Baggy trousers

I worked a lot with these. There wasn’t enough fabric to just cut out the pieces, and I decided that although i could have made an invisible seam, adding two smaller parts together, I preferred to make it a detail . You can see it on the front of the left leg.

Pattern is Simplicity 1940’s retro 3688.

I really enjoy it when there is a challenge and a problem to be solved.

however, I think I made a mistake when copying the the pattern, the pants were SO big and I had to take them in in several places, all considering the pattern and how it would look.

And once they were finished… I just don’t care for them. They feel baggy. Reason is probably partly that the fabric is really thin and lightweight. I bought it in a thrift store thinking it was a sturdy canvas like fabric. It smelled of detergent so I assumed it was washed, which it turned out it wasn’t.  What I thought was a sturdy fabric was mostly the starch you add to cheap fabrics. You’d think I’d know by now.

I can’t be bothered to take up the seams in the waist and the hem to redo them. They’ve been sitting on a chair for a moth now, and I think they’ll stay there for a while.

Fishy

Well I’m doing some more embroidery. These won’t be lavender sachets, I don’t think. But I did give away a good many of those.

This is just for pleasure. I’m using an old cushion cover of linen that I bought second hand for the sachets. Since the yarn is second hand as well I don’t really know what it is, doesn’t feel or act like silk, and to be honest I didn’t like the colors either, but was surprised how good it came out. Thinking I might make a breast fin as an appliqué, but not sure how to yet.

This one is made with regular cotton yarn. I like the sixties feel of the color comination. Needs a face, or at least an eye, though.

Scraps

Sometimes I feel a bit mad when I save scraps from what I’m sewing. But I loved this color so much! It’s the leftovers from the pants I made from curtains (here  although I haven’t got a photo yet of the finished pants:P)

I wanted to do embroidery and at first thought I’d make a pocket for the pants, that’s the one to the right. From the even smaller scraps I made two little bags to fill with lavender since I have some on my balcony.

 

Put a ring on it

I made this dress last summer and used it a bit but never really like it, despite the colors and despite it being linen. It somehow felt too clumsy.

I decided  a reason could be that the waist is too low to be high and too high to be low, so I figured a belt would pull the waistline further down. Worth a try.

I had to buy the belt buckle, was aiming for a white one for a sixtie’s touch, but couldn’t find one. This red one which-isn’t-the-same-color-but-close-enough worked fine I think.

We’ll see if I like it better now. My expression isn’t too promising I’d say, but I’ve worn it. Seeing the pictures I’m thinnking naybe i should shorten the skirt as well.

Just enough

I found these linen curtains in a thrift store and thought they may be just enough wide for a pair of trousers. And what do you know, it’s exactly what I need! (The seam allowance is included on this pattern.)

Good to know, since I often come across these curtains in thrift stores, they were really popular when I worked in a fabric store in early 2000’s, so I guess they’re badly out now. (No, I haven’t got a clue about fashions in home decorating) They often come in great fabrics though, and I’ve been wondering if I could use them for something. Now I know.

Hello, is it me you’re looking for?

We spent the night before Midsummers Eve needle felting. It’s such a great technique, when my son was younger he said it was like drawing in 3D. I agree.

And I think wool may be may favorite material.

Buttons

When I grew up I used to love my mom’s button-box. In it were all kinds of pretty buttons and you could rummage your fingers through them and feel their smoothness and hear the rattling sound they made.

Now I have my own and I still like it for the same reasons. However, it’s not of much use to me. When I buy buttons in thrift stores, I’ll go after the prettiest and most extravagant ones n’est-ce pas? Which is fine, I might find a use for them, but usually what I need is to replace one button that’s lost and then I’d need a reather plain one. And if I am to use the flashy ones,  there’s never enough of them, is there?

Right now I’m sitting on two UF’os that need 5 buttons each. Seems I’m gonna have to head for the fabric store anyways, despit me treasure chest at home

Pants! Pants! Pants!

So I finally finished my second pair of culottes and I look forward to loving them as much as my first pair which turned out to be a hit.

Now I’ve made quite an effort with these, I decided to line them which I’ve never bothered to do before, but since the fabric is pretty thin I figured it was necessary. I used a beautiful robin blue lining from my stash and used an orange colored zipper- I love how the two colors clash!

They’ve got a very small hem as I wanted to use the pretty gold print at the edge of the fabric. I was a bit worried that this wouldn’t be heavy enough and make them shapeless, but I think it works.

Headpiece

Nothing like deadlines for finishing things. I needed this headpiece for a show, I was doing several numbers and wanted flowers in my hair for one of them. I had thought about it for quite a while an in the end I decided to use chicken wire for a base. That way I could bend it into shape and it would also be easy to fasten things onto it. I thought the sharp edges of the uncut wire would hurt me and/or eat their way through the covering fabric so I cut some leather to line it with., but that turned out to be too stiff and the wire alone actually worked fine.

The fabric is a velvety kind I had in my stash. I had originally thought of linen, but I didn’t have any, and as it turned out the velvety fabric was great since it held the headpiece in place without any bobby pins.

I didn’t have time to sew that many flowers onto the thing in the end, just one, but maybe some other time!

Bees in the bonnet

Lately, these last few months or so, I’ve started several project and finished almost none.

This has been due to several reasons such as lack of time or energy and warm weather never setting in, but also what I call the WTF factor.

When I start making something, it’s always with a very vague idea of what the finished item will look like. Yeah sure, I have the material, and sometimes a pattern as well, sometimes even a pattern with a photo on it, but still. The picture shows someone else with a thing made from a different fabric- I don’t have the mind to see myself or my future finished thing. So I’ll set to work, usually with a happy, confident stride and when the time comes to try it on I’ll think- WTF! This isn’t what I had in mind! This is of course because I only had a very vague idea to start with, so it’s virtually impossible to meet my very etherical expectations. Also, the item will look “bad” because it’s a sketch, you know what I mean, it has no buttons so I’m holding it together, or it hasn’t had it’s curves cut, whatever. What I’m getting at is that at this point I need to start my problem solving and go on. And this is actually quite often fun, although sometimes I get caught in blaming my lack of skills or my general hybris by taking on more than I can handle.

Now lately when I’d abandoned so many projects at this point I didn’t give myself the chance to show I can do this, I didn’t give myself the satisfaction that finishing something usually does, I didn’t give myself the challenge of actually solving the riddle, I just left. In short, I wasn’t being nice to myself.

So this bonnet had to be made for a show this Friday, no pattern, made from whatever was at hand at home, and by Jove, it’s done!