and with the help of Daniela, the queen of quilting, I managed to put together a really cute patchwork blanket. I basically used all sorts of fabric leftovers, all 1000% cotton, I bought years ago and had barely used. The colours were great together, so I was super happy with the first bit of the project.

I was very excited and looking forward to the quilting bit, which I imagined would be like doodling on fabric. Sounds awesome, eh? Well, turns out I’m really, really not good at quilting. It was depressing. It’s exhausting and very difficult. At least that was my experience. Also, my sewing machine was playing up a bit and made terrible loud noises every two minutes which almost gave me a heart attack. It turned out to be a problem with the needle and the way I was moving the blanket (needle caught the thread every time I went up) and I only noticed when I was halfway done (then started quilting left to right, instead of up and down – problem solved).

Also, the bias binding was hard to machine sew, so I handstitched most of it in the end.

Although I’m really glad I got this project off the table in the end, I really do like the way the blanket turned out. I’ve read so often that especially with quilting mistakes just seem to disappear and apparently it’s true. My quilting looked horribly close-up but you can barely notice when looking at the pics – It looks like an actual quilt (lucky me!).

baby quilt by thisblogisnotforyou.com

The blanket is reversible, firstly because my niece might decide not to like pink after all and secondly, because it was more fun than just a plain colour underside. I recycled some children’s curtains I bought to make toddler pinafores a couple of months ago. The wadding is polyester which I bought in Walthamstow (I think it was Saeeds Fabrics) last spring.

I really enjoyed the patchwork bit and I’m quite proud of my matching seams. I took a lot of time measuring and cutting and sewing very carefully so that things would line up perfectly in the end. Then it took ages to safety-pin-baste everything together (thanks for the tip, Dani!), so that layers wouldn’t slip during the quilting.

If you haven’t quilted before it’s hard to imagine how physically exhausting it is to push a blanket that size through my tiny cheapo-machine. My arms hurt so much I hard to pause after every third row for a couple of hours or days. Quilting’s like going to the gym, folks!
baby quilt by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Have you quilted anything yet? Do you love it or hate it? Any tips to make it easier?

It’s incredible how one can’t really notice just how wonky my quilting is! I was close to tears halfway through the project and now I think it looks actually fine (and baby loves it!!!) Quilting might not be so bad after all. I might give it another try one time. Maybe with a less ambitious project. Make some coasters or something. We’ll see 🙂 Any ideas? Send them my way!

Happy sewing!
♥

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Jersey Shirt with Gathered Raglan Sleeves

November 30, 2014.Reading time 3 minutes.

Burda Raglan Shirt 02/2013 #127 by thisblogisnotforyou.com Hello gang! Life has been so busy lately that I don’t even have the time to share my makes on time anymore! I made this jersey shirt in October.

The Fabric:

I got this cotton jersey with a super cute mythical creatures print from stoffe.de (myfabrics.co.uk here in the UK) which even was delivered in person by lovely Tine who spent a couple of days in London a little while ago. Apparantly, they don’t have this fabric in stock anymore, but they still sell three very similar prints. (Yes, I am aware that it’s a children’s fabric, but I will wear it anyway.) The fabric is of a really lovely quality and still looks great after a couple of washes.

Burda Raglan Shirt 02/2013 #127 by thisblogisnotforyou.com

The Pattern:

I found this simple gathered raglan sleeve shirt pattern in my Burdastyle magazine stash, hoping that I could squeeze it out of the 1m of fabric I had. The fabric requirements were 1.50 m (1 3/4 yds) for all sizes, but I know from experience that I often need much less when using Burda patterns. Since I cut out 3/4 length sleeves, 1m was more than enough and I even have a bit left for making a shirt for my little niece.

The pattern is from magazine 02/2013 #127. If you ignore the questionable Chanel-like styling, the pattern is brilliant and looks very elegant in black silk jersey. It could make a perfect shirt for work (in a less obvious print than mine).

The sleeves are gathered in the front and back. The neckline is bound off and the sleeve turned in by 7cm and hemmed with a twin needle. My shirt came together in an hour or so.

Burda Raglan Shirt 02/2013 #127 by thisblogisnotforyou.com The Fit:

The shirt fits perfectly without making any alterations (except for shortening the sleeves to 3/4 length). It is super comfy and I particularly like the length. It’s a bit longer than the average shirt and perfect for the colder season or to tuck into a skirt or high-waisted trousers. The pattern could be easily transformed into a fitted dress.

Burda Raglan Shirt 02/2013 #127 by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Will I make it again? I have not definite plans to make another shirt at the moment as I am working on way too many projects already, but I really like this pattern and can see myself using it again to make some basics for work or even lengthen it into a comfy little dress.

Happy sewing!
♥

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Cropped Blouse – Burda Easy Pattern

November 15, 2014.Reading time 6 minutes.

cropped blouse Burda Easy by thisblogisnotforyou.com Hello gang! Today I want to share one of my latest makes, a cropped blouse with a studded collar. I hope you guys like it as much as I do! Let’s talk about the pattern first!

cropped blouse Burda Easy by thisblogisnotforyou.com

The Pattern:

The blouse pattern is from the Spring/Summer 2014 edition of the Burdastyle Easy magazine, a special edition of the normal Burdastyle mag which comes out only a couple of times a year. Since it’s quite hard to get hold of the patterns later on (they’re not published digitally as the normal Burdastyle pattern are, as far as I know), I always make sure to get my hands on these mags. The patterns are always pretty simple, but pretty and combined they make a beautiful capsule wardrobe collection.

I really love the cropped blouse (pattern 1K in the summer 2014 issue) and since I have never properly tackled shirt collars before, this was the perfect project.

cropped blouse Burda Easy by thisblogisnotforyou.com — Source: www.burdastyle.de

The blouse has got raglan sleeves which end at the elbow and the hem ends just below the waist.

The Fabric:

Luckily, I had pretty similar fabric in my stash. I got it from the Mr’s granny who recently moved houses and found a massive stash of vintage fabrics and patterns she gave me (yay!). I am not quite sure where it is from and when she bought it, but I will ask her next time I see her.

The fabric has very fine dark blue and white stripes and at first I thought it was linen. It was not. I didn’t notice until the blouse was all sewn together and I was working on the collar. When giving the collar a final press, it actually melted. Yeah. It waited to do that until it was completely finished and then BOO! That mean bastard. It even left an imprint on my ironing board which smiles at me now every time I use it. After that fiasko the collar was also shrunk and absolutely unusable. I cut out a new one (luckily, I had enough fabric) and started again. This time I was super careful and did everything perfectly. Well, it just wasn’t my day. When I finally wanted to attach the collar to the blouse it was about 4cm too short for the neckline. I almost had a nervous breakdown. It was past midnight and I just wanted to get this over with. But there was no way of attaching a collar that wouldn’t match up with the neckline. I went to bed knowing I would have to cut out a third collar without knowing what had gone wrong.

Guess what? Next morning I had the brilliant idea to just try it again, before cutting out a new one. I gave it another good press and started pinning. The seams matched up perfectly. I still don’t know what happened, but I was super happy, that much I can tell you! I still stick to the theory that there is a Tim Gunn living somewhere in my closet, who comes out when I sleep and secretly fixes my sewing mistakes. I so hope that this is true.

cropped blouse Burda Easy by thisblogisnotforyou.com I was so happy that before sewing the collar closed, I had the idea of adding some embellishment. I remembered that I had some studs lying around somewhere and then just gave it a go.

I interfaced the corners of the collar before adding the studs. Not my best work, as the fabrics wobbles a bit where the studs are, but I am quite happy with the result. cropped blouse Burda Easy by thisblogisnotforyou.com I am still ot sure whether I like the studs and white buttons together, but darker buttons looked even worse and I had none that would match the studs. Should I ever find some that are the perfect match, I can simply change them.The Fit:

I absolutely love the fit of the blouse. I did not make any alterations this time and the pattern came together easily. The blouse is super comfy and quite flattering when you wear it with a tight skirt. I might have to make some pencil skirts now in some plan colours, so I can wear this baby to work.

cropped blouse Burda Easy by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Will I make it again? Yes, I think so. I already have fabric and plans for another one. But first I want to make some more fitted, high-waisted skirts to wear with the blouse. I am really really happy with the result. It’s a fantastic pattern and the collar is perfect for embellishing. I’m thinking about contrast-colour, sequing or beads next time!

Happy sewing!
♥

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