(Another) DIY dress

This is another dress I made recently - it's a lot simpler in style than the one I posted yesterday, but it actually took me longer to finish. The fabric turned out to have a bit of stretch in it, so I had to make some adjustments for the stitches to look good. It has a zipper in the back, a bodice with bust darts (yes, necessary or your puppies will be squashed) a gathered waist and.. well, that's pretty much it! Good everyday kind of dress, I figured. I made a belt to go with it but realized I prefer wearing it without. I will be teaming this one up with some cute socks and brogues as soon as it gets warmer. I know I should be getting my iron out more often (it looks like I've slept in the dress which I actually haven't) but I absolutely hate ironing. It is the.most.boring.part of sewing. 

My next project will be refashioning one of Andrea's old shirts. I haven't quite made up my mind about what  exactly I want to make out of it, but I'm thinking skirt or dress (surprise). To be continued...

Have a lovely Friday, wherever you are!

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DIY projects

This dress cost me... close to nothing?... to make. I got the fabric at the lovely Maybach Ufer Market in Berlin for a couple of euros, and since the fabric is kind of see-through, I used some old bed linens as lining. Worked like a charm. I'm usually pretty sloppy when it comes to the insides of my garments but this time, I put some effort into making the inside neat and pretty and I'm actually really happy with the result. It feels different to wear and it has a heavy, lovely feel to it. It'll probably be a huge favourite once the snow (yes SNOW cazzo!) melts away and spring arrives. I'm thinking this and my beloved golden bike. Ah, can't wait. 

This used to be a favourite sweater of mine, bought at COS last year. Since I'm always overly optimistic when it comes to washing knitted pieces, I've shrunk quite a few and I was extremely annoyed with myself when I did the same to this one. It really was waaay to small, but I couldn't bring myself to throw it away. Good thing I didn't, cause today I turned it into a hat and a pair of mittens. It took about 5 minutes. I can highly recommend this for anyone else in the habit of shrinking stuff.  

Have a lovely Thursday!

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DIY braided hex nut bracelet

Are you tired of the hex nut bracelet that has been circulating on many DIY blogs yet? I'm not, so I decided to make one for myself. I love the idea of going to your local hardware store to get stuff for hand made jewelry. I got a bag of hex nuts for 90 cents, so this is a dirt cheap bracelet.

This looked like a super easy DIY to me, but it was actually pretty tricky. The hex nuts are slippery little buggers and the twine I used not great for the purpose, so to get the nuts to stay in place while braiding was a bit of a challenge. My bracelet looks nothing like the beautiful one shown here, but I think it has its own... what shall we say?... slightly disorganized charm. Oh and don't mind the weird looking hand. It's actually a normal hand. But it's hard to take a good pic of your own hand after a cup of very strong coffee. 

Today: more rain. Charlie still hates it, and I keep thinking she should snap out of it and that it's silly to get so upset over the weather. She doesn't seem to get it though. Then again, she's a dog. I might be overrating her intelligence just a little bit. 

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DIY Peter Pan collar

So I did this Peter Pan collar today. It's detachable and closes with a hook in the back. I felt that something was missing so I added this little anchor button that I got from my mum's stash a while ago. I did one before but without interfacing and I have to say that it makes all the difference. Will definitely be making more of these! 

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Cat eyes

How to Be a Girl: Cat Eyes By Magic! from The Hairpin on Vimeo.

So a friend of mine just posted this on Facebook and since I'm absolutely useless at putting on eyeliner whenever I try to be a bit fancy, this is definitely something I'm gonna try out! Pin It

A very DIY Christmas

Needless to say, I won't be over decorating our flat with Christmas stuff, but there are a few crafts out there that I really like. This felt garland from The Purlbee for example - super simple and cute.

This magnetic Advent calendar from Twig and Thistle is another big favourite.

These glass ornaments (picture from here) are incredible - I especially love the little bird. 

Have you come across any good ideas?

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DIY twist and twirl bow skirt

Here it is, my new skirt. In the end I gave up on blind stitching and went for a normal hem. The shape of the skirt made it a bit too tricky, and I have a feeling that blind stitch would worker better on a straighter piece. Next time! As always, there are a few things I wish I would've done differently, but I'm trying to not be so critical and to keep in mind that this is the reality of hand made stuff. If you want you're things done perfectly, you buy them. DIY pieces will always have flaws, but along with flaws come charm. 

I realize that this very rich blue might be a bit much for some people, but me, I love it (as a matter of fact, I'm wearing tights and a cardigan in this exact colour right now). A few years ago, I was almost exclusively wearing black. Black, black, black and a pinch of grey and white. I dressed like this for almost two years, and then one day I woke up and was completely sick of black. I started wearing plenty of colours and have kept doing so. I still don't really like all black outfits. I can wear black jeans or a black dress, but if I do, I want some colour to go with it. I think that black can look really smart and elegant on certain occasions, and definitely on certain people, but I feel extremely pale and dull in black. Swedish fashion, as tasteful as it may be, is often very minimalistic and it used be dominated by dark colours. I'm very happy to see that many of our more prominent fashion designers have started adding a touch of colour to their creations.

Hm. Yeah, it's pretty obvious looking at these pictures that I could've spent some more time ironing the skirt, but hey, who has time to iron when you can twirl?!

Have a lovely Saturday!

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Blog love: Schwurlie

I just stumbled across this blog, and oh do I ever so much wish that there were more posts to read! This young lady is very generous with her tutorials and blogs about her sewing. However, what really caught my eye are the posts where she reconstructs old pieces of clothing and creates something completely new and fresh. I love the concept of recycling and considering the amount of clothes my bf has but never wears, her tutorials might come in handy in a very near future. If you're interested in sewing, head over to Kate's blog and show her some love!  

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Keep calm

Via Etsy.

The skirt I'm making is slowly transforming from pieces of fabric into something wearable. The only thing left to fix, is the dreaded hem. I decided to blind stitch it using my Singer and let me tell you, it's a nightmare. I've never done blind stitching before, but when done correctly it looks really great. It's just not working for me. Learning from my many sewing mistakes (just go for it! don't measure! who needs pins? ironing is boring!), I've been test stitching on several scraps of fabric but when trying to stitch the real deal, it's a completely different matter. In moments like these, I really miss my mum. She's truly a wizard with all things hand made and crafted. Me and my older brothers used to wear the stuff she made as kids - this was the 70's/80's and velour was hot hot HOT I tell you. Anyways. If she was here right now, I'm sure she would've adjusted her glasses, taken a deep breath and just fixed it. Oh mothers. They're pretty great.

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DIY Patchwork blanket

A few months ago, I started on this patchwork blanket. I had never done anything similar but always wanted one, so I thought I'd simply give it a go. I cut what felt like a million squares, washed them, ironed them, added some embroidery to some, sewed them all together and then, in the middle of all this, my overlock went kaputt and started making stitches unknown to man. Needless to say, this kind of put a damper on the entire project, so this blanket has been lying around unfinished for months. Since my overlock is now working properly, I decided to finish it. It's definitely not the straightest or the most perfect blanket I've seen, but it truly is 100% hand made and there is so much work and love behind it, I almost don't care about the imperfections. 

Charlie is also very happy with it - she claims it gives the bed room that extra umpf, whatever that means. 

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Small DIY bonanza

These past couple of days, I've been keeping myself busy fixing things around the house. Note: NOT buying new stuff or even vintage (one of my favourite things to do) but rather altering the things we already have. I've been really sick of our pillow cases - I sewed them in panic like 10 minutes before Andrea's parents visited us in our new home for the first time. Needless to say, the result was absolute crap. Yesterday I decided that enough is enough and made new ones. I love the fabric used for the first and second one and I'm thinking of using the rest of it to make a dress or maybe a full skirt. I bought it together with the royal blue fabric at one of my all-time favourite places; the Turkish market at Maybach Ufer in Berlin. This market is open on Tuesdays and Fridays and you'll find the most amazing things: great vegetables and fruits, fabric and sewing stuff, handmade things, flowers, fresh fish, cheese, locally produced products such as honey or lemonade, nuts and beans and everything else you could possibly wish for. The fabric is ridiculously cheap, a few euros/meter is standard price and there is a lot to choose from. I can highly recommend a visit to the market if you're in Berlin, it's a really great place to spend a few hours and have a fresh orange juice by the canal.

As for these babies above, I just couldn't stop myself. Of course I had to thread them on a string! These are the left-over scraps from the origami light string I made, and they're now hanging on our bedroom wall. And, surprise surprise, Andrea actually liked them. He called them "colourful". Instant success.

I got these MT washi tapes at Modulor  a while ago, thinking that they're pretty and all but not really knowing what to do with them. Now, what in our flat is white and boring and could use some pink and turquoise? The possibilities are endless.

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DIY origami light string

So I've had this light string lying around since last Christmas and kept thinking that I should pimp it with paper somehow. Yesterday, I decided to give it a go and I have to say that I am very happy with the result! It's getting dark here so early now, so cosy lighting is a must. I used some origami paper that my mom gave me a while ago, pages from a book that I have two copies of and some paper cd folders. I did a quick count and realized that there were 90 small lights on the string. A few seconds later I decided that that would be bit too much folding for one day, so I taped the lights together in groups of three. Then I simply folded the origami square base, using 30 pieces of paper in different colours. I cut out a small hole at the top for the lights, secured the sides with a bit of paper glue and that was pretty much it. 

The only remaining questions now are: a) how long do I get to keep my light string in the window before Charlie discovers it and decides that it would look better on the floor and b) what do I do with the tiny left-over scraps? They're too lovely to throw away, like tiny delicious sweets. Maybe a necklace for Charlie (big NO), maybe I should just thread them on a piece of string and hang them up somewhere, even though Andrea is getting tired of my paper creations hanging in the flat.

Oh well, I'll figure something out. To be continued... Pin It

The work apron

Alright, here is Andrea's apron! I've been a bit lazy finishing it so it has been lying around here for a week now, but this morning I finally got around to it.  I'm pretty happy with it except for a few tiny errors that I just didn't have the time or the energy to fix. It has four pockets, large enough to contain tools and screws and hopefully this will make Andrea's work at least a little bit easier/more organized. The chest pocket caused some debate around here. I had my heart set on embroidering Andrea's name on it and used back stitching to do so. I thought it turned out pretty good. When Andrea saw it, he bursted out laughing and said that though it did look very cute, it didn't look very professional and that you could mistake his apron for a football jersey. I do admit that the letters might have turned out slightly bigger than I intended them to, but come on! Who doesn't love embroidery? Grumpy Italians, that's who. Anyways, the customer is always right and all that, so in the end I removed the stitches. With a heavy heart, I might add. Pin It