Blazer - matching my me-made shoes...

Usually you buy shoes to match an outfit, but this time it was the other way 'round:  I had made these shoes in London and had no jacket to go with them... 
In came CUT Nr. 8 01/13, containing a cool blazer pattern with leather detail on the shoulder, and I just had to make it. Just like in my backpack recently (from the same CUT issue), I was able to use left-over leather from the shoe-course. You can leaf through the CUT magazine here, I am not getting anything for this recommendation by the way, I just really think it's a cool magazine and leaf-through feature... But enough of this linking-galore, on to the pictures!

The 1938 Dress: Finished! Vote and Win!

If you are here to vote and win, just scroll down to the second half of the post! :-))

So this is the finished dress from my 1938 magazine:

A Blazer for Mom

My mom has always been the biggest promoter, sponsor and motivator of my creative undertakings, no matter what field they happened to be in. So it is no surprise she also gave me a little push onto the next level in sewing: making a tailored garment for someone other than myself... She also insisted on being my first "real" customer, wanting to pay for it. At this point Mom, I apologize for how long you had to wait for this!
She expressed her wish for a blazer in Spring, and I only now got done with it... But then again, we live 800 kilometers apart from each other...

I knew this project was going to stretch my abilities a bit, a blazer is a difficult garment to begin with, and to fit it perfectly, there have to be several fittings... First, we decided on a general shape and pattern to base the blazer on. I didn't want to have to make the pattern from scratch, as that would have probably taken me an extra 5 years...

We took the 50's blazer that some of you already know from my 1950's Travel Set as a first guideline:

There were plenty of adjustments to be made. I made a muslin for a first fitting, which went surprisingly well and we actually only needed one additional fitting after that.
We changed the sleeves from 3/4 to full length and I added a sleeve vent to it - which was a first for me and I struggled a bit with making the pattern for it...

You know what I did last Sunday?

Yes, we are all excited about spring kissing our cheeks. But I am behind schedule with my winter set. Luckily it is a Fall-Winter-Spring set (a travel set with 10 interchangeable pieces of clothing), and this was the last really wintery item on the list. It makes the hopefully short return of the 1-digit-temperatures more bearable:

Oh, don't say it... I know it. Santaclause, right? So what? I like the little bit of Santa-ness of this jacket, and I know I will love it when the next winter comes around. Somehow it's more of a before-Christmas garment.
I once bought a really great coat in the middle of summer, and it made the arrival of  winter so much better! On that note, this jacket has built in make-me-happy-power for next October.
I came up with the pattern myself. It's basically a circle. If you want to see how I did it, read on...

Me-Made-Mittwoch #2!

Here it is again, Me-Made-Mittwoch! Mittwoch is German for Wednesday, and I love this idea. While it really is easier than doing a whole month at a time (as in Me-Made-May, Self-Stitched-September, in case you don't know what I'm talking about...), it does give me a good opportunity to incorporate my own stuff into my daily wardrobe. Eventually, I want this to be the case every single day of the year...
I made this blouse, it's a Burda pattern you can find out more about in my BurdaStyle studio. The blazer is from my 1953 travel set, blogged about HERE, and in my BurdaStyle studio HERE.
There is also the tiniest little me-made-detail on my shoe, which you can only see if I sit down. One of the buttons fell off and where are you going to find that exact one? Well, I put on a tiny crochet flower I once made with the tiniest crochet hook I own...
For styling enthusiasts - I am a real beginner myself... - the colour of your socks make a much bigger difference on your outfit than you might think! :-)