The Rosy Dress

This dress was actually finished the night before my trip to Austria, but I didn’t have the chance to take the photos earlier than today, either due to the lack of time or weather conditions – it started raining heavily the moment I thought of taking the photos and it happened a few days in a row!

The dress is Vogue 8849, view B.

As usual, it was the fabric that caught my attention. It is stretch cotton and I got it at the local fabric shop. If anyone is interested, it is also available online here. Anyone who would like to go the easy way and just buy a dress made of the same fabric, can do it here.

As the instructions demand, the bodice is boned at the front and side seams. I used Rigilene boning and sewed it to the seam allowances of the lining. The dress is fully lined.

The pattern itself is relatively easy to sew, but as almost always with the Big 4 patterns, I had to take in quite a lot in the bodice part, although I cut my regular size 12 according to the measurement chart.

The lace trimming is my own addition, just felt like the dress needed it!

I did face a big problem with the dress, though. My lining fabric has no elasticity while the main fabric is stretch. I ignored this obvious problem until I reached the point where I realized it will not get me far – the lining was so tight that it simply didn’t come over my hips while the dress itself fit well.

After some brainstorming I decided to add a triangular piece of black lace to the back center seam of the lining and although it is still really tight, I can wear the dress now. It is not the most orthodox solution, but I refused to rip the whole dress apart at that point and if I didn’t mention it here, no one would know anyway!

I am planning to wear the dress with my red heels, but since a lot of my shoes (especially summer shoes) are still in Athens, I had no choice but to take the photos with the blue ones.

When it comes to Athens, the news is that me and my fiancé finally broke up. The relationship did not endure the stress due to the current situation in Greece and the distance after I moved to Estonia.

It is not exactly good news, but I have given it a lot of thought and for a number of reasons I think maybe it was the best solution in the end.

I still have a bunch of good friends in Greece and hopefully I will visit Athens sooner or later again.

All the best to you all!

Lucky in Austria

Hey there!

I just got back from the most enjoyable week in Austria!

Hard to choose what to start with, because I had an amazing time, spent three days for sightseeing and art galleries in Vienna, visited Salzburg and Linz and also some of the most beautiful little villages as I went cycling. In addition to all that, there was some serious fabric shopping, plus “regular shopping” and shoe shopping! Sounds like too good to be true, I know. I am still going through the photos and find it hard to believe it happened to me

It felt nice in Austria, because although Estonia is really flat (the highest point is 318 m above sea level), the plants and trees and the greenery reminded me of Estonia very much. The mountains were just a breathtaking addition!

A few photos of the beautiful country, before getting to the main point – the fabric shops!

I had prepared myself with the necessary addresses for fabric shopping and because I didn`t want to totally lose it, decided to go for the famous Komolka in Vienna and Anton Baumgartner in Linz. I did have some insider info as well…

So, Komolka in Vienna is one of the shops (there are at least two in Vienna) that sells fabrics often used for Burda magazine creations.

The shop took my breath away at first. It is two floors of heavily fabric-stuffed space and the great thing is that they have something for everyone – from cheap offerings starting from 7€/m up to seriously expensive silk and lace (over 100€/m). I have never seen so many types of silk fabric before and also the lace is just unbelievable.

It was hard to decide what to leave and what to take, because also in the affordable price range there were so many beautiful fabrics.

After a lot of thinking I decided to get a dressful of intense green pique and enough of stretch sateen in bold print for a skirt.

A few days later I had a similar overwhelming feeling at Anton Baumgartner in Linz. What I especially liked about this shop is that they have marked the fabrics that have been used in Burda magazines and I could spot several of them even before seeing the marking.

The price range here was a bit narrower, starting with 15€/m for fun cotton prints and ending also at around 100 €/m for some silks, but I would say most of the fabrics were at around 25-70€/m.

Anyone recognize the shiny zig-zag print jersey? It is the fabric used in Burda May 2013 issue for this dress:

Unfortunately they had only 1.5 m of it left, and the dress requires 1.70, so I either have to pick a different pattern of make the top version of the pattern.

Another fabric I couldn´t resist was a synthetic Burberry printtaffetta that instantly gave me some ideas of how to use it, so of course I couldn´t leave it there!

And as I was strolling around the streets in Linz, I came across this little dress:

It is the Just Cavalli dress that I was lucky enough to find the fabric for it in Helsinki! I went into the shop and checked the dress out and I guess I will more or less copy the original because it is the best way to show the really loud and original fabric.

Close ups from the fabrics I got will be here ASAP too, but that’s it folks for tonight!

AN UPDATE – here are the close-ups, finally!

 

Lucky in Helsinki

I had a great chance to spend the last weekend in Helsinki, the capital of Finland that is only 80 km from Tallinn by sea. The funny part is that I must be one of the few Estonians who, nearly at the age of 30 haven’t really visited the city yet. I mean, I had passed by Helsinki on my way to a volleyball competition once and also waited for my next flight at the airport, but never saw the city itself.

The whole trip was a short getaway, including my first ever ice hockey match (USA vs Austria) as the city is hosting the world championship in ice hockey these days, some sightseeing, a sleepover at a 4-star former prison and of course… fabric shopping!

I had looked up a few possible shops to visit, but the time was pressing on, especially because the smaller shops are closed on Sundays, so I ended up visiting only Eurokangas, a fabric shop chain in Finland that has a shop in the center of the city and was thus easy to access.

I loved the shop! The best surprise was the reasonable pricing, especially in comparison to Estonian fabric shops that charge around 20 EUR/m for a simple ponte jersey fabric, while exactly the same quality costs 10 in Helsinki and around 8 in Athens.

To tell the truth, as a true fabric shopoholic, I could have left the shop with at least 10 fabrics, because I loved their selection, but I tried really hard and concentrated on the very special stuff.

This is what I got:

It is a Roberto Cavalli fabric, a heavyish-feeling polyester jersey. There were a few prints available, but this was my favourite.

The best part is that the price was a mere 20 EUR/m and they also had 20% off everything the time I visited the shop! So 2 meters (the print step is 1 m) of the fabric cost me 30 EUR only!

And this is what Roberto himself made of the fabric:

Because of the heavy print, this is pretty similar to what I had in mind when I found the fabric – short and simple. I was only imagining a higher neckline.

The dress costs 345 EUR and can be seen (and bought)  here among other beautiful things.

The trip was totally worth it and not only because of the fabric, I liked the city itself as well. I will definitely go to Helsinki again since this can be done as quickly as in one day from Estonia and in addition to great fabric choices, they also sell sewing magazines like La Mia Boutique, Patrones etc. Of course, the prices are higher than in Italy or Spain respectively, but at least they are in reach!

Happy sewing everyone!

Out Of The Closet: Taffeta Stripe Dress

When I saw this striped polyester tafetta fabric on a trip to Estonia back in 2010, the perfect pattern for it immediately popped up in my mind – Burda Easy Fashion spring/summer 2009 dress. This particular magazine is one of my absolute favourites since I would still like to make most of the models in it. There are two versions of this dress in the magazine, one of them with a bow belt:

This is my fabric:

And this is my dress:

My dear friend Tiina, who is a photographer (her works can be seen here), took the photos of the dress and we had a full session, playing around with different accessories:

I enjoyed sewing this dress very much, the pattern has a great fit, no alterations whatsoever were needed. The only downside was that the fabric is not very forgiving – once the seam is sewed, the stitch marks stay and if you need to pick the seam, the marks cannot be removed by pressing or anything. On my dress, they are visible on one of the side seams of the skirt, but in order to notice this you have to look for it, so I am not letting myself be bothered by it.

Because this project was my very first using a fabric with stripes, the bodice and skirt stripes do not match up. It didn´t even occur to me to check it until the dress was nearly completed But as all of the “Out Of The Closet” items that I am showing you are the first I made after a break of several years in sewing (and prior to that I was a teenage sewist, not paying too much attention to anything, I didn´t even press the garment while in process!), it taught me a valuable lesson. Because of this mistake, I only wear the dress with a belt, so that the discontinuity of the stripes doesn´t strike the eye.

The Easy Fashion also suggests sewing a tulle petticoat, but I didn´t since I am happy with the puffiness of the skirt the way it is.

Although the dress was finished in 2010, I wore it for the first time in February 2012, for the reception of the Independence Day of Estonia at King Georges hotel, organized by the Estonian Embassy in Athens. It is a very nice tradition to invite all the local Estonians and I attended every time. The tradition continued this year as well, but as some readers already know, I am currently in Estonia and couldn’t participate. Here is a photo from February 2012:

And last but not least, two close ups:

Chain Print Blouse

A while ago I showed you my favourites from Patrones 318, among them the following blouse, model 16:

I liked it, but at the same time thought that it would be slightly boring to make. That was until I found a fabric that immediately brought this pattern to my mind.

At first I wanted to be ready with the project by my colleague’s birthday party, but traditionally was short of time and finished the last buttonholes and sewing the buttons the day after the party. This is the result:

As there are no darts and no princess seams, this blouse was really easy to make. Once again a pattern from Patrones fits me perfectly, I cut my usual Patrones size 42. Due to the simplicity of the project and the type of the fabric, I decided to give French seams a try. It does require some extra work, but I really like the result. The garment looks very tidy from outside as well as inside. Here is a good tutorial that gave me assurance for finishing the armholes with the same technique.

The hardest part was the buttonholes. Not because I wouldn’t know how to use my sewing machine, but I was hoping to finish right before the party, started to rush and as a result messed up a few times.

The skirt I am wearing is from summer, more details here.

I also tried to style the blouse for a more casual look. I am not really sure about the 70′s style jeans, but decide for yourself.

As you can see from the photos, the sun is really intense. We have had some really nice days here in Estonia, I can feel spring approaching and the days are longer and longer. It is nice to wake up and see the sun rising. The darkness of  November and December seems like a bad dream now.

Another piece of good news is that thanks to a tip from a cousin of mine, I got myself another sewing dummy! It is actually a decoration mannequin from a shop that is moving to new premises and they are selling their mannequins for 10 and 20 euros (20 for a tall stand). As normally they only sell clothes and accessories, I didn’t take the tip very seriously. Especially because although it is a chain of shops, the mannequins were allegedly for sale only in Narva, the easternmost town of Estonia, where the majority of inhabitants are Russians.

But a colleague of mine has an adventurous mind plus we have two curious Austrian students practicing in our hospital right now and they also got excited of the plan. So we basically drove more than 300 km to Narva and back to get the dummy. Of course we did a lot of sightseeing as well, but the whole idea started off the tip from my cousin.

A few photos of the trip here:

Palmse Manor

Narva

The dummy is a female shape in proportions of a Barbie doll. The waist circumference is 50 cm while the bust is nearly 90! But in order to photograph my projects it is just fine.

And finally, the shoes you see here are both Nine West, first the Pugnose, and secondly the Oh Dear wedges:

Princess Jasmine Pants

This being the longest winter after seven years of living on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, I could easily switch to summer right now. Instead, we have a wonderful winter weather today here in Estonia, very appropriate for our Independence Day.

And I have completed a pair of summer pants in anticipation of my favourite season in Estonia. I just felt I needed a change in the battle against my Stardust Coat that is still in process, although thankfully it looks promising already.

I hope to make an update on the process in near future, but for now, here are the Princess Jasmine Pants:

Now that I think of it, it is pretty funny that I made a Wilma Flintsone Dress in summer. Maybe while others draw their inspiration from the latest catwalks, mine subconsciously comes from cartoons?

The pattern is from Patrones No. 316, that I ordered a while ago because of some great jumpsuit patterns this issue contains. But I started with those baggy pants instead, just because I happened to have the suitable fabric in my stash. The fabric is some kind of cotton blend, quite lightweight and at first I thought to make it into a dress.

The pants are low-rise and really baggy, with six decorative metallic buttons in front and 3 at both ankle cuffs. There is an invisible zipper on the left hip and the pattern originally calls for pockets that I omitted. The pattern is model No 10 in Patrones No 316:

As I was cutting the pieces out, I realized that it was impossible to cut the legs in one piece because of the amount of fabric I had. After a lot of brainstorming I decided I can live with horizontal seams on the backside of the pant legs. In the end I even topstitched the connecting seams with pink thread to pretend that it was intentional. This gave me the idea to topstitch in the first place. I was thinking to use the traditional thick orange thread used for  jeans topstitching but then changed my mind and went with a bit unconventional pink.

I love the buttons I found, although the twelve of them cost me more than the fabric and other notions together! They come in silver as well and you will probably see the silver version on a certain coat soon

I am quite proud of lining the sides up so well, but not so proud of the pink zipper slightly showing, although it is invisible. I just couldn’t resist using a pink zipper as I wanted the zipper pull to add to the pink topstitching. With a good ironing though, the zipper shows much less, so I am going to keep it as it is.

It is marked as “costura facil”, meaning it is an easy pattern to sew and I quite agree. The reason why it took me longer than it should have, is that I used bias tape (pink!) to finish all the seam allowances and lately I only sew in the weekends.

As with my Patrones shorts, the fit is very good, I cut Patrones size 42 and I didn’t have to make any major alterations to the pattern. Although I don’t exactly feel like a princess in them, I think I will enjoy wearing these easygoing pants very much this summer!

As nearly all my summer shoes are still in Athens, I have no shoes to show you today!  However, I don’t think I would match these pants with high heels as modeled in Patrones mag.

Happy sewing and Happy Independence Day to all Estonians!

One Lovely Blog/Very Inspiring Blogger Award

Hi there!

For many days already, I owe two ladies in the blogosphere a big thank you for rewarding me with the One Lovely Blog/Very Inspiring Blogger Award. The first was G. from Lin3arossa, followed by Red Point Tailor. Thank you!

I  know that some bloggers don’ t publish their awards and don’t participate in sharing random facts about themselves and at first I decided to keep it simple as well, until honingdesign (Thank you too!) nominated me once more.

I thought that as I felt  flattered and surprised by being nominated, why not spread the positive feelings by participating and nominating others too? The funny thing is that as I was indecisive about the whole thing, I had written a draft post right after the first nomination, but never got to publishing it. And in that nominee list of mine was honigdesign as well

The rules of the award:

• Thank the person who nominated you.
• Add The One Lovely Blog Award /The Very Inspiring Blogger Award to your post.
• Share 7 things about yourself.
• Pass the award to 10 nominees
• Include this set of rules.
• Inform your nominees by posting a comment on their blogs.

Hmm, 7 things about myself…. let me try.

1. I drink my coffee with lots of fresh milk, no sugar
2. I once wanted to become a doctor, but now I am happy being a physiotherapist
3. I love cycling, always did
4. In addition to my mother tongue Estonian, I have learned English, Greek, Russian, Spanish, German and some French. Currently I use the first four languages daily
5. I don´t like Coca Cola, but occasionally I take a sip from someone’s glass just to confirm that I still don’t like it
6. I love picking mushrooms and berries in Estonian forests in summer. So relaxing and rewarding!
7. I got my driving licence in Cyprus, where they drive on the left.

Now, the nominees, this is difficult, but nevertheless, this is my list:

Silk, Lace and Steel - a blog that is just starting up, but I have been keeping an eye on Jiulia’s creations on Burdastyle and love them all!

Jazz Couture

honigdesign

Jorth - I love the sewing and admire the knitting this lady does!

Allison. C Sewing Gallery

Catherine Daze´s blog

Vintage Girl

The Blue Gardenia

Sewingadicta - gotta love the blog for the amazing creativity as well as the sights of Gran Canaria – an island with a special place in my heart

I am naming only nine, I hope  this violation of rules will be forgiven.

Happy sewing everyone!