White Jersey

A top from Burda in white jersey, sewn a few years ago.

Vintage necklace made out of cut peach seeds with copper links, made by a friend’s dad.

Deep Purple Drape and Floral Skirt

Deep Purple Drape and Floral Skirt, originally uploaded by fmirela.

Blouse Fabric: Rayon Jersey
Blouse Pattern: Burda WOF Magazine 10/1998

The same pattern all over again… for the drape neckline top. I’ve also sewn this pattern recently in a jersey wool, green and the gray one awaits hems.

Skirt Fabric: Cotton poplin with cross grain stretch with floral pattern from JoAnns
Pattern: Burda WOF Magazine 02/2008

I simplified the skirt pattern by removing the waist bands. Nice pattern for a simple pencil skirt.

I added lace under the hem line and hand stitched the hem.

I also added a ribbon (folded over the raw edge) for the front and back facings.

I used an invisible zipper on the side.

I turned the overlocked edges of the side seams towards the inside and sewn over.

Silk Jersey

I got silk jersey, in a nude color, excellent drape.

I cannot decide what to sew. My intention was to sew a PJ with long sleeves and pants to have something that breaths well in the sleeping bag and dries faster then cotton… but just can’t decide…I’d like to be able to also wear the top as is, not just as a PJ…

04/2009

05/2008

04/2008

10/2008

03/2008

The last two are my favorites…so far…
Or should I simply stick to the drape neckline of the simple yellow top?

What do you think?

Yellow Drape Top

Yellow Drape Top, originally uploaded by fmirela.

Pattern: Burda WOF 10/1998

My favorite pattern for drapy fabrics again and again. Not much to say really, a simple fast serger project. Not a stitch done on the sewing machine, everything in this one is serger, so speed. Simple cut, drapy fabric, 15 minutes cutting out and about an hour of sewing.

Here are some details so you can see the fabric. My mom got this for me in that little dusty Italian fabric shop back home in Cluj, Romania.

The drape at the neckline:

The coverstitch hem:

White Wrap Shirt

White Shirt, originally uploaded by fmirela.

Pattern: Burda 02/2009

The exclusive design from Tristano Onofri
Fabric: sheer cotton/poly

This is a sheer paisley fabric, so I underlined the front wrapped pieces with the same fabric.

The blouse has a side invisible zipper and a false ribbon bow.

The back neckline and the sleeves’ hem are gathered by sewing with elastic thread in the lower bobbin, using a longer stitch step (4mm). Sew two double parallel lines with the elastic about 5mm apart, then pull on the elastic ends to achieve the desired gathering length and securely tie the elastic and the thread in a few knots.
I like to wear this with an embroidered cami underneath, not only because of the sheerness of the fabric, but also because the wrap is very revealing especially when I move…I love the look of wrap blouses and dresses, but one would need to really fill them so they would stay close to the body…me…I get a cami.

Lotus Smock Camisole

Lotus Smock Camisole, originally uploaded by fmirela.

Yarn: Elann Sonata, 4 skeins
Pattern: Stitch Diva’s Lotus Smock Camisole

I’ve wanted to make this one for sooo long. It’s amazing to see a crochet pattern that is so interesting, modern and really unique. I enjoyed how the yarn took shape after taking it of the loom. This is a lot of fun to make since it can be tried on after the first row. It really is really fast and really easy to make!

The walnut wood hairpin lace frame was a Christmas gift from Marius. I love it! It even smells like walnuts! Yum!

The speed of this project is simply incredible and the instructions are crystal clear. I would like to see one of those diagrams for it though…otherwise there’s a whole lot of reading, but in all the pattern is actually simpler then described.

I might even have the courage to give this another try in a different yarn as a dress.

I do love this yarn especially for crochet because it is woven and can be handled easily. I would prefer a drape-ier  yarn for this pattern though, this is just a little stiff, but just a little.

See a gallery of creations based on this pattern here:

http://www.stitchdiva.com/custom.aspx?id=203

Field of Poppies Blouse

Field of Poppies Blouse, originally uploaded by fmirela.

The poppies are alpaca fibers nuno felted onto olive green crinkled silk organza.
I used embroidery thread to sew over the poppies in free motion.
I adore this little blouse although it seem to look childish to me…maybe that’s a good thing, feeling young. Or maybe I’ll simply never grow up 🙂

P.S. This is me with my hair “straightened”, the way I had it before I was 12.
What do you think? Marius hates it…I think it’s simply a matter of getting used to and I also think I could use a better cut

Irises Top Take 2

Irises Top Take 2, originally uploaded by fmirela.

Remember the first Irises top? I decided to redo it to fit me, since the other one shrunk a lot and is only fit for the manechin. I will be listing the small version on my Etsy store.

Sewing with Nature Contest

Felt inspired one day remembering these iris flowers in from of my apartment building where I grew up. I knew that once they bloom spring time began.

Memories and nature inspired me to make a flowy silk blouse with embroidered iris flowers. My blouse is a mixture of natural materials (silk and alpaca fibers) with different techniques combined (felting and free motion embroidery).

Materials:

I found the fibers at a World Market store, not in a crafts shop. They are naturally dyed, 100% Alpaca fibers, very soft to the touch.

The silk organza is from fashion fabrics club. I bought it online and was surprised as always with the great quality. It is sheer and crinkles when washed. The color is a light olive green.

I have made the felt in a non traditional way (not with felting needles), I used a variegated thread and sewn in free motion over the natural alpaca fibers.

How to:

Pre-treat your fabric like you will when the final project is worn. Wash it by hand in warm water with mild soap and line dry. This will make the fabric shrink and crinkle. You can iron it a little on low temperature before cutting out the pattern. Lay your pattern pieces over the fabric and allow enough fabric for seam allowances (see the tips and tricks on working with silk first).

You will need a free motion foot or darning foot attached to the machine. Drop the feed dogs. This will allow you to move the fabric in any direction you want, just keep it at a steady pace, to make equal stitches in length.

Create your sketch on drawing paper. Use colored crayons so you’ll know what color goes where.

Iron on tear away light stabilizer on the wring side of your fabric, where the application will be. Do this after the pattern pieces were cut out and before they are assambled for sewing. Try to do this on a scrap piece and see if you can rip it off easily, without damaging the fabric. On my organza, I could tear it away by pulling grain wise. Pulling cross grain would tear my fabric also.

Trace the drawing on the right side of your fabric. Use an embroidery transfer crayon or chalk. I used a piece of dry soap to trace and it will come out easily with water when washed.

Hand form the shapes of the flowers according to the drawing. Mix in different colors for shadows and highlights.

Use the variegated thread to free hand embroider. Do the contour first and then fill out the center parts, moving the fabric with your hands back and forward so that you go at least twice over every stitch and allow the thread to accumulate. Directions in which to move your fabric depend on the drawing, try to imagine the lines. You can incorporate bead, sew over yarns and ribbons, use your imagination. I wanted to keep it kind of simple.

When the embellishment is finished, continue sewing the garment.

For this project I used a serged narrow rolled hem with the variegated thread.

Wash it again under warm water and try to felt the portions with the fibers. This will create a less tidy look and it will enforce the fibers to mix together creating a stronger fabric.

Tips on working with silk:

http://www.taunton.com/threads/pages/tvt022.asp

http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/3702/seam-finishes-for-silks

http://www.taunton.com/threads/pages/t00236.asp

http://eelkat.wordpress.com/2008/05/17/sewing-with-silk/

http://www.mysecretpocket.com/2007/05/beginning-silk-part-1.html

P.S. I have entered this top under the Sewing with Nature contest from Craft magazine. Go to the flickr group to see all entries. Good luck everyone!

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.