I'm done!

I'm done with folding and sorting and I even found a place where I can store my fabric. It looks so nice! I keep looking at those piles and wonder how long it will last...
Now I'll have do something with all those little scraps and pieces. Sorting those by color would probably be good too.

Nice piles!

No sewing this weekend, instead some fabric folding. Yesterday I found the happy zombie - a very cool blog. (Why didn't I see it before? Maybe I'm not spending enough time on the inernet? - No, that can't be it!) Anyway, I found a great tutorial for folding fabric there and I had to start folding right away. It's so much fun and those little piles of folded fabric look so neat. There is still a lot of work ahead of me: once I'll be done folding I want to sort the fabric by color and after that will come the hardest part - I've got to find a place where I can stash it. Until now all my fabric was in two big metal Ikea boxes and looking for something in them always meant a big mess. I don't want that no more. Here's the start. Once I'm finished I'll take more pictures.
Look what I got! First a letter from Sweden, from my dear friend who's visiting her parents for almost four long weeks! (Johanna, it's time to come home now!) A Swedish copy-book with Maja on the cover (I just found out she's called Nicky in America?), Norwegian Tilda Paper Craft Stickers and some cute K & Company brads.
And then even another gift from the sister of Johanna. Liberty fabric! Thank you Sofia. It's gorgeous!

Being busy... with other stuff!

I don't find much time for sewing these days, so therefore I decided to show another bag I made a while ago (and haven't posted yet!). It's a fairly small one - I think the smallest I've made so far, but big enough to hold the essentials. Lacking a nice string at that time, I used a shoe lace instead. A couple of weeks ago I finally found what I was looking for and so by now it got replaced.
This weekend I will definately spend some time sewing... and I don't think it's going to be clothes!

Dolls!

About two years ago, when a friend of mine was pregnant, I was searching on the internet for "Waldorf Dolls". That's when I came about the website Puppenwiege and found the most lovely handemade dolls I'd seen so far. Unfortunately it is not easy to actually get one of them and so I decided last summer to follow Michele's recommendation and tried to make a simple version myself. (I found really helpful instructions in this (German) book.) I had so much fun making the very first doll (the one in the top right corner) and was so very fond of her that I decided to keep her to myself and make another one for that soon to come baby of my friend. You can't see that in the picture, but my doll has no legs, she is sort of in a sleeping bag. I decided to try one with legs and after that one was done, it looked so completely different from the first that I wanted to see what would come out after that. In the end I made four more dolls - all of them very unique in their character. After my friend's baby was born and a couple of weeks old, we let her "choose" one of the dolls. She decided on the very soft one in pink (without the pig tails). The rest of the group found nice places as well.
After being so successful at my first tries, I wanted to make a "real" and bigger doll, too. One you could put clothes on, one without a stitched on night-cap, one with hair. Let me tell you that that was a real desaster. I was not happy with the body of the doll, but was determined to keep finishing it and I spent hours on stitching on the hair! The result was so ugly, that the poor thing ended up in the garbage.
If I ever make another doll it will certainly be one like the ones above.

Not so great!

This morning I found my fabric unoccupied and got started on my top. I had bought this Simplicity pattern after I had seen it here. I'm not really a skirt person and unfortunately I'm definately not a dress person, but I liked the pattern for the top and the possibility to choose different styles for the sleeves.

Except for a little trouble with the elastic everything went quite smoothly. Trying this top on was much nicer than the last time. You could say that it fits in general. There are parts of it that I really like (the part you can see above) and there are parts that I'm not so happy with (the fitting around my waist and hip). I think for a while I'm through with sewing clothes for myself... (except for maybe another skirt or two).
Making bags, pillow cases, a.s.o. or sewing clothes for other people is so much more rewarding for me right now and leaves me feeling way more satisfied.

Still: Maybe someone can recommend a good book on how to adjust patterns to personal needs? I feel a little helpless here... Going on a diet would probably do, too. Argh!

Fabric lover!

That's what Juri is! I bought those fabrics today, put them on the table and just minutes later he decided they should be his. Hmmh, I wanted to start sewing, but I can't disturb him now, can I? He's too cute. I love him… more than fabric.

New bag... for me!

I saw a bag similar to this in Linen & Cotton vol. 2 (ISBN 4529042618), one of my favorite Japanese magazines. There is obviously nothing complicated or even special to the pattern, but that was exactly what appealed to me. I decided to use some of my precious Lecien fabric (that's not so easy to get around here!) and added a fabric flower (the instructions for it are also in that Linen & Cotton issue).I made this bag a couple of weeks ago and when it was finished I found it a bit too small. I usually would have wanted to be able to put in a folder and a couple of books. So for a while I put it in my closet. But now my last term at the university is over and for a while I won't have to carry around folders and books, so I got it back out and now it's my brand new summer bag!

Charlotta's!

Charlotta's is the place where I get almost all of my fabric. It simply is my favorite place to shop. Eventhough she has a great online shop I prefer to visit her store in Hamburg. It's just so lovely to look at all of those beautiful fabrics in reality. I usually spend hours there and since the shop is fairly small that doesn't go without being noticed. I just can't help it.
Lucky for me the shop is NOT right around the corner, because I always end up spending much more money than I intended to. (And to save some of you some money: I think I should tell you that right now there is no shipping outside Germany...if I'm not mistaken.)
(Projects I made using fabric I bought at Charlotta's.)

Btw: I just found out that there's a blog that belongs to Charlotta's.

Getting yourself something nice!

Before I started my own blog in the end of May I was already out there discovering the blogosphere and that's when I also found out about those fantastic MOO MiniCards. I fell in love with them right away and had to get some at once. Since I didn't have 100 pictures of things I hade made by then I chose some of my other favorite pictures. So now I have a variety of very differnt cards and one of them fits any occasion.
Now here are the big news for me: Yesterday I discovered Julie's wonderful blog Little Cotton Rabbits and the first thing I saw there was the MOO StickerBook. Julie posted her brand new sticker book with the most stunning pictures of all times and I, again, am in love. By now I already have ordered my first set and I think there will be many more to come. Also I spent some time on Julies great blog. She makes the most adorable knitted toys and cakes… I think I'll head over there now and spend some more time!

Alrighty...

So I made a top from my beloved Liberty fabric. The pattern was super easy. It's from burda Modemagazin 7/2007. I made some changes to it, because it was supposed to have a knot in the back and I didn't want that. My sewing machine worked fine for the jersey fabric. (Darn, so now I don't have to buy a serger!) Of course I still managed to mess something up and then had to cut out another sleeve, but I didn't expect it any other way. In the end it looked perfectly fine and I proudly tried to put it on and... it's too small! I'm really disappointed now, because there is no way I can wear it without looking ridiculous and I don't think I'll have enough fabric for another one. I don't know why this happened. I did measure myself before deciding on a size. It was supposed to be tight, but this is way too tight. Oh well...

Instant satisfaction!

It's so hot around here I can't get myself to do any sewing. Well, almost no sewing. Doing some applique on two more shirts from H&M was fun and it's so nice to get a cute looking result in an instant. By now you can probably tell that I really like that striped fabric, can't you? I don't always plan on using it, but it matches so many different fabrics that I just can't seem to stop adding it to my projects. And guess what! I still have quite a bit of it.

Now or never!

Yesterday I made a skirt for myself. I know I said that there wouldn't be any sewing that week, but then all of a sudden it got so hot here. After weeks of rain they promised us three days of summer and I thought if I don't sew myself a skirt right now, it will not happen this year at all. The pattern I used is the same as usual, eventhough I bought this great Japanese magazine that has 27 beautiful skirt patterns in it and I would have loved to make one of those. I simply thought that it should be something quick and easy. Probably most of the skirts in the magazine are quick and easy… for someone who has a bit more experience with sewing clothes. I find the instructions in the Japanese magazines usually really good to understand, but with the skirts I will need some time to figure it out...
Anyway, eventhough I didn't choose a pattern from the magazine I still added some handsewn detail to my skirt after getting inspired by this picture (can you actually see it?):
Edited to upload a bigger picture of the magazine page.
Edited yet again... and still no better view of the picture!

Nothing new!

I think this week I will definately not be able to do any sewing, so I decided to show you something "old", that I haven't blogged yet. It's a patchwork bag I made after I found this tutorial. It's a great tutorial and so easy to follow. I liked this example of the Japanese craft book Machine Made Patchwork so much that I bought the book and I'm glad I did: Lots of nice ideas! Thanks for sharing creative little daisy!

Finally...

... I took some pictures of the skirts. First up is a detail of the blue skirt. I added a little flag to the side. You can see it on the second picture too, if you look closely but the hydrangea sort of blends into it. This is the skirt that I'll send to a very special and extremely generous person very soon. Next up is the second skirt for my mom. It's a bit shorter than the other one. I have to say again how much I like the pattern (it is this one by the way) but I also have to say that getting the zipper in the right way wasn't so easy after all. The first time I did that I must have been just lucky. Well, it's not really difficult but I had some trouble with the blue skirt ... and I didn't even notice it until I was done. Then I saw (or should I say got told by my boyfriend (!)), that the ends of the zipper didn't match up. I had to undo all my finishing seams and start over. Argh!

As I said a picture of the third skirt will have to wait a while but then again... it looks just like the other ones - except for its color!

Won't sit still!

This little girl simply will not hold still for a second! I took about 40 pictures and then finally gave up. I must say that the kerchief could still need some improvement... Maybe some day.

Still no pictures of the skirts, because I don't feel too well. One of the skirts will travel to Sweden with his new owner for about four weeks, so a picture of that one will have to wait for a while.
I guess that's it for today.

Lots of stuff!

What's that? I couldn't tell by the picture myself... It's a kerchief! I finally gave it another try and it looks just like the one my friend bought so I'm pretty sure it will fit the little girl. We will see that for sure on Tuesday though. Oh well, I'm a bit exited and must definately try to take nice pictures then. Below is a picture with the very same girl wearing my birdy shirt. I had to take the picture inside and didn't want to use a flash. Also the little girl was very busy sorting some cards. The result? Could have been better, but she still looks extremely cute, doesn't she?
The kerchief will match this shirt and now that I have a pattern of my own I will make some more pretty soon. If you look closely (on the first picture that is) you can see that I added two darts to the sides, which give the triangle a better shape.

This weekend I've been really busy. Apart from the kerchief I made three more skirts. One more for my mom, one for my friend and then another one, which will be a present for someone special. (Oh, I hope she likes it!) Mine will follow some day... I can't show pictures yet because I didn't have a model.
The next couple of days I will probably not be able to sew because there are so many other things to do, but we'll see if I manage to squeeze in some time anyway!

Hourglass Pillow!

When I was sewing the skirt yesterday, I messed up while cutting the fabric. I didn't realize at first that it wasn't pure cotton but also partly synthetic, which made it a bit elastic. Therefore the direction to put on the pattern mattered. Of course I had already cut out one piece before I noticed that. It's really stupid, because if I hadn't made this mistake I would have probably been able to make two skirts out of the fabric, but since I had already thought about making a pillow with the berry fabric I decided to use that piece for that and will still have some left for other small projects.
I used the Amy Butler pattern for an hourglass pillow which can be downloaded here. It's a great pattern but I think that the instructions are a bit detailed. The pillow is so easy to make and the instruction scare you of at first - at least that's what they did to me. Anyway, I like how the pillow looks and I got to make fabric covered buttons, something I wanted to do for a long time.

Next up: the kerchiefs I've be planning to do now for quite a while and another skirt...

Did you notice? I can add a link - and a nice one, too! (Okay, alright, everybody can do that.)

First Skirt!

When I was writing about the berry fabric yesterday I suddenly knew that I wanted to make the skirt right away. It's the first skirt I made and also the first piece of clothes with a zipper and I'm very pleased with the result. It fits my mom perfectly and I wish that making a skirt for me will be just as simple, but I'm sure that it will be a lot more difficult since I can't compare the pattern to a skirt that fits me well before getting started - I don't have one!
(Next to my mom you can see my cat Mücke (mosquito), he sure likes to be in the centre of attention!)

Lucky me!

Look, what I got! A couple of weeks ago I got this beautiful fabric from the sister of my friend. She bought it on a trip to Berlin. It's a real big piece and I think I can make a lot of things out of it. It has a very nice and soft texture and at the moment I'm thinking that pillow cases would look extremely good. And so would probably skirts!

But guess what! That ain't all. Last Saturday I got another beautiful piece of fabric from her. It's a vintage Liberty print! I am still very exited about that, because I had seen so many nice Liberty fabrics on other blogs and was a little jealous. When I finally found some at the KaDeWe in Berlin I wanted to buy loads of it... until I saw the prices. And now I got this! It is jersey fabric and I will have to go and look for a nice pattern for a top. I already have something in mind and I hope I'll find something that matches my idea. Until now I have not made anything from jersey and I sure hope me and my sewing machine will be able to work with it. Otherwise it's just one more reason to finally get a serger. (I want one badly anway!)

Thank you so much, Sofia! You are wonderful!

Pants!

I finished the little pants (size 9M / Gr. 74) for the baby boy of my friend. The fabric is a linen and cotton mix and will hopefully make the boy feel comfortably cool during hot summer days. Eventhough this is now the 6th pair of trousers I made, I still managed to get confused with the instructions at first. Maybe that's because there is always quite a bit of time inbetween sewing the next pair and there are always so many new things that I keep trying out. Anyway in the end i figured it out again.Now I'm going to pack it up and send it to my friend straight away. I know she is waiting for it. We couldn't decide on a fabric at first but now I think we made the right choice and it was worth taking the time.