Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts

Tuesday 1 September 2015

Ditsy flowers summer dress

The summer is almost over and I still haven't shared my summer creations.
One of them is this summer dress I self-drafted and sewed for my toddler girl two months ago. Since then I've been working on something very time-consuming which hopefully will be ready soon.



I've been dedicating some time for making hair accessories as well (I find that such an enjoyable activity). Sometimes I find it hard to balance the time spent on different sewing and craft activities. I am keen to do so many things, but simply don't have enough time for everything.


Back to the dress. It's a simple dress with a little square neckline decorated with lace trimming. It features a little pleated pocket on the front and button fastening on the back. I aimed for something light and comfortable.

























The fabric I used for the dress is one that I bought from Hobby Craft store. I loved the ditsy floral print and although I had many other fabrics waiting to be sewn, I couldn't resist it. It's quilting cotton and has some stiffness. For a garment for an adult I would definetely go for fine and drapey fabric, but for kids garment I can easily use quilting cotton.

I have decided that my next challenge would be sewing with knits. I have very little experience with them and even have bought a book on that. Having a small collection of knits, I think it's time to put them into use.

Monday 4 August 2014

An easy summer dress

Time to blog my next project - a summer dress for Eva.




She already has so many summer clothes but that didn't stop me from making another one. What better than a light and comfortable dress that allows enough ease for running and jumping on the hot summer days. And you know, a girl could never have too many dresses!




In fact I sewed the dress a few weeks ago, but just couldn't sit down and blog it.
It is a very simple dress with two asymetric pleats on the front which meet just at the neckline. For this dress I actually drew a simple A-line dress with no pleats. Then I made two asymetric pleats on a piece of the chosen fabric (the piece had to be big enough to cut the front piece from it). I placed the front pattern onto the pleated fabric, adjusting it a bit and cut out the front piece.






 The fabric I have used is pure cotton from "Dainty Blossoms" collection by Carina Gardner for Riley Blake. It is the same print but in different colour which I used for this summer hat.


I even made a button loop on the back of the dress, using this tutorial from Oliver + S.


 If I had to give this dress a name that had to be "Lara" dress :) I like having some music on when I sew and while making this dress I was hooked on Lara Fabian' songs. Listening to some music and sewing - my perfect spending of leisure time! What is yours?

Wednesday 25 June 2014

Another summer hat

Wow!  A few weeks since my last post here... Time has been flying...
The last few weeks I have been taking it slowly and spending less time in front of the computer. That doesn't mean that I have given myself a break from sewing. I just didn't have the opportunity to photograph my recent creations. By the way I have been fascinated by the beautiful and quality photographs of some other bloggers.

One of the latest things I made was something for my mum's birthday, but more on this in a future post.

Another thing I made was a summer hat for my daughter.


 Yes, another sunhat!



 If you have seen the previous two sunhats I had sewn (one for my boy and one for my girl), you have probably started thinking that I am addicted to sewing hats. Well, I am not. And although I have already made three of them I can say they just don't bring me that excitement as the one I get with creating garments. I was just trying to be practical and sew things that were needed.

The blue hat has been much worn so I decided to make another one in pink to go with her swimsuits and some of her clothes.
For the making I used a cotton fabric from "Dainty Blossoms" collection by Carina Gardner for Riley Blake. I didn't want to make exactly the same style as the first one. I wished to try something new.
The pink hat featured a wide brim like the blue one, but this time the crown of the hat consisted of several triangle pieces joined together.
To draw the pattern I used an old favourite summer hat of mine which my mum had kept over the years.

My old little summer hat

 I liked how the new hat turned out in terms of shape and execution, but was disappointed to see that it was bigger for my girl's head. And the annoying thing was that I actually started making it right but somehow got concerned it would be too tight on the head and added another little triangle to the crown, which I regret now. One or two more years before she could wear it....What a pity!


Wednesday 9 April 2014

"Tiny flowers" summer tunic


I love summer clothes. They are more comfortable and also easier to make. I could't wait for the weather to start warming up so I could begin to plan out some new additions to the summer wardrobe of my little girl (and  if I get the chance for me as well).
As we are heading to a warmer place for the Easter holidays I thought I would make a short-sleeved blouse/tunic for Eva.
It all started with this..


and ended like this..


I used two of the fabrics I had bought on my recent trip to Goldhawk road fabric shops. They were pure cotton and very easy to work with. Despite that, the whole project took longer than I thought as folding all the little pleats evenly turned out a fiddly job.
The other task that usually delays my work is handstitching the hems prior to machine stitching. It's time consuming, but it makes machine stitching much easier and straightforward afterwards.
Not long ago a friend of mine mentioned to me that she was watching The Great British Sewing Bee on BBC2 every week. The series followed ten amateur sewers who faced different challenges every week. Shte thought it might be interesting for me to watch. And indeed it was, but it made me realize again just how slow I tackled my sewing projects, which made me feel a bit cringeful. I really have to try to be more organized and concentrated.


And this time I couldn't do without a flower accessory. Initially I planned a hairband with a flower, but once the blouse was finished I thought it might work better if placed on it.
It could go either here


or here


Which look do you prefer? I will attach the flower permanently as repinning it might damage the fabric.



And again the most difficult part were my attempts to take photo of my little daughter wearing the blouse. After half an hour chasing her around the room with the camera and telling my boy for a hundredth time to stay out of camera's view (I didn't want his blue pyjamas showing in the background of the photo) I ended up with an empty battery and lots of blurred pictures.






Sunday 16 February 2014

The first dress I sew...years ago


Has it happened to you to dig in a pile of old clothes and come across some garments that you have totally forgotten you possessed.
That's what happened to me yesterday. I came across that long forgotten dress of mine.


 
It was the first dress I sew. I can't remember how long ago it was, but I estimated it was 9-10 years ago. That's when I bought my first sewing machine and was so happy. I sew a few dresses and then made quite a long pause of few years. During this time I kept buying Burda magazines, but didn't actually get down to sewing. I was just taking the pleasure of looking at the designs and dreaming about sewing some of them.
I still question myself what made me so busy then that I couldn't find time for sewing. And I still can't answer it.

 
I made that dress using Burda pattern. The fabric and the trimming were purchased from a fabric shop in Cricklewood. That was the only fabric shop I knew. At that time I still hadn't heard of Goldhawk road as a destination for buying fabrics.
I remember that at the time of the purchase I wasn't sure how much fabric was needed for a dress, so to be on the safe side I bought three metres. So I must still have some of this fabric left somewhere.
I also remember that when I finished the dress, I was quite happy with the result given that this was my first dress. Ironically I have worn the dress only 2-3 times. I think I find more pleasure and excitement in the process of creating a garment than in wearing it.

 
When I came across the dress, my first thought was "Here is what I am going to wear this summer", but unfortunately after trying it, it turned out it was so tight that I couldn't imagine spending even half a day in it. For my big regret, it will have to continue sitting nicely folded in the pile of old summer clothes.