Something classic out of Boundless Style
I bought this book by Kristiann Boos of Victory Patterns already when it came out 2015 but I haven’t really sewn anything out of it: I loved the idea of a pattern book where everything mixes and matches with everything else and you can pick and choose the skirt, the bodice and the sleeves according to your own preference. How often have I thought that “that dress would be perfect, if only the skirt was a bit wider” or “if it just had sleeves, I could wear it in the winter”. Anyway, as it turns out, picking and choosing is harder than it seems and finally after leafing through the…
Granville shirt and a skirt
Granville shirt from Sewaholic is nowadays my go-to shirt pattern. Before this pattern, I wasn’t very comfortable sewing a shirt, but the instructions were so detailed that I now have the instructions printed out and I usually look at them even when sewing shirts from other patterns. I made this shirt from dark green poplin that has no stretch in it. I took the matching buttons from my old worn-out shirt that was on its way to the bin. Sewaholic patterns are designed for a pear shaped body and I had to make some changes to make this shirt fit me, but now I have a pattern that I can use…
Pandas, wrist warmers and a suspender skirt
One of the S’s favourite blouses is the yellow one that I made of soft cotton lawn since it has a pattern of cute little pandas on it. The pattern for the blouse comes from Yoshiko Tsukioris wonderful book Girly style wardrobe. Now that I’m leafing through the book once more, I don’t understand why this is the only pattern I’ve sewed from this book. The book is so full of super cute dresses and tunics! The suspender skirt pattern I got from here. Since the pattern contained only rectangular pieces there wasn’t a pattern sheet, only the measurements, that were enough. Originally the suspenders weren’t sewn into place but were…
Roses, stripes and a useful sewing trick for piping
I just could not resist the powder pink stretch cotton with black and white roses when I saw it in the fabric shop. I feel increasingly girly now that spring has arrived and this fabric just shouted “Make a skirt out of me!”. So I did. I used again the Zinnia pattern with the deepened pleats. If you want to do the same, just cut the pattern along the center of each pleat and add about two cm extra. However, you cannot add much if you want to be able to cut the pattern from lengthwise folded fabric. To add some interest I added white piping between the waistband and the…
My favourite Zinnia and the Pussy Bow blouse
This time I want to show you two of my favourite self-made garments. I already mentioned previously that I have made several skirts using Colette Zinnia pattern. This is my favourite one for winter – in fact, I’m wearing it right now! I have used this tweed fabric a lot, since it is super comfortable and doesn’t wrinkle easily. It also drapes well, as you can see. To make most of the fabric that I had I made the pleats in the pattern a bit deeper. Then I wanted to add something extra by sewing a black sating piping to the edge of the waistband and attaching a tab at…
Lizzie skirt from Sew Over It
The newest pattern from Sew Over It caught my eye immediately. I was only waiting for a right kind of fabric. Then one day I was going through the discount section in a small fabric shop in Helsinki and found a bit damaged end of roll wool crepe in a beautiful shade of mint green. The fabric was a bit yellowed and probably gotten wet at the other end at some point but there was nothing to suggest that I couldn’t clean it. The salesperson offered me the whole big piece with only 16 €, so I took a risk. Wool crepe is normally so expensive that I wouldn’t buy…
A skirt, a blouse and skeletons
My new favourite blouse is white Diana by In House Patterns. This is actually the second time I’m using the same pattern. I used white drapey viscose remnant which suited nicely for the blouse. The only change I made was that I left out the button in the collar and replaced it with an invisible sew-on snap. I also made the pleated skirt in the pictures. This time I did not use any pattern. I just fitted the waist and pleated the fabric evenly to it. The fabric is a nice stretch cotton satin remnant that costed next to nothing. We took the pictures at the Finnish Museum of Natural History.…
Pretty ballerina
Autumn means that S has started her dance lessons once again. The old dance outfit from H&M was starting to look a bit frumpy so I bought a new leotard for S. However, there weren’t any white tutus in S’s size, so I decided to sew one. I have never made one before and didn’t have a pattern. I had, however, some left-over tulle so I took a risk. It was ridiculously easy! I just cut about 48 times 3 m rectangle (actually 2 times 1,5 m), folded it in half lengthwise, made a casing for an elastic waistband and threaded the elastic in. Finally, I added two bows made…
Time traveling to the 1950s
I have always loved vintage styles from the 1940s and 1950s. The clothes of that era were pretty and feminine without being overly revealing (which is a problem in our cold climate). I bought some black and white checked cotton some while ago and on a whim decided to make a simple circle skirt. I calculated the pattern and the skirt was ready in about 2 hours. I added 4 belt loops for a narrow belt. To add some oomph to the skirt, I sewed a crinoline from some leftover tulle and satin. A black teeshirt, that I made during the summer, suits well with the skirt. The pattern is…
Sunny skirts
Sunny weather requires twirly skirts! I made this sunny yellow skirt for S to wear with the polkadot pinafore. I did not use any pattern, just folded two layers of cotton on a waistband and added an elastic band to fit S. The next skirt I made to use up left-over fabric from other projects. I used pattern from Ottobre 1/2013 called “No U Turn” as a basis. The smallest size of 122 cm was of course quite big but a tighter elastic band fixed it. I also added some lace to add some extra girliness. The hat in the picture, however, was a bit sad story. I really love…
