BurdaStyle Book

Last May I received an email from BurdaStyle. Imagine the excitement when (after reading the email a few times) I realized that I was chosen to contribute to their very first book. It felt like a dream. They asked me to make some sketches based on their designs and give some fabric and colour suggestions. The fabric came in July and I started sewing. I sent them the finished product, and after almost a year here's the first glimpse of the book. It will be published in November, but you can already pre order it right here.

My bag is on the cover!

I'm so happy to be a part of this and I can't wait to see everyone else's contributions. It's nice to be amongst so many talented members. Thank you, BurdaStyle, for giving me such a wonderful opportunity!

My week in pictures #25

My first sewing machine

Recently my parents were tidying up the attic and found this:

My first sewing machine. Mum used to sew for me and my dolls, and of course - I wanted to sew, too. :) And since mum's sewing machine wasn't appropriate for a little girl, I got a sewing machine for kids, probably for my birthday. Unfortunately, neither mum nor dad remember how old I was then. Although I do remember the machine, I don't remember sewing anything special. I guess I was just playing and stitching scraps of fabric. :)

Source: http://www.howstuffworks.com/sewing-machine1.htm

It's a chain stitch sewing machine and it works on batteries. Except that it doesn't work. The looping hook doesn't catch a thread from the needle and therefore no loop is created. It looks like the needle thread turns so that the hook can't grab it. Any idea how to fix this? Does anyone own something similar?

Summer

First day of summer went by so quickly and I made the best of it. I took my little cousin to our cottage and took some pictures of her in the dress I sewed recently. The dress is made using a pattern from burda style 6/2010 but it could easily be made with a top as a template and two rectangles for the skirt.

 

I also made her swimming panties. They turned out so lovely.

What were you doing on the first summer day?

My week in pictures #24

Working and relaxing at our cottage

Watching total lunar eclipse 15/6/2011

Almost done sewing my jacket

Inspiration: dark blue

It's already kind of obvious, but anyway. I adore clothes in dark blue.

 From left to right: Temperley London, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Sessun, French Connection 

Gotta get back to sewing. I want the jacket to be finished by Sunday. :)

Sewing a jacket

This is my latest project in the making. I made a coat half a year ago so this time it'll be much easier. Again, I'm using burda style pattern for petits. It's the front page design of 1/2011 issue. Did anyone make this one already?

Machine applique tutorial

I was making bibs lately and thinking of ways to embellish them. I decided to go with machine applique an also made a tutorial for you.

1. Draw your design (letters, objects, animals, ...) on a piece of paper and cut it.

 2. Pin the paper pieces onto the fabric that you are going to use for applique.

3. Cut.

4. Place the design onto the finished project. Hand-baste it with a contrasting rayon thread.

5. Stitch the design close to the edges with a straight stitch to secure it. Topstitch with a satin stitch - a very short and wide zig-zag stich - covering the straight stitch and edges of the design. I used 3 mm width.

6. Remove the basting thread.

Sewing for tiny humans

I have sewn a lot for babies/children lately. For this suit I used patterns from burda style 3/2011, however I made a shirt instead of a jacket. Very easy and quick made. I just had to add the elephant buttons, they're so cute!

 

Do you know of any good patterns for babies?

Inspiration: Marie Antoinette movie

Even though the story is interesting and fun, the movie is worth watching merely for it's mise en scene and gorgeous costumography. I love pastel shades and overall style.

 

 

Tips for sewing Lycra

There are more types of Lycra available. Most common are cotton Lycra and nylon Lycra. While cotton Lycra is matte, nylon Lycra is shiny and usually used for bathing suits. Although Lycra is very stretchy, it's easy to sew. I wrote some tips that might help you.

Use

• 70/10 (lightweight) or 75/11 (mediumweight Lycra) ball point or stretch needles
• quality polyester thread
• standard presser foot
• fine and sharp pins to avoid damaging the fabric; pin carefully

Cutting

• preshrinking isn't necessary for nylon Lycra
• lay out the pattern so that the greatest stretch goes around the body, regardless the straight grain indicated on the pattern
• you can either pin your pattern to the fabric and cut it with sharp scissors
• or place the pattern on the fabric and cut it with a rotary cutter

Sewing

• first, try some stitches on a test piece of fabric and also try stitching the elastic
• joining the fabric: use 4 mm wide and 1.5 mm long zig-zag stitich, machine "overlock stitch", or 4-thread overlock on the overlock machine
• if stitches tear when the seam is stretched, loosen the top thread tension until it's fine
• don't stretch the fabric while sewing, except when necessary (when you must stretch the elastic; then stretch it equally both in front and in the back of the sewing foot)
• attaching the raw rubber elastic: use 4 mm wide and 4 mm long zig-zag stitch or 4-thread coverlock - left side of the stitch should pierce the elastic and the right should just encase it
• if elastic sticks to the presser foot, powder it with a bit of talc or baby powder, or sew it with the elastic against the feed dogs
• topstitching the elastic: use 3-4 mm wide and 1.5-3 mm long (whatever you like the most), a triple zig-zag stitch, 3 mm long twin needle stitch with woolly nylon hand-wrapped on bobbin, or a coverlock stitch

! Pattern instructions correction

A really kind fellow blogger Zanda pointed out a typing mistake in the pdf file. I'm really sorry!

This is correct:

In the spotlight!

In BlogHer's spotlight, actually! I was amazed, when they contacted me with a request for featuring my ring pincushion tutorial!

Also, my bathing suit tutorial is:

This week is really full of surprises! Incredible! I'm so happy. :) Thank you for all your support!