Self-drafted bridesmaid dress

self-drafted bridesmaid dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comHi my lovely readers!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Now that the holidays are over, I can finally post some pictures of the bridesmaid dress I made for my best friend whose sister is getting married. It was a Christmas gift and she wanted the dress to be a surprise, that’s why I had to keep the pictures secret.

self-drafted bridesmaid dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comI used a simple Burda bodice pattern to get some orientation, but had to move all the darts and the waist and shoulder lines to match my friend’s measurements. The circle skirt and sleeves are completely self-drafted.
self-drafted bridesmaid dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comself-drafted bridesmaid dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

I tried different options for the skirt (e.g. gathered or box pleats), but in the end the full circle skirt looked so much better with the half-circle sleeves.

self-drafted bridesmaid dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com
self-drafted bridesmaid dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comI used a turquoise-blue silk satin and the same fabric in creme-white for the lining, belt and underskirt. self-drafted bridesmaid dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comThe dress has got a creme-white invisible zipper in the back and an additional hook and eye closure.
self-drafted bridesmaid dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comI made a little flower for the belt which can be removed or used as hair accessory.

self-drafted bridesmaid dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

The belt is detachable as well and the bow can be also worn in the front, e.g. with the flower on top.

Hemming this rather heavy fabric was horrible, especially since I never hemmed a circle skirt before. In the end I used the narrow hem foot as nothing else seemed to work. The hem either puckered or rolled up. I tried to handsew a invisible hem, but the cirlce skirt was giving me a hard time and I had to get out the seamripper after two hours of swearing.

The narrow hem still rolls up a bit, but I kind of like it better now, as it gives the hem and skirt a rose petal-like shape which goes well with the sleeves, I think.

If anyone has any tips for hemming heavy satin-like fabric, pleaaaaase let me know how you deal with this!!!

self-drafted bridesmaid dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comThe dress fits my friend perfectly and I (and my bestie, as well) are super happy with the result. (Btw, this dress is #17 of my 27 Dresses Challenge!)
I have more pictures of the sewing process, but my internet connection is really bad as I’m still on holiday. I will probably upload a second part in the next few days for those of you who are interested in the making of!

 

I have thousands and thousands of sewing projects planned (I probably won’t be able to finish in a million years) and I hope to bring my 27 Dresses Challenge to an end (and finally buy an overlocker)!

What do you have planned for the new year?

Happy New Year everyone! x

 

Plaid Puff Sleeve Jacket

Puff sleeve plaid jacket by thisblogisnotforyou.comHello there! Finally! A sewing-related post :) It’s been a while!

I’m happy to annouce that I finally finished sewing up my first jacket. (#15 of my 27 Dresses Challenge, btw!)

Puff sleeve plaid jacket by thisblogisnotforyou.com

I scored 3 metres of a pretty greenish/blueish cotton plaid at the last fabric swap in Goldhawk Road and went through my pile of Burda magazine looking for a jacket or blazer pattern.

I came across this leather puff sleeve jacket which I really loved and thought I’d give it a try.  It’s from Burdastyle 8/2013, #113.

As the pattern is supposed to be used with leather I absolutely didn’t know if it would affect the fit of the jacket if I used it with my cotton/linen fabric. No risk, no fun!

Well, as soon as I started cutting out the fabric, I learnt that working with plaid is annoying as f***. You have to be so so soo careful if you want the pattern of the fabric to match up at all seams in the end.

Puff sleeve plaid jacket by thisblogisnotforyou.com

After six hours (!) of cutting I took a break and didn’t start sewing until a few days later. Sewing the pieces together was not as easy as I thought, as you have to match up the pattern at the seamline, not the edge of the cut out pieces (otherwise the lines will be off by almost 1/4 inch or more).

Puff sleeve plaid jacket by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Look! I made it! Phew. Sewing with plaid is nerve-wracking! I struggled a bit with the zipper because the left front panel was a bit off after sewing it in and I had to take out my BFF Mr Seamripper.

After two attempts, I finally succeeded and now it looks like this, still off by a millimetre:Puff sleeve plaid jacket by thisblogisnotforyou.com

By the way, as the zipper was from an old cardigan of Mr Thisblogisnotforyou and the fabric was from the fabric swap, this jacket basically didn’t cost a penny!

Here a few pics of the work in progress:

Puff sleeve plaid jacket by thisblogisnotforyou.comPuff sleeve plaid jacket by thisblogisnotforyou.comPuff sleeve plaid jacket by thisblogisnotforyou.com

The lining:Puff sleeve plaid jacket by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Finished!

Puff sleeve plaid jacket by thisblogisnotforyou.com

The jacket turned out pretty well, but I started hating the sleeves that I loved to much in the beginning as soon as I tried it on. The puff sleeves are ginormous! I don’t know what the Burda pattern people thought or if it’s a typical leather jacket thing, but these sleeves are huuuuge! I look like an American football player. Or as Mr Thisblogisnotforyou put it:

Elizabeth, queen of Puff Sleeve

Well, I’m still proud of the jacket. It’s the first time I sewed in a full lining and I doesn’t look too bad.

Puff sleeve plaid jacket by thisblogisnotforyou.comPuff sleeve plaid jacket by thisblogisnotforyou.comPuff sleeve plaid jacket by thisblogisnotforyou.comPuff sleeve plaid jacket by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Puff sleeve plaid jacket by thisblogisnotforyou.comPuff sleeve plaid jacket by thisblogisnotforyou.comI embellished the facing with blue embroidery thred instead of edge-stitching it to the seam allowance.Puff sleeve plaid jacket by thisblogisnotforyou.comPuff sleeve plaid jacket by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Well, at least I now have an excuse to (finally!) get ticket to the Globe theatre to see some of Shakepeare’s finest.Puff sleeve plaid jacket by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Puff sleeve plaid jacket by thisblogisnotforyou.com

 

Happy Sewing!

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A quick maxi dress before the summer is over

maxi dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Hi everyone!

Believe it or not, I finally managed to sew a maxi dress! I never had one and always wanted to make one (just buying one is way too easy and boring!). I already had bought fabric for at least 3-4 different ones, everything already planned out in my head. But – oops – summer is almost over. Bummer.

It was a super busy summer and for some reason I worked on so many things, but forgot my maxi dress plans.

Well, I finally got around to making one but not even using the fabrics I bought. I used a pretty blue-ish chiffon I got for my birthday from Mr Thisblogisnotforyou’s sweet grandma, who also had bought matching thread and sewing machine needles (thank youuuu!). Isn’t that sweet?

By the way – this is dress number 14 of my 27 Dresses Challenge! I’m 50% done!

I made this dress without a pattern. How I did that? I’ll explain this in an extra post as this time, I took millions of pictures during the process and maybe not everyone is interested in this, I figured. If you’re not – you can just skip the next post 🙂

maxi dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

I used elastic shirring at the waist, which actually was a really clever idea, I have to admit – with the shirring I can alter the length of the dress by raising or lowering the shirred waistband. This is really helpful – now I can wear high heels or flats with the dress without it being too long or too short.maxi dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comFlats!maxi dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comHeels!maxi dress by thisblogisnotforyou.commaxi dress by thisblogisnotforyou.commaxi dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comMy favourite black vintage leather belt. I love this look the most.maxi dress by thisblogisnotforyou.commaxi dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comBrown belt with my new thrifted shoes 🙂 ( I forgot to adjust the length of the dress in this pics, ooops! Well, this way I can show off these shoeeees!)maxi dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Knotted at the hip 🙂

maxi dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comThe “I’m so fabulous” pic. No, seriously, I hate taking pictures with selftimer. I always feel so stupid and then make funny faces. As soon as Mr Thisblogisnotforyou is back, that’s his job again (the picture taking, I’ll still be the one making funny faces).

Anyway, if you like to know how to make this dress – stay tuned! Another “sort-of” tutorial is on its way. And you’ll hear the story of the dubious underdress 😉

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end of summer shorts

corduroy shorts by thisblogisnotforyou.comHello everyone!
I wanted to write this post days ago, but I was busy writing applications and going to job interviews. Fun times!

***Warning! This post contains very bad blurry selfies!***


In between all this post graduate madness I managed to whip up these cute corduroy shorts, which I call “end of summer shorts” as they are short enough for the last sunny days, but due to the corduroy can also be worn with thick tights when it gets colder. Genius, eh?

By the way, it’s number 13 of my 27 Dresses Challenge. For those of you who just happened to stumble across my blog: Yes, I do could shorts as dresses. Please don’t ask me why.

Again, I used a Burda pattern (I see everyone rolling their eyes…). It’s the Pleated Shorts 07/2013 #105A pattern. No idea why there is an A, B and C version, as they are all exactly the same pattern, just in a different colour.

source: burdastyle.com

As my legs don’t even remotely look like the ones in the picture above and I recently made the acquaintance of way too short shorts ( I won’t go into detail, I promise) I thought it was clever to lengthen the pattern before making a muslin. (I don’t always make muslins, but with trousers and shorts I always do, as – what can I say –  my butt is not easy to work with.)

Lengthening the pattern:

corduroy shorts by thisblogisnotforyou.com

(Yes, parts of my dissertation drafts photobombed this picture and I don’t know why.)

I drew a horizontal line and cut the pattern pieces in two.

corduroy shorts by thisblogisnotforyou.com

I moved them apart by 4cm/~1,5inch and glued them onto a piece of paper (ah, now I know why the disso was lying there!)corduroy shorts by thisblogisnotforyou.comI then cut out the muslin and sewed everything together, just to notice that the shorts looked really bad and way too long. Due to the pleats they just made my butt look huuuge. I didn’t take pictures of the muslin, and trust me, you really don’t want to see this.

I ended up removing the extra paper and glueing the pattern pieces back together. Now the shorts have the original length and I’m pretty much fine with that. At least I could show you how to lengthen a pattern. Yay 🙂

Here they are in all their glory:

corduroy short by thisblogisnotforyou.comcorduroy short by thisblogisnotforyou.com

I decided to make them a bit more fun by adding this flowery cotton fabric. I used it for the pockets, belt loops, and parts of the fly.corduroy short by thisblogisnotforyou.comcorduroy short by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Since the cotton fabric was not as heavy as the corduroy, I cut out the pocket in corduroy and cotton and basted the two layers together before sewing.corduroy short by thisblogisnotforyou.com

I used a very narrow seam allowance, so the basting stitches are hidden in the final seam allowance.corduroy short by thisblogisnotforyou.com

After basting the layers together, you proceed like normally.corduroy short by thisblogisnotforyou.com

I wanted to have the cotton fabric on the left side, but ended up cutting it out wrong and did not have enough fabric to do it again…
I found this cute button in my button collection and thought it would look great on the corduroy fabric. What do you think?
corduroy short by thisblogisnotforyou.com

First time I made belt loops! corduroy short by thisblogisnotforyou.com

I got 15 different sewing machine feet for my birthday (from my lovely little sister) and decided to go pro and use them all as often as possible, haha.

But actually I noticed it made my sewing so much better! Look at this! Perfect stitching in the ditch. I never really managed to do this properly (so it doesn’t show in the end) and had to sew on my bias binding or waistband by hand. But now that I have an edgestitch foot I can do magic.

corduroy short by thisblogisnotforyou.com

I had this buttonhole foot before and use it whenever I have to make buttonholes. Just wanted to show it off:corduroy short by thisblogisnotforyou.com

It’s really easy to use and if you don’t have one – get one! They are inexpensive and absolutely worth it, if you’re sewing machine does have a buttonhole setting.

Quick tip:
When opening buttonholes with a seam ripper, I always put a pin at the end of the button hole to keep the seam ripper from going through the threads and the end of the buttonhole. Works like a charm and nothing is more annoying than screwing up a perfectly sewn buttonhole, believe me!

corduroy short by thisblogisnotforyou.com

I think these shorts might actually be the first garment that I sewed from scratch without any major catastrophes happening on the way. The only flaw: I cut out the waistband against the straight grain and it’s really wobbly now, even after pressing it. (As you can see in the picture below).

I stitched a few straight vertical lines that are hidden by the belt loops to keep the waistband as straight and flat as possible.
corduroy short by thisblogisnotforyou.comcorduroy shorts by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Done!

By the way, I found these awesome shoes in a thrift store last week (completely new for 4 pounds only. Sigh) I love thrifting! It’s inexpensive, you don’t feel bad refashioning and cutting apart things you just bought and you do something for the planet by re-using things instead of buying new stuff all the time. 
corduroy shorts by thisblogisnotforyou.com

I wish it weren’t END of summer shorts, though. I really don’t want the summer to end. There are so many maxi dresses I want to sew and already bought the fabric.
Did you make any autumn-inspired things lately?

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A wiggle dress and some serious wardrobe malfunction

wiggle dress Burda 7/2013 #122A by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Hi everyone! Phew, what a weekend! I not only attended the London Sewing Blogger Meet-Up on Saturday and met a few dozen lovely seamstresses, but now I’m also officially done with my master’s after handing in my last essay yesterday. (Yep I went fabric swapping instead of working on my last assignment ever and it was awesome! If you want to read about the Meet Up, lovely Claire who organised everything wrote about it on her blog!)
And by the way, I did not forget to choose some blogs for the Liebster Award nomination, I was just too busy being a student and a seamstress at the same time 🙂

I know, stop talking and get down to business!

I finished dress #12 of my 27 Dresses Challenge! A green halter dress which reminds me a lot of the Marilyn wiggle dresses and believe me, this dress is so tight – there’s a lot of wiggling!

wiggle dress Burda 7/2013 #122A by thisblogisnotforyou.com

I used the #122A pattern of the Burdastyle magazine July issue.

Besides all the wiggling, there’s some serious risk of wardrobe malfunction with this dress. I was stupid enough to ignore the Burda instructions (like always…) and chose a stretchy, but obviously not stretchy enough fabric for making this dress.

Now it’s not only super super tight, but I’m afraid I’ll never wear this dress outside our flat. Why? Look at this!

wiggle dress Burda 7/2013 #122A by thisblogisnotforyou.com

It doesn’t look too bad in the picture, but in reality my boobies look like stringed ham on Christmas.

wiggle dress Burda 7/2013 #122A by thisblogisnotforyou.com

There are also some other things that went wrong which you (lucky me) can’t see in these super blurry pictures (sorry, broken lightbulb and both me and Mr.Thisblogisnotforyou were too lazy to get a new one.)

The fabric of the bodice part of this dress is basically the wrong way up. Yes! Stupid! Why?

I decided to cut out the fabric while watching a movie (distraction) in the living room (broken lightbulb). On the first look the fabric looks the same from both sides. If you look closer (which I obviously didn’t) you see that the fabric on the right side is slightly shinier than on the left.

Where is Tim Gunn when you need him? A “This concerns me enormously” would have helped. Thanks, Tim.

wiggle dress Burda 7/2013 #122A by thisblogisnotforyou.com

I’ll better not tell you that I sewed on the skirt wrong side up the first time, ending up with the raw edges on the outside. No, I better won’t.

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