The Wonderland Dress!

Ah, what I wouldn't have given to have this outfit finished when it was boiling hot here in Austria... But well, it was the other way around.

The weather inspired me to make this outfit, and by the time it was finished, the heat had also vanished. But chances are I will still like it next year...

This is the Maxidress from BurdaStyle 5/2013, it can be downloaded HERE.
As other people experienced, it takes a little longer to make than one might think. My decision to make it out of this fabulous silk had nothing to do with that though...

Look at this italian silk, isn't it amazing?! And working with it was very easy!

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...

The Promise of Summer!

This dress is exactly what I needed now. No, not because I can actually wear it right away - for summer hasn't arrived yet where I live (Vienna). Indeed, it is so cold that I almost made a fire yesterday evening. But this dress has a promise, a hope, and even a special purpose for warmer weather. I will be wearing it for my next opening night - it will be on July 18th, a summer festival, and I shall be twirling in it like in the photo at the end of the post. Summer HAS to arrive until then!

I did not make this from scratch. My aunt gave it to me and it looked like this:

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!

CUT Backpack with leather details!

When I saw the backpack in CUT Nr. 8 01/13 I immediately knew I had to make one. I have been wanting a backpack for a while now - for all the heavy stuff my left shoulder doesn't want to carry alone anymore. Usually backpacks are quite sportive looking... I love sports, don't get me wrong, but I wanted one that looked cute, cool, city-esque! After all, I won't be carrying it for hours at a time, walking over a mountain, but just for those commuting minutes either on the bike or the subway...

Well, here it is!

What also tempted me to try this pattern is that it is using leather. A material I want to get to know more anyway, and I have plenty left-overs from my shoe-making course in London...

I. MADE. SHOES.

What is a pair of shoes doing on the white linens in my hotel-room?

Well, this is not just any pair of shoes. I had just finished making them. Yep, that's right. I made them...

You might already know, that I have a miniature obsession about wanting to learn how to make shoes. Real shoes. In my self-studies I am still on the level of house-shoe-making, but I took a one-week class in London, which catapulted me forward, far, far forward... ;-)

The London Coat

Another coat?! Yes, another coat!

It's not like I need more coats. But coats are good. Coats are comfy, cozy and make winter more enjoyable. And for whatever reason, coats inspire me. Or how would you say it the other way around... when I see other garments, they often inspire me to turn them into coats. It might be strange, but that's the way it is.

What would you have made from this great 60's number?

Sweater Refashion Extravaganza #4

Ok, as promised, the last re-fashion was a bit more complicated, now comes the simplest one I have ever made. It almost feels silly....

Do you like this cozy wool thing? Well, it was a cozy wool thing before, I've owned it for years, and I wore it a few times every winter. It just was way too wide in the bodice. This is part of what made it cozy, but it was really difficult to put on coats over it, because there was way too much material to be stuffed into it.... So I finally took my courage and cut it up. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture before, so this one will have to do:

It was just a normal sweater, wiiiiiiide in the torso, and I couldn't just have cut off and taken in the sides, because the sleeves would have ended up being too short.

Shoe Shortage! Making Soles for House Shoes

Finally, here comes my next post about learning how to make shoes! In case you have missed my previous ones, I am using this great old booklet from around the time of the first world war, it's German and called "Die Schuhnot", which can be translated to "Shoe Shortage".

Upon great request from my YouTube subscribers, it can now be downloaded as a pdf file from the side bar on my blog!

The booklet is in German, but I am going through everything, step by step, so you can also just follow my blog and you won't miss a thing, I promise!
I am also going by a second booklet, from around the same time, which is almost identical, except for a few extra things, which I am also including in my posts.

Sweater Refashion Extravaganza #3

This is the story of how I turned a little Grandma-number

...into a funky, even casually sexy item - with pockets!

Sweater Refashion Extravaganza #2

So here comes my second sweater re-fashion project. A great example how less is sometimes more. In this case, it really didn't take much to turn this sweater from a boring never-worn item to a favorite cold-day darling. It is 100% cashmere, which is why I really wanted to turn it into something I wear...

Turtlenecks just never look good on me to begin with. The distance from neck to bust-point is shorter on me than in standard sizes, which is why this sweater also wrinkles in that area. On top of that, I had nasty little glue spots in the lower center front. These facts pretty much sent me on my way, and out came this: A two-color v-neck sweater with extralong sleeves (which, I swear, was entirely intentional!):

Sweater Refashion Extravaganza!

Yes, this title sounds familiar... Some of you might remember my T-Shirt Refashion Extravaganza from last summer. Now, half a year later, it's time to do the same thing with my sweaters. Here is my first transformation:

It always blows my mind how many things I have in my closet, yet I don't wear much of it regularly. So I take a really honest look at it and try to figure out why. Then, things land in my refashion bin...;-) A bunch of sweaters had gathered, so another refashion extravaganza was called for!

All knits, lighter, heavier, from my hubby, from my own knitting...

The Amadeus Coat

How to turn a two piece costume into a coat....
Here is my newest Re-fashion! I have actually finished it a few weeks ago and am proud to say that I am wearing it almost daily, so this one definitely goes into the book of successes! :-)

It started out as a wool costume, which I had bought at the flee market for a ridiculous amount of 5 Euros... It's a fabulous herringbone pattern wool in turquoise and purple! Swoon!

Here is the before and after:

 It was too big for me, and in general I just would have never worn it this way, so please forgive me for cutting into it...