Thursday, September 13, 2012

Scout Woven Tee


Just a quick note!
I sewed Grainline Studio's Scout Woven Tee pattern with a very delicate silk fabric. This was an experimental sewing, to see how it looks on me when sewed with a flow-y light fabric. I think I like it very much! I'm usually not good at wearing blouses without darts, but I see great potential in this pattern now. I should have done the experiment earlier, I have to say.


By the way, you can be amused by the pocket, which you see on the right front of my tee. I saw the red sample in Grainline blog had a tiny pocket, and I thought it was lovely. I just regret that I wasn't sane enough to put it on the correct place when I was sewing it. I was struggling with the soft fabric and lost my mind. Of course it should have been put on the left. Pocket on the right, this is exactly
 The Offensively Glorious Sign of Handmade.

*sigh*

Have a very nice day!

Love,
yoshimi

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Denim pants

I made a pair of cropped pants.


The pattern is 09-2012-110A, from the September issue of Burdastyle magazine. (I bought it from BurdaStyle site as a PDF download pattern, because I love chopping patterns to bits and pieces but never like tracing.) The pattern is for something called "leather pants", but I used it with a heavy denim that was heavy as much as the ones for retailed authentic mens jeans. It contained 2% of PU, but didn't seem stretching more than any non-stretching material at all.

Since the pattern warned me to use the fabrics with a fair stretch, I was worried about the sizing before started, but it was actually OK. I even had to pinch an inch around the thigh to make the pants fit. I think it is a bit difficult to choose the right size for the individual stretch fabrics(leathers) for the pattern, but it doesn't stop me loving this pattern! If you are one of the people who wondered if the sample picture was kinda trying to hide something questionable by making the model keep jumping, I do tell you that they're lovely on a human who is committing other humane activity too. They have a distinctive shape, but not too much. I think they particularly look pretty with tunics/tops with big silhouette.



Today, my husband took me out for hunting a view of Mt Fuji. It was a lovely morning, but I completely forgot to jump for the pictures. It was too bad!

Love,
yoshimi

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pattern: BurdaStyle 09-2012-110A "Leather pants"
Sewn as instructions suggested except the execution of waistline. Attached a facing instead of applying a peter­sham ribbon on the waistline.
fabric: cotton/PU denim without a noticeable stretch, deep indigo color, raw denim
thick and stiff.
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Saturday, September 1, 2012

Nearly salvaged


Today let's begin with visualizing that she was frowning and sitting alone on her bed at the end of summer. She sighed and looked at the cardigan that she made a half year ago. It was made from lovely Missoni fabric. You can assume that she could use it lots of times in the last summer, but how many times in fact? The answer was no. No, it's incorrect, the answer was, less than lots of times. She wore it probably 2 times this year, if you really had to count how many times it was. She looked sad because she was aware that she wouldn't any longer love the slightly itchy cardigan for good but it was too difficult to ditch the garment because of her love for the fabric.

After a while, she seemed starting to think about refashioning. Then her face was loosened and now she looked slightly happier. Still, it didn't seem very easy to refashion with those small fabric pieces from such a small cardigan. Oh? Suddenly her face began shining and she was off to her sewing corner.

And after enthusiastic googling, bits of shopping, and some sewing, here you see two handmade camera bags in the recycled fabric. One of them is a test piece and the other is the improved one that is for actual use. Thanks for the complete rehearsal, she got a sturdy and well functioning camera bag, which may not be as good as the manufacturer's ones but is enough good for her camera. She spent so many hours in the local DIY store to find the best urethane sheets and other materials for the project, and things got more interesting day by day. She almost bought one from TAMRAC for disassembling and checking inside of the quality product to make her project perfect, but somehow she could avoid spending more money for mere destruction.

 I assume that she wouldn't dislike too much about the character of this cardigan as an actual defect, if it were a manufacturer's garment. It was just slightly itchy, she confessed to me. However, you have to know that some hobby sewists are short-tempered like this on own handmade. It was a disastrous failure for her to make the favorite fabric into a itchy cardigan for the bare shoulders. She regretted it. She has learnt a lesson too.

 Said that, let's look at the bright sides of this story, allowing her to live in the future. She got a couple of pretty wearings, a lovely camera bag, and some good memories from this experience. Maybe it's not that bad, after all.


Have a really happy day!

Love,
yoshimi



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fabrics: white heavy dupioni silk for home furnishing, recycled Missoni knit, white nylon fabric, and flower pattern nylon fabric for interior

other materials: urethane sheet/mat, polyester quilt padding, bottom plate for bag, nylon strap, zippers, metal rings, clasps etc.
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