Home-made Fabric Sandals, with full Tutorial!

 

No, I don't really want to say goodbye to summer yet... So I made this pair of sandals... it's a surprisingly quick project and I am giving you a full video tutorial on it... The other side of the world is just getting to the warm season after all!

You don't need any specialty materials, I had most of it at home, or got it from a normal DIY/hardware store.

Me-made from Head to Toe!

English: Grey Textblocks
Deutsch: Grüner Text


It's been a while since I last participated in a Me-Made-Mittwoch (Mittwoch is German for Wednesday), but I think this outfit is worthy for a return.

Es ist schon eine Weile her, dass ich bei einem Me-Made-Mittwoch mitgemacht habe, aber ich glaube dieses Outfit ist für eine Rückkehr würdig.

Hat, Blouse, Pants and yes, Shoes are all made by me.

Ich habe Hut, Bluse, Hosen und ja, auch die Schuhe selber gemacht.

Shoes - I did it again!

Street shoes. Real street shoes made by me.

I am so proud - even though this pair might look a little less professional than the first one, but those were made in a course and these here all by myself, at home, without the help of a teacher and without many of the special machines and tools.

So yes, it is possible! I will show you pictures of the making-of-process, though not nearly with every step of the way. It is a bit too soon for a tutorial - right now I am just gathering information and experience for that to come up at some later point.

However, I am going to give you a lot of pre-tutorial-information about what tools and materials I used, so you know what you definitely need and what you don't. For me, that was the most important thing to know, just so I could get started... You will be surprised how few specialty tools you need, and how you should be able to find most of it in regular hardware stores...

A Shirt and a Skirt getting married... (with step-by-step)

Here it is, this months contribution to the refashion co-op!

I had this skirt in my closet for a long time, having only worn it once. It was really pretty and all, just not the right length for me, and gaping a lot at the waist (see picture below). And then there was this top which was such a perfect fabric match - they were just meant for each other:

Oh let's just have a little more fun! Here goes:

A pair of pants and the turning point in London

English: Gray textblocks

Deutsch: Grüner Text

Pants...

Pants! At least I konw I am not alone in my struggle of finding pants that fit well, are comfortable and look good... Whether I buy them or make them myself, they are tricky to get right!

This pair came out quite to my liking, they are from Burda Style 2/2010 and were actually made for extra-tall women. Which is funny, because if you’d put me into any special-sized group, I’d be in the extra short one. It was amazing how much length I had to take out of those legs!

The pattern was too good to pass up though – it sports great style lines and

I love pants that have room around the hips, but get narrow at the ankle...

Hosen! Wenigstens bin ich nicht alleine mit dem Problem, Hosen zu finden, die gut passen, bequem sind und gut ausschauen... ob ich sie nun kaufe oder selber nähe, es ist echt schwierig Erfolg zu haben damit!

Diese Hose ist ganz gut heraus gekommen, sie sind aus der Burda Style 2/2010 und waren eigentlich für besonders grosse Frauen gedacht. Was lustig ist, weil ich eher in die Gruppe der besonders kleinen Frauen gehören würde, wenn man sich mal ans Sortieren machte... Es war schon erstaunlich, wie viel Länge ich aus diesen Hosenbeinen nehmen musste!

Das Schnittmuster gefiel mir aber zu gut, um es nicht auszuprobieren. Es hat interessante Naht-Verläufe und ich liebe Hosen mit genug Platz in der Hüft-Gegend, die dann gegen die Knöchel enger werden.

Linen Remake - with tutorial / how-to!

Summer is here! As much as I'm starting to get into sewing quick t-shirts from jersey (tutorial coming up!), the best thing to wear on a hot day is loose linen or silk tops. This shirt was handed down to me from my generous husband (who dislikes the fast wrinkling...). It was in good shape, just -well- a man's cut and size...

I know pin-tucks are usually placed closer to the center, but I didn't want to take off the collar and I needed to get rid of some excess width on the shoulders anyway, so I placed them further out than normal. I think it adds a lovely twist with them going over the shoulder and all the way down the back...

It was a quick project and gave me the chance to finally start using some of those pressure feet I never use, as well as some specialty stitches from my machine.

Delicious Lace!

This is a dress I recently finished. My mother-in-law gave me this beautiful brown lace almost a year ago and I finally decided on a pattern! I used the tiered wedding dress pattern Nr. 112 from Burda Style 3/2013 (available for download!), changing the skirt part by making only the top layer instead of going floor length and tripple layer...

The blue fabric is more vibrant in real life than in the picture above. Construction was surprisingly simple! The underlying bodice is made first, I only had minor fit alterations to make, which is very simple now that I finally own a dressform with my measurments...