Is it a dress? Is it a robe? It's...

I made a new dress. It's not the velvet one for which I wanted your imput. I'm still thinking about that one. Thank you very much for thinking along though, I will get back to that.

I made the first 'design sketch' for this dress ages ago, but I didn't have suitable fabric. I thought it would need something like a silk (or immitation of that) crepe: drapy, soft but with a bit of weight and preferably with a matching shiny and matte side.

My stash contains mostly cottons and wools, so I knew there was nothing there for this dress. I didn't go to the fabric store to buy it. Instead, I just made other things and let this one weight. There were some doubts on my mind about this design on me and I didn't feel like wasting an expensive length of fabric on it.

Over the past months, I got more adventurous with regard to colour. To wearing colour at all and to colour combinations.

When I bought this mystery fibre turquoise-ish fabric at the market on sale (1 euro a meter) two weeks ago, it didn't take me long to see it as a possible match with the deep red fannel (also used for my side-buttoned trousers and bought in an even more crazily cheap sale at the market).

Last weekend, I drafted the pattern. Sort of winged it, actually.

The dress is now finished except for some sort of fastener on the waistband. I put snaps on the inside edge. I could also put them on the outside edge but wearing a dress held in place only by snaps seems like living on the wild side a bit too much...

I guess I'll have to try and find some buttons in one of these colours.

I kind of like the result. I was going for kimono-inspired with a sort of fifties silhouet, and I guess that's just what it is.

I decided to make it a wrap dress because that seemed to suit the design, but I'm afraid the skirt could open up way too far, too easily to make it suitable to be worn outdoors. There is also a slight issue with the midriff band having too much ease at the top. With this design, it's impossible too try and fit it properly before the whole dress is finished. So, after, finishing all edges and facing the midriff band.

I didn't feel like redoing most of the construction, so I kept it like this. It's sort of a wearable muslin anyway.

Now, what to make of this dress? As mentioned above, it would be a bit risky outside. It's also very soft and comfortable. And there's a major tradition (mostly in the 19th century) of kimono's as homewear. And it is definately too glamorous to be relegated to nighty or bath robe duty.

I guess some 1950's cataloge would advertise a style like this as a 'hostess gown' (although I know most of those were full length). The older term of 'robe deshabile' (used for unstructured gowns, originally only worn as homewear, from the 18th century onwards) also comes to mind...

I don't know yet. However, making this dress did teach me I can wear full kimono sleeves and midriff band dresses.

Oh, and, for amusement value only: here's what happens if I play around, trying to get a picture in an interesting pose, for too long.

'Effortless' is so hard to do...

It's a favorite fashion buzz-word: Effortless. Usually, it's part of a construct like 'effortless chic' or 'effortless cool'. As such, it carries connotations of comfort and not-trying-too-hard. While still looking chic, cool, hip and/or glamorous, of course.

It is, obviously, one of the fashion-system's (magazines, and production and promotion industry) little cruelties. A look which seems easy enough to achieve and can look like it would actually work in the real world.

However, to get the effect seen in the fashion spreads, you need the looks of one of their models. Tall, skinny and with a flawless complection. And some extremely careful editing of your 'look'.

Anything less and you risk looking like you just threw on the first thing you found in your closet...

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you may have developed a certain notition about my style (both in sewing and dressing). I think I tend towards a more put-together look, contemporary with a retro edge (hey, a girl can try...). 'Effortless' doesn't usually feature in my personal style vocabulary. And yet, it's not without a certain appeal.

Sometimes, I try. And whenever I do, I always seem to make trousers. Of course, the clothes for any 'effortless' look should not be visibly confining in any way and allow for full freedom of movement. This excludes things straight away, like strictly tailored jackets and pencil skirts. Both in cut and material, the should be comfortable without being plain or sloppy.

I gave the look another try with this.

(Obviously, I'm not really sleeping in this picture. I was using a self-timer and happened to look down in most shots. The end-result: my eyes seem to be closed in every otherwise-decent picture)

High waisted, belt pleated trousers (I know lots of people hate this shape but I have made other versions of it and I actually believe I got it to work on me) in dark green flannel-like cotton fabric with a mustard coloured lambswool jumper. The jumper was refashioned from a large sized second-hand one.

I wanted a big drapey cowl, but didn't have enough material. For the shape was made by a combination of tracing an existing jumper for the body and using my knit sloper for the shoulder and armscye.

I'm OK with the final look, but it takes some getting used to.

I wonder, is it strange to sometimes wonder about this 'effortless look'-thing? Do you ever chase it? Are you succesful? Or do you just think it is one of those annoying fashion-press inventions by which women are made to fret about what should be simple, comfortable every-day clothes?

Presenting: dress nr.2

Last week, I told you how much I was loving the big skirts for summer (several of you commented that they're actually quite fashionable and of course, you could be quite right. I know these were all over the magazines the year before last, but didn't really make it to the street. Of course, high street labels will never be great fans of any look which uses a lot of fabric in one garment) and how much I wanted to get started on nr. 2 from my line-up.

Well, I did. And this dress sort of shows what I ment by apologizing for the quality of my sketches. Did any of you think, from the sketch, that it would end up looking like this?

It turned out pretty much exactly as I had hoped. The sketch may have set-in sleeves, but I used kimono sleeves with underarm gussets (recycled from the pattern for my black wrap dress, which I made the summer before last). The collar has cut-on lower lapels and just a big piece of bias cut fabric for the top bit. The buttons you see are the real closure, with the faced edge which holds them extending for about 20 cm below the waist. The skirt is a full circle with extra width added to it at four pleats which line up with the darts in the bodice. I hemmed it last night: all 5,5 meters of it. Oh, and there are pockets in the side seams.

Self-drafted pattern, of course.

I have to say, I'm very pleased with this one. I've been very lucky to find this fabric: cotton poplin with a bit of stretch in a colour which is perfect for me, for sale at 1 euro a meter. And not all own designs turn out as well as this one.

The crazy idea dress - finished

Who still remembers that day, somewhere last week, when I announced my intention to make a strapless dress from a big second hand leather skirt?

It's done now!

Last weekend, I made a muslin for the strapless top and tweeked it to fit well. During the week, when I had time, I carefully cut the skirt. In the end, I couldn't keep that topstitched center front seam and I had to be very careful to keep as much length as possible on the skirt. I used the skirt's original lining to line the dress and a metal zipper from my stash to close it at center back (I tried to take a picture of the back, but there was so much shadow in it, you couldn't even see the zipper). As it is now, there is no boning in the top. It wrinkles a bit when I move around, but in my experience, poly boning wouldn't really help against that and once bent, it would stay bent, making the bulge permanent.

I don't know how much I will wear this dress, it's not what you call a 'you can wear it anywhere' item. However, I am quite pleased with it and with a top and tights underneath, I should be able to get it worn a bit more...

Recent creations

Yesterday, I promised you a post about stuff I made when I wasn't posting. Well here it is. It's not a huge amount but I have been busy with other things and with 'assignments' from two friends, which require fittings. The good thing however, is that the things I made for myself over the past two weeks all go well together.

I love that first pair of belt pleated trousers which I made a few months ago. I have been thinking about making another one for a while, and now I've done so. True to form, I did make some changes, largely to try out a slightly different shape but also because this piece of fabric was barely enough. It's a brown/grey/olive woven stretch fabric, given to me by a fellow student of M's advanced

sewing/pattern making class almost two years ago. There was just 1 meter of it.

For these trousers, I dropped the waistline a bit (to be able to fit it onto the fabric and to try out the somewhat sloughy look I've been seeing in magazines for this kind of trousers). I also made the pockets deeper (the only flaw on the other pair, in my opinion, were the too high scoop pockets) and adjusted the top part with the pleats to the new waistband. I also tapered the leg more towards the knee. In the first pair, it's just a straight line from hip to ankle.

The fabric is very comfortable to wear, but was extremely annoying to sew. I didn't make bound pockets at the back because I really didn't trust that set up with all the stretch.

The t-shirt is something of a crazy experiment.

I bought the fabric on sale at the market. Thin, not very stretchy cotton knit in a burgundy/aubergine colour. And about 3 meters of it. So it is ideal for experiments.

This shirt has the sleeves and upper back cut in one piece, in a way which I have seen a lot in knitting patterns for shrugs but nowhere else. As I have stated before, I'm slowly getting into experimenting with roomier shapes, but I like to tweek them to flatter my shape. Being rather flat-chested means that a lot of the wide kimono-sleeve stuff, avaible for the past seasons, is not for me. My solution here is to have shirt wide down to the waist. Not lower.

I think this shirt turned out to be a fun shape. Of course, I pull it up when I lift my arms, and it doesn't go with everything, but still, I think I'm happy with it. I have yet to wear it out though (it's not warm enough yet).

The third thing I made is another tiny shrug (I also made one as a present for my sister, two weeks ago). I still want to make a long sleeved version, but this was another case of severe fabric constraints. I actually made this one with a shoulder seam, just to be able to get it out of a scrap.

This fabric, a black knit with silver lurex threads in it, was part of a large bag of fairly big scraps thrown out by a local artist/fashion designer M knows. I can never pass up free fabric, so I sorted through the bag and took this stuff, among other things (including several bits of jersey suitable for lingerie, or it's muslins and linings).

So far so good. I've got loads of ideas but the in-between wheather makes it hard to decide on what to make NOW.

A jacket and some planning

I've been working on this before the lingerie-project, but only finished it after that. My (rather un-authentic) version of a Chanel-jacket. I think these things can often be a bit dowdy, but between seeing cool versions on catwalks and in fashion magazines for the past two winters, watching 'Coco avant Chanel' and coming across and lurking around this blog the look started to grow on me. I just had to give it a try. And I still had about 4 meters of this wool/polyesther/viscose boucle sitting in my stash without a clear plan what to make of it.

So a Chanel jacket it had to be. I borrowed Claire Schafer's 'Couture sewing techniques' from the library, but far from followed all the instructions of Chanel jackets. This fabric just isn't worth it.

I drafted my own pattern, as usual. It's a simple fitted shell, cropped to waist length (to make it look a bit younger). I changed the shoulderline a little bit to allow for small shoulder pads. It has two-piece sleeves with buttoned vents (normal jacket-style vents, not the official Chanel-style fully functional ones). It is lined normally (no quilting), the pockets are lined and sewn on by hand, once I find the needed supplies, it will have a hooks-and-eyes closure, the trim was made from the fabric selvedge and sewn on by hand and those golden coloured buttons are sailor-style buttons from my grandmother's button stash.

I think I'll be going on to make more summery stuff from now on. Spring has finally, and rather suddenly, hit the Netherlands this week and all I can think about are big skirts made of light cotton, new trouser shapes in lighter fabric, inventively shaped t-shirts and all kinds of summery dresses. And that bathing suit of course. and sewing for other people.

I may even put the vague spring-coat plan I had back on the shelf. I may make a post tomorrow about the things I definately want to make from fabrics I already have, just to keep myself on track. In that post, I'll also try to answer a couple of questions which have come up in the comments lately.

Purple skirt from leftovers

Well, here it is, my purple skirt (worn with the boots I painted). I used up all the fabric I had left from making the purple dress. It couldn't be any longer. It couldn't be any wider. It needed to have a (straight) center back seam just to allow me to get all the pieces out of the fabric.

Because I have often made pencil skirts from small bits of fabric and I now this stuff drapes nicely, I decided it had to be a flared skirt. It is made from ten pieces, which are all the same. It's a very easy pattern to make to your own size. I'll make sure there's a tutorial up by Wednesday.

This skirt is great for twirling!

Purple dress, purple dress

I told you I was getting into colour. Allow me to introduce: exhibit nr. 3, the purple dress.

I bought this fabric a few month ago, having fallen in love with the colour. In my mind, this is quite a vintage or retro shade of purple. Too intense and too blue to be a recent fashion colour. Considering the market stall I bought it from (which is forever selling weird fabrics which seem to be very old leftovers from somewhere, at a ridiculously low price) it may well be quite an old fabric. The guy selling it wasn't even prepared to start discussing the fibre content. So, all I can tell you is that I love the colour, it's a crepe weave, and a mystery fibre. From sewing with it, I know there's something quite synthetic in it (it gets slightly static) and some wool (I smelled that when pressing it).

I had bought two meters, and straight away I knew it just had to be some kind of vaguely sixties inspired dress. For a while, I was making other things, shying away from this vibrant colour, but last week, it was time.

I drafted this pattern myself, considering it a bit of an experiment. Usually, I don't make dresses without waist shaping and not a lot of mini things. This one had to be both. I didn't just eliminate waist darts, it also has a back pleat opening up right under the sleeve-line.

Because this fabric was cheaper than the stuff I usually use for muslins, I didn't make one of those.

I first tried it on when I had sewn the body pieces together, and was pleasantly surprised. The fabric turned out to drape a lot more than expected, making the loose shape rather flattering. Originally, I planned to make a fairly high standing collar, but I realised that would make it too strict, so I opted for a fold-over one instead.

The dress has a short placket, using sew-on snaps as the real closure and buttons from gran's stash, covered with fabric, for show.

I still have some of this fabric left, so there will be a skirt as well, fairly soon...

Weekly outfit nr.19

Back to regular posting. This is my outfit picture for this week. It seems that ever since making the green skirt and orange top, I keep thinking colour. I have been sewing a colourful dress (more about that tomorrow) and looking at colourful fabrics.

Here, I'm wearing the brightest not-summer skirt I had before the green one. It's bright red wide wale corduroy and I made it about two years ago from a pattern I made myself. With it, I'm wearing a cardigan, which is one of only two succesfull attemps at knitting I've ever made. I kind of made it last year, but at a gauge of 3,5 mm, it took me forever and it lived for quite some time as a UFO with the body pieces and one sleeve done. I am happy with the result though, and have been wearing it quite a bit on warmer days this winter. The t-shirt I wear underneath was recycled from an old plain t-shirt of my boyfriend's and painted with white fabric paint (two years ago)

Outfits, outfits, outfits

Finally some proper light today! I took advantage of it by taking some pictures of some fairly recent creations as worn by me (some of those I've never worn combined like this, but I'm sure I will). Click on the pictures to make them bigger (yes, these are a bit bigger). My apologies for all the similar poses and self-timer faces.

It seems that contrary to what I thought, blogger does not enlarge the pictures when clicked (I'd swear I've seen and used that feature on other blogger-blogs...) so I have uploaded them a size bigger.

First up: flared trousers and jacket in charcoal grey wool, here worn as a suit with a ruffly top underneath. The top was made of fabric left over from my flowy white shirt. It's a simple sleeveless number, decorated with three rows of circular ruffles.

Then: the same jacket with the belt pleated trousers and the heart t-shirt for a very different looking suit.

Number three: the last item I made in the charcoal grey wool, the skirt, worn with the grey jersey cardigan and a very old refashioned t-shirt (it used to be a band t-shirt belonging to my boyfriend, but he let me have it and cut it to my size two years ago. I like it's faded look and love to wear it with neat tailored pieces)

Four: Karin asked for it, and I had been thinking about it myself as well. The green skirt with the orange top. It actually looks fine in the picture, but in reality, it doesn't really work. The green is really eye-poppingly bright (the camera's sensors don't seem to be able to cope with that) and the orange is a bit muted in comparison.

And finally, this is something I'm not so sure about. I've made this skirt two years ago, and I still love it. The top, however is a different story. I bought the fabric at the spring fabric market last year, having fallen in love with that flowy, almost art nouveau style, print. However, it is also quite shiny, which always scared me a bit. The size of the print (and the weight of the fabric) meant it had to be made into something unstructured.

I made this about a month ago and it has been on my ironing board ever since, unable to leave the sewing room. Originally, I put elastic at the bottom, thinking it would be nice as one of those loose fitting tops I could wear with fitted trousers. But that just made the whole thing look like a tracksuit top... Not a good look at all. Playing around with it, I realized it might look a lot better tucked in. I am actually fairly happy with this look and it might also work with my high waisted tweed skirt, although I'm not sure it would work with trousers...

I'm going back to sewing now. So many plans, so little time. I'm working on a Chanel-like jacket, but I'll have to put that on hold for now untill I can get the right notions for it. So I'll go and make a pattern for another knit top. Or a skirt. Or a dress...

Weekly outfit nr.17

Black trousers, an old favorite which I made about two years ago, a store-bought black turtle neck and the cardigan-thing which I made a while ago from one of my boyfriend's old sweaters worn with a thin belt.

By the way, I did read some comments on the colour (or lack thereof) of many of my outfit. I think I should try to give a bit of explanation on that point.

First of, I'm just one of those people who believe that everything looks good with black. My old 'uniform' (before I made all my clothes) used to consist of a skirt in a colour and a black top (or jeans and a black top, but that was just too boring).

I also used to love 'standard' romantic goth clothes. My first succesfull sewing creation was a read satin skirt with a black lace overskirt (which I wore with black tops, of course). Although my style has changed quite a bit, some of the esthetic is definately still with me.

And I went to art school. Studying photography. Art folks and photographers are still a little more prone to wearing black than the 'average person' (who doesn't exist, I know).

Also, it's still winter here. I wear black all year round, but I tend to pair it with much brighter colours when the sun is out more.

The last, but not least, reason is deeply practical one: I can't really afford to spend a lot of money on fabrics at the moment. I'm lucky to have my sources for very affordable jeans, plain cotton, wool and jersey, but the supply of colours is limited (often to black, grey or dark blue, and some ugly, very bright colours). It is very hard to find nice lighter weight fabrics (for tops) as well as anything to matching or complementing a coloured fabric or a good print. It is not just a money-thing either. If I go to the fabric store, I don't like most of their prints and very little of their colours. And, to make it harder, I prefer to sew with natural fibres.

Basically, I do have a lot of black in my winter wardrobe. For a large part, I like it that way. However, I'm definately on the lookout for some great colours to add to it, but finding them might prove to be quite a challenge.

A new and different shirt

From time to time, I tend to get a little annoyed with the strict and structured look of most of my creations. Most of the time I love it of course, but not all the time. Owning a serger and being able to make things in jersey has improved this matter, but especially when it comes to tops, it will still hit me every once in a while. This time, the topic was the blouse. Most of mine are fitted and made from a fairly stiff cotton. It is shirtweight but tends to seem a bit starched and just never gets drapey. It happens to be one of the fabrics I can always buy at the local market, so it gets used a lot.

I wanted something flowy, with a wider but still feminine fit and preferably still having the features of a normal button-down shirt. I made some muslins with a wider, undarted body shape and hated them all. Then I remembered this picture from an '08 magazine and decided to do something a bit like that. I drafted the pattern, including my widest sleeve to date.

The fabric I used has been in my stash for a year and a half. I bought it at the fabric market, which is held twice a year. Back then, I thought it was all cotton, but on closer inspection now, I realised the weft threads may be cotton, but the warp threads are something else, most likely polyesther. The things you learn in a year...

When sewing this, I loved my new sewing machine. The old one would have eaten such a delicate fabric. This one didn't even make it pull at the seams.

Because the fabric is a bit sheer, I used white organza instead of the usual lightweight fusible interfacing. I had never done this before, but it worked quite well. I just cut pieces with seam allowance and treated them as one piece with one of the pieces in fabric.

Originally, I made big cuffs for the sleeves, but as soon as the first one was on, I tried the shirt on and hated the look of it. In the end, I opted for binding the sleeve edges with strips of bias cut fabric. They are kind of three quarter length but I think that's OK with such roomy sleeves. It keeps them out of the saucepans ;)

I can see myself wearing this, as soon as the weather starts to warm up again. I still have about a meter of the fabric left, which will become a sleeveless top with ruffles (yay! for rolled hems on the serger)

Oh, and don't forget, there's still plenty of time to enter the giveaway...

verdict and teaser

Thank you all for your comments on my last post! I am wearing those trousers right now, they are quite comfortable and I no longer feel so self-conscious about it. When I was in the fabric store this afternoon, the lady cutting fabric for me asked whether they were self-made, and told me she really liked them (Ok, I was wearing my coat, so she couldn't see the top part).

Unfortunately, it's been another dark, grey day so I haven't been able to take any pictures. I need to, not just for this week's outfit but as illustration for a new little plan of mine, too.

This is it, and how it came to be. Months ago, I send a pattern I made to fellow-seamstress/blogger Melissa, who at that time needed things to keep her busy during a long hospital stay (to which she could bring a sewing machine). Now, she has just posted about the dress she recently made from it. Quite enthousiastically (my old cell phone used to have a 'smiling and blushing' smiley, if I knew how to make that one on my keyboard, I would use it now).

Now, I do rather like to get great reactions to my pattern making efforts, so I thought I'd go ahead and make a pattern for one of the readers of this blog (just to keep it do-able, I'll stick to patterns for knit/jersey things based on Burdastyle's Lydia for sizing). There will be an official post about this tomorrow, outlining the 'rules' for the giveaway and, most importantly, showing sketches and pictures of the pattern options you will be able to choose from.

trying a new shape

I would like to ask you to give your honest opinion about this.

I've been looking at belt pleated trousers in high fashion magazines for a while now, and the idea slowly warmed to me. So I decided to try and make a pair for myself. As usual, I drafted my own pattern (some of the belt pleated trousers I liked in magazines had lower waistbands, but I kind of liked the high waist in the muslin). I'm reasonably satisfied with it, if I wanted to make this again my only change would be to make the pocket entry a little deeper than it is now.

For fabric, I used the same thin wool as for the flared trousers.

What I'm not so sure about, is the look. It doesn't help that it seems like it just doesn't go with just about anything in my wardrobe (proportion-wise, that is) but that isn't even the whole point. I've been trying it on while I was working on it and afterwards and my own reaction varied from: "Wow, this is cool" to "this is just weird".

My boyfriend, who is usually quite helpful at a point like this because he is utterly unbiased by any knowledge of the latest fashion, only had to offer one very helpful (not) comment: "it's 80's". Now, normally, that makes something just wrong in my book. I did the 80's first time around. In this case, I'm not so sure. I was a child in the 80's so although I did wear leggings by the end of the decade (meaning that I 'did' that 80's staple first time around), I'm pretty sure I didn't have trousers like these at any point. And even if I did, would it really matter? What comes around, goes around, and in fashion, the weels only seem to turn faster and faster...

I hope you can see my point. I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts on this and I should really give these the wear-out-of-the-house test this week.

on flared trousers

I got some nice comments on my latest pair of trousers (both here, and on Wardrobe Refashion) and with them, some questions about the pattern. The pattern is, like that of most of my creations, drafted by me. Therefore I can't give you an easy route to making them. However, I can share a few simple tips.

If you're going to alter a pattern, any pattern, use one you've used before, or make a muslin first. Use that to sort out the fit.

For this project, you need a fairly basic trouser pattern. Leg shape doesn't really matter but the pattern should be fitted at hips and waist and, if you want a style like mine, have a fly front, a waistband in curved pieces and scoop pockets.

To make things easy for yourself, trace the main pattern pieces (front and back legs) on a new piece of paper. Then, you alter the leg shape like the (very clumsy) drawing shows. Starting to widen the leg at different points will result in very different looks. Start at the knee and you will get a boot-cut to 70's flare, depending on the width at the bottom (see the jeans in weekly outfit nr.9). Start at the hipline/crotch and your trousers start looking a bit like culottes. For my trousers, I started widening the legs at about mid-thigh, flaring out more from the knee down. At the bottom, they are between 55 and 60 cm wide. Of course, I don't have to tell you that to get a great end result, the bottom width should be considered in relation to the rest of the measurements.

Happy sewing!

Playing catch-up (and weekly outfit nr.9)

I'm afraid I got a bit behind on posting this week. In part, the weather is to blame for this. For most of the week, it's been raining so much that there was hardly any proper daylight. Not good for taking pictures...

I'll try to make up for it now. First of all, a new 'weekly outfit'.

I made the top last week, and wore it for the first time this week. It is made from woolmix knit and was my attempt to make kimono/batwing sleeves work on me. Roomier ones require a different kind of figure, with breasts... This particular shape probably wouldn't work in a woven fabric (too confining) but it's fine in a knit. For added interest, and to have an excuse for a center back seam (and thereby saving fabric) I made a fairly deep V at the back. The trousers are one of the first things I made using my new sewing machine, somewhere back in June. I still really like the fit-and-flare shape, the topstitching details and the pockets with flaps.

It occured to me that this top is hardly the only recent creation I haven't shown yet. So, I'll show the rest as well.

I made this dress last weekend. Unfortunately, the picture isn't very clear, but it has a smocking detail at the front under the bust. I kind of like it, but it's a style I have to get used to. I've been wearing it with a little bolero jacket in black jeans. Both for warmth, and to give it a bit of an edge.

For this blouse, I used the first pattern for a top I ever made. I only changed the collar. I'm not that happy with it. I love the original blouse (which is black and has a larger and floppier collar) and have worn it a lot. When I bought this gray cotton for one of E's shirts, I was convinced that it would be a good colour for me too, and so I bought extra fabric. Yet, I'm stuck with a blouse which somehow doesn't look or feel quite right to me... I think it's mostly a colour-thing and I wouldn't be surprised if washing it helps with the rest(that will take the starch out of the fabric). Lately, even my crazier plans usually work out, so I'm a bit surprised at the being disappointed by what seemed to be a very safe project...

Well, better next time.

These trousers, I finished just this morning. I realised a while ago that I didn't really have any good trousers anymore, excluding the jeans. The pair in black stretch twill I've had for two years are pretty faded by now, so no longer good for more formal occasions. I used the pattern I made for that much loved pair and made a new one using thin charcoal grey woolblend. Flared legs, scoop pockets at the front, single welt pockets at the back.

I bought 4 m of this fabric, so you're going to see more of it. I'm slightly addicted to making jackets (although I try to keep that in check, I don't wear jackets that much...) so there will probably be one of those. And I'm sorely tempted to try and make a pair of belt pleated trousers. Which could be either great, or a total disaster. I'll keep you informed.

Lastly, I've got a museum/city tip to share. Last Thursday, M and I went to the Antwerp Fashion Museum, MoMu. We saw the exhibition about Belgian leather brand Delveaux (handbags from the 1930's till 2000, plus history, patterns and an impression of the atelier), work by incredebly talented first year BA students of the Antwerp Fashion School (I strongly suspect these people graduated from some other art school before starting there, that would explain the level of their work) and at Modenatie (a separate store/galery bit) items from the Yohi Yamamoto winter collection. And, despite the appalling weather, we did some great window shopping along the Nationalestraat (where the museum is located). Now, this exhibit is too small to be worth a long trip, but if you happen to be near Antwerp, or have some way of getting there easily and cheaply, it is definately worth a place on your to-do-list.

Coat finished!

I finished my coat today. I managed to get most of the work done yesterday and found rather nice buttons this morning at the market. Fairly large fake horn ones with large holes, so I decided to unravel a scrap of fabric and attach the button using light coloured threads from the fabric itself (pulled then through and made a knot at the back of the button, then sewed that down using normal thread).

Then, I went back home to make buttonholes. Which was an absolute nightmare and took almost 3 hours. The thing is, my lovely new sewing machine can do no less than 7 different automatic buttonholes. All I have to do is position the garment under the buttonhole foot and press 'start'.

But it decided not to like the thick layer of very loosely woven wool I gave it today. I kept fighting transport problems. First, when making tests, I realised that my usual coat style buttonhole wasn't going to work and eventually, I found one which seemed to work a lot better. When I used it on the coat however, there were problems. I only had to do two buttonholes, but I had to rip out the top one three times, which is a total pain in the .. in this type of fabric. I considered giving up and simply sewing on the buttons with snaps at the back, but I didn't (well, I did put a snap on the inside, instead of a smaller button). I wondered why I hadn't been more ambitious and made welted buttonholes (because of the fraying fabric, I know that).

In the end, I got the job done and it doesn't look bad, but I wasted a lot of time and good mood. File under 'new sewing machine learning curve' I guess...

Despite the buttonhole-misery, I am very happy with the finished product. I'm actually quite pround of myself for making such a different shape of coat. I see myself exploring the territory beyond fitted things lately. And although I love fitted things, I really like this new ground I'm gaining. It takes a peculiar kind of confidence to put on and make things which don't cling to every curve (although of course, as always, what will work is very much dependant on individual body shape).

Weekly outfit nr.1

I've thought up something new: from now on I'll try to show you one outfit each week. Something I've really worn in that week. Not because I'm so vain and think I've got the best sense. Actually, I'd be very interested in links to blogs where other people do the same thing.

To me, it's not about fashion. It's about promoting making your own clothes, loving them and developing a personal style. I make most of what I wear and my day-to-day looks range from the fairly standard jeans-and-top to eclectic mixes of retro shapes.

Although I make a lot of the patterns myself, I'll make sure to include links for those pieces I did make using tutorials.

Autumn in the Netherlands started yesterday, so it was time to wear thights again. I'm wearing a fitted shirt with pin tucks and a point collar made last winter, from a pattern based on my personal sloper and a short, pleated wrap skirt I made two years ago using this tutorial (only in German). I also made the bag two years ago. I took apart a shop-bought bag which I had used until it almost fell apart and used it as a pattern.