Minimalistic shirtdress for the summer
Here is a bit older make from last summer that I didn’t get to posting at that time. I bought this lovely stretch cotton poplin last spring when visiting Edinburgh. At first I did not know what to do with it, since it is a bit crispier than the cottons I’m used to deal with. Then I saw this shirtdress pattern while leafing through the March issue (3/2016) of the Finnish sewing and crafts magazine Suuri Käsityö and decided to try the pattern even if it is a bit different from what I usually wear. The design of the dress takes inspiration of a man’s shirt and it is loose…
Marina romper for the summer
This lovely romper pattern by Cali Faye has been on my wishlist for a long time. For some reason I’d never found a perfect fabric. Then I bought this wonderful viscose remnant at the local fabric shop and I loved the colour and the pattern (of the fabric). I was at first thinking of doing something for myself out of it, but then thought that the strong colour would suit S better. When I remembered this romper pattern, I decided that the pattern and the fabric were meant for each other. Marina romper was very simple to sew and did not take long. The front and the back are identical and were…
Rainy day with Cami-dress
Pauline Alice has a wonderful retro-inspired patterns but the only one I have attempted is the Cami dress. It has the full skirt in the style of 1950s and a high waist. There are two sleeve variations, a short sleeved version and a 3/4 sleeve with a turned cuff. The latter works better for the autumn/winter dress but for this summer dress I chose the simple short sleeve. I particularly like the shape of the shirt collar. Often I feel that the collars are drafted a bit too big for me, but this is just perfect. The length of the skirt comes a couple of inches above the knee, so it…
Nostalgic polkadots
It seems that I have found another favourite pattern to use over and over again. I made this dress last summer and loved it, even if the fit wasn’t perfect. A few weeks ago I stumbled upon this gorgeous lilac coloured polkadot viscose fabric when visiting Eurokangas in the neighbouring city that has slightly bigger selection than my local one. I have never worn this colour before, but I was pleasantly surprised that the colour suits my winter-pale complexion. Anyway, I got instant vintage feels and started thinking about sailor collars and flowing skirts with puffy sleeves, so I dug into my pile of sewing magazines and found the one…
Oh Boyz aka t-shirt of faces
When I saw this fabric at Eurokangas I did not think twice: K was going to get a new t-shirt. With the funny print there was no need to get a fancy pattern, so I took an old an trusted pattern: Let It Be from Ottobre Design 6/2010. There was really nothing fancy with the sewing. I added a bright orangey red collar using a scrap piece of jersey I had in my stash. If I remember correctly the selvage of the printed jersey said “Oh Boyz”, so that is what I started calling the t-shirt in my mind. This t-shirt has been in regular use already for months. I have had…
Fabrics under a microscope – literally
We often think about fabric properties. The thickness, the stretchiness and the drape are all important qualities but what actually causes these properties? I decided to put my fabrics under a microscope - quite literally!
Mélilot-Granville-shirt aka combining two shirt patterns
If you are not interested in the technical description of how I combined the two patterns, scroll to the end to see the results! I have planned to make this post for a while now. Often I feel that one pattern has a really nice fit and the other has very interesting details and that I’d like to have both in the same garment. Combining patterns may be easy if the patterns are very similar or when the mismatch can be easily corrected by adjusting something like gathers at the waistline. For instance, I tend to use the same A-line lining pattern for different skirts since the lining doesn’t have…
Navy blue shirtdress with triangles
I found this lovely viscose print fabric from factory remains section of the local fabric Shop Eurokangas and didn’t even have to think whether to buy it. I absolutely love the orange and white triangles on the navy background. The fabric piece was big so there was no doubt that I could make a dress out of it. McCall’s 7351 was listed as one of the best patterns of 2016 on patternreview.com website. I love shirtdresses so I ordered the pattern when I saw it was on sale a few months ago. The pattern has options for both a sleeveless dress and a dress with either short or long sleeves.…
A Mother’s day dress
Here in Finland we celebrate Mother’s day on next Sunday. I wanted to make something as a surprise gift for my Mom and decided on a nice summer dress with a bold print. I sent cryptic pictures of different fabrics to get her opinion and together we decided on a graphic leaf print. I used the pattern for the Lizzy dress from the British Simply Sewing magazine, issue eighteen that I had previously used to make myself a linen summer dress. I figured out that this A-line dress would be safe to sew without me being able to do any fitting, using just the body measurements to determine the correct size.…
Stella dress with flowers
Stella dress by Ikatee caught my attention immediately, when I saw it. The beautiful frills and light linen were so romantic but also fashionable right now. I was unable to find similar light linen but I had romantic viscose jersey and thought: why not to try a completely different fabric. I made the dress deliberately one size bigger (122 cm) to have some room for S to grow into. The only thing I changed was I turned the edge of the ruffled pieces twice and stitched them rather than making a rolled hem. I had just had some difficulties with my serger and didn’t feel like fiddling with the serger settings.…
