Thanks!

Thanks to all my visitors for all your nice comments and your interest in my blog.

I wish I could keep up with everyone’s work and follow up on all your creations and tutorials just like you do. Just know that I’m there stalking and enjoy your blogs even if I don’t leave a line sometimes.

I got a prize from Fays sewing adventures at Cutting Edge Designs. Thanks Fay.

The rules for this award – prize are as follows:

1. Select 6 bloggers to whom you would like to give this award- prize (choosing only 6 is hard because there are so many wonder blogs that I learn from).
2. Put the award – prize on your blog and indicate who gave it to you by identifying her/his blog;
3. Paste these rules on your blog;
4. Write 6 of your most important values and 6 negative points you condemn,
5. Inform the 6 recipients by leaving a comment on their blog.

Values that are important to me:

friendliness
love for nature and care for the environment
living the moment

Some things I condemn:

taking away the right to live for any living thing

otherwise I don’t like to judge

Hard to choose 6, I’d include everyone that takes the time to write about sewing and spread their knowledge..so here’s a small list, without numbers in front:

Laura at “Laura’s sewing room”

Tany at “Couture et Tricot”

Adrienne at “Real Life: Live and unscripted”

Monique at “Peacock Chic”

Melissa at “Fehr Trade”

Becky at “Sew and So”

This feels like one of those infinite letters that if you don’t send to all your loved ones something strange will happend to them. Please don’t feel obliged to continue with this.

I just like to pay my respects for these nice blogs out there.

Thanks!

Malissa Dress Variation

Mirela, originally uploaded by Marius Popovici.

Here’s my cocktail dress based on the Malissa pattern for the contest at BurdaStyle.

My inspiration came from the raglan cut and the fabrics I had in my stash.
I eliminated the sleeves and collar and really kept it simple. I cut out the front and back panels, raised both and sewed them together at the shoulders. I used the all in one facing how to (very helpful!). I chose a fabric that drapes well and added a weaved ribbon at the neckline and under the bust. It can be worn with the weaved ribbon like a belt at the waist line or without it.

Materials: sheer black veil with velvet flowers surrounded by silver glitter lined with smooth white lycra (hemmed with lace) and a weave for the belt.

I still have to take a marco photo of the finish at the neckline. I have hand sewn the weaved ribbon at the neckline to hide the white lining from showing. The armholes are finished with a topstitch that keeps the lining in place.

I really like the lace hem on the lining, it shows through the sheer overlay fabric while sitting down.

I have used the lace or blindstitch attachment foot with a flatlock stitch on the server to overcast the lycra lining and attach the lace in one step.

The lace is placed rights sides facing over the lycra. The blade cuts the edge off lycra, the raw edge is overcast and the needle stitches just barely through the edge of the lace.

Then turn the lace and pull slightly, the vertical bars from the flatlock will show on the eright side, a nice flat stitch is on the backside.

Thank you for the Malissa pattern. I will sew it again and now my head is filled with many alteration ideas for it: as a top, as a beach dress, with a crochet neckline like Alison’s dresses, with a gather instead of pleats, with really short sleeves, oh the possibilities!
Can’t wait to see what everyone else creates!

Good luck!

Did I mention these awesome videos on sewing machine feet?

On the left side in the Main Menu there is  alike Free sewing videos, it takes you to a list of videos on so many sewing machine feet, I didn’t even know they exist.

How many feet do you have?

Burda Modemagazine

for Mirela, originally uploaded by sardana_designs.

This is the monthly BurdaStyle page for September 2008 in the German edition of Burda World of Fashion magazine. Thanks BurdaStyle!!!

I’m really happy to be in there, since it is my favorite patterns magazine that I’ve been using since the ’90s.
I am very thankful to my mom teaching me sewing and to my husband Marius for all the time and talent he puts in taking my pictures. So glad to have Melissa right there next to me, my long time online seamstress friend. She is now collaborating on the Sewing Universe News Feed blog column for BurdaStyle.
Thanks sardana_designs (follow the link and see amazing traditional embroidery and beading designs) for the scanned page and to everyone for all the kind words!

SpoonFlower

I got my invite today! http://www.spoonflower.com

Here’s how it works. Here are a lot of submitted designs.

Thanks to stacyjoy for telling me about this!

I’m sure I’ll use it at first for printing some labels on fabric and then decide on some fabric prints (lace, leaves, images of my home town since 1900s) we’ll see…they are still in Beta version and users can only apply for invites, prices are reasonable and the whole idea is a lot of fun. Just think about it: if you could have a fabric with any design on it, what would the print be? Works with any .tiff in LAB color but they can also use .jpegs.

If you want everything to be hand made you could try painting on fabric, like Raluca from Iasi, Romania does. These are my favorite creations: lily dress and irises.

You may want to brush up on your painting skills, the free art lessons at jerrys artarama could help. Thanks Roberta for mentioning this. My skills are totally stuck in the fourth grade…elementary school level…

Silk Slip

Silk Slip, originally uploaded by fmirela.

Remember…http://mirelap.wordpress.com/2008/04/04/silk-slip-knitting-lingerie-style/?

It is the silk slip from Knitting Lingerie Style! I finished it a long time ago and finally got the pictures too. actually made two since.

It’s a great way to use your last shin of leftover yarn! The cleavage is kind of revealing and I didn’t follow through all the instructions in the pattern, really had to make the cups larger (maybe because of the yarn), also one should be careful with the lace placement, those holes in the knit might end up where you don’t want them. So instead of knitting 4 repeats of the lace pattern, I’ve only made 3 but after knitting some more simple lines. I also used a how to from BurdaStyle for sewing the darts: http://www.burdastyle.com/howtos/show/867
I’ve made a narrow rolled hem at the bottom and it has hooks and eyes in the back slit for closure.

Stripes Dress

Stripes Dress, originally uploaded by fmirela.

This stripy fabric is from JoAnns but actually made in India. They carried a series of really nice Indian fabrics and I stocked up on a few. I’m not a crazy fan of yellow (for clothes for me I mean…), but started to like it a lot more lately. I don’t have a favorite color, I just have phases, this is my yellow phase. What got me to change my mind about this color?

This pretty bird I found outside the office building after a crazy storm two weeks ago. My efforts for finding its owner did not pay off, so I named it Sunny, got a bird house and it has been staying with me and Marius since. Healthy and eating, but still sad I think…it takes some time to get used to a new environment, plus I think it is a she, very quite during the day and doesn’t care for its mirror reflection…I wish I had found the owner, maybe she had a soul mate and misses him…On the other hand I wish it was a boy birdie so I could teach him to whistle and talk. I have a pretty Tookie cockatiel back in Romania, he is approximately 9 years old now
…Back to the dress…
The pattern is based on model number 132 from Burda WOF isue 03/2005. My friend Alina stopped by one day and brought this stripes fabric and a top she liked from the store. It was supposed to be a very simple pattern with the top part as a false wrap. We tried to find a similar pattern and from the magazines I have here this was the closest. We’ve made it sleeveless and took it in about a cm in the center front and back. The original pattern is also a real wrap dress, but we copied the pattern only til the center line and made it symmetrical. Most of the work had to be done at the cleavage as Burda patterns always seem to be cut too deep. I’m not thrilled with the fit under the bust but its ok…not perfect, but I guess only us seamstresses notice stuff like this…so it will do.
We didn’t find the time to get to sewing Alina’s top, but it gave me an idea of what to do with my yellow stripes that I forgot what I got them for initially. There was quite a lot of fabric, I couldn’t choose whether to do a top or a dress, so I’ve made both.

I added an invisible zipper on the left side, from under the sleeve down. The edges at the neckline and sleeves are finished with a satin ribbon on the underside. I sewed the ribbon on the edge of the fabric, doing the armholes after sewing the shoulder seam and before sewing the underarm seam. I placed the ribbon wrong side over the right side of the fabric, over the raw edge, sewed a straight line at the edge of the ribbon, then turned it to the underside and topstitched from the front side. I did the same with the neckline. A bias tape would have been better the a satin ribbon, it molds better to the curved seams.

Knit

Earrings and Bracelet, originally uploaded by fmirela.

Bored while watching TV? uuuh…doesn’t that sound lame and awful, bored and TV in the same sentence…Well I do wish I wasn’t 3 nights in a row…I guess I still got a good thing out of it, I like to be productive while killing time, so I knitted these silver wire bracelets with freshwater pearls and wooden beads. They are tied with silk and organza ribbons so they are adjustable. I’ve found the pearls at a local bead shop, in downtown Hollywood (FL).

They are presents for dear friends of mine. I really wish I could have made one more for my best friend from childhood, even got some blue pearls for it but I run out of wire. I promise I will soon!
I am thinking of making these for my Etsy shop I’ve been ignoring for so long now, I really enjoy wearing them and I always got such nice compliments for these. They are quite easy to make, it is really just 10 stitches in simple stockinette stitch, the beads are pre-threaded. The hard part is to keep the wire from rolling and bending, casting on has to be done rather loose and your finger will hurt the next day…I got used to it after the third

P.S. Here is the first one I’ve made a while back.

Keep yourself inspired

…and organized!

Since I subscribe to Burda magazine, I like to save all Burda World Of Fashion photos and technical drawings from their site, where they have an archive dating back to 2004. I keep these files organized under folders having the same name as the magazine Burda 09.2008 on my local drive and find it really easy to browse through them using Picasa. Free download: http://picasa.google.com/

For all those other patterns that are not available online, you can scan the center pages with the summary technical drawings.

I do the same with the BurdaStyle patterns: download patterns, save the photos from the creations on the local drive under folders having the pattern name and the type of pattern: dress, shirt, pants, etc. Dress Shari i.e.

Browse through these images with Picasa, then right click on the desired pattern and say “Locate on disk” -> that is where I will find the printable version right at my finger tips.

Here are the tips on printing BurdaStyle patterns: at home or at copy shop.

I’ve also created an album inside Picasa where I copy all patterns that I plan on sewing.

I might also take pictures of all the fabrics in my stash and try to see if I can associate them with the desired patterns. I could be a simple and quick way to stay organized and on track with the sewing plans.

Inspiration one click away!

I try to keep all the magazines sorted by year and month. Did I post about this already?…oh well…

This way it is easy to get to the magazine and I don’t have to get all those heavy magazines out and spread them around the room whenever I choose the next project.

A lot of new downloadable free patterns are posted on the German Burda site:

http://www.burdafashion.com/de/DOWNLOAD/Free/1333669-1413206.html

seems that there are more then in the English version and you can choose the language at download time for some of them. There are also some cool knit patterns!

Seems that there is yet another crafting community out there at JoAnns: http://community.joann.com free to join, forum, project uploads..etc…