Glory! Glory! Alleluia!

The first Geri pattern was made! I couldn't imagine it is THAT exiting! Helene did it. And the Schelling (you can see the other photos there) is just perfect!
She did the rounded collar that I intended to do at the beginning but let go. I like it actually a lot - she did it a lot smaller than mine and that really helped. She changed the shoulder area at the back too. Works perfect to me!

Cape Dracula Final 5.6 ...

So I finally came around to finish this pattern. Pattern finishing is connected with some drawing and indication adding which makes it time consuming. And I have a bit of enough of my own pattern publishing for some time. It is a lot of fun but I am lazy.

Will relax by making some BWOF next or easy patterns that I don't draft in computer - I have a newborn appreciation for that!

You can download the pattern here. It is 38 BWOF size but it is quite easy to adapt since it has to fit only at the shoulders and you define the waist with the belt. You can just add your measurements there.

Some explanations to the pattern - all the additional pieces as lining, interfacing and facings are drawn in.

The lining:
(you can enlarge the images, the lines are drawn in the pdf)




The interfacing:
(forgot to put the back facing - it is interfaced too)




The facings:



The connections:




I have a thing for fancy diagrams...

P.S for Stephanie - the amount of fabric is around 1,5 meter.

Berlin The Last

So I am leaving Berlin for three weeks off to Sofia.
We made the final photos for the officially Transylvania approved (Laura, thanks!) Cape Dracula. Spring is starting here and we were


sitting in the sun at Engelsbecken. It is a large basin in Kreuzberg - a multicultural neighbourhood. So sun and so on, we wanted to take the pictures and Matthieu was trying to direct me so I am not standing as wooden as a tree around. At the same time the camera was running very low so the display was shutting down - he couldn't really see what he was photographing. It was throughout fun and the pictures are more dorky than informative...








The lining is a blue dotted knit. I wanted something soft and warmer against the skin. I didn't really put it very well in - I was already sick at this point and I couldn't concentrate so well but wanted to finish it. I actually like it more without the buttons - it looks chic, but I already did the buttonholes so couldn't go for snaps.


Then the last photos of Berlin. First the Schönhauser Allee and the metro.



A walk at the channel.



Waiting for a burger to happen to us at a night Kreuzberg.



And ending the post with some dorkiness again. The funny thing too is that the pub was called Bierhimmel (translated beer sky).



In the next post I will put the cape pattern!

First Post Berlin

The first post from Berlin.
I will start with the instructions to the cape. I started with sewing the shoulder seams together and then pressed them open carefully. This whole cape included a meticulous pressing with all my weight on the iron. Something like sport.

Click to enlarge.





Next step will be the collar sewing but for this more next.
Today Berlin images are Hamburger Bahnhof - if you translate it directly it means Hamburg's train station and indeed it was one before - the trains for Hamburg were starting there. Now it is Berlin's contemporary art museum. Berlin doesn't have the so often called modern art museum (MoMas of all art) - really contemporary city museum is this one. It is quite huge and similar to the Centre Pompidou in Paris - they have too much art for the space and there are changing exhibitions non stop. It is one of the first things I do when I go to Berlin to check what they are showing and the best part is that Thursday's afternoon is free entry!







You can indeed see a train station just from the doors of the museum. Is the new central station.

And again and again this cape...

The cape is almost done - I need to do the lining and some details but it is not that long.
First an image of the fusing - note that on a later stage I fused the whole back. I had to do it because it needed to be stiffer next to the sleeves. The silver stuff are organza stripes I used to reinforce the seams. I think you can do without, but I imagined the seams needed some stiffness too. I also used the organza to reinforce the puff sleeve - the large bat wings are pulling it a bit down.



Further on putting the pieces together in the next post.
Another change I did. Remember I cut the shoulders a bit narrow. It happened I couldn't live with it - I just wanted to fix things as far as I can so I added a piece at the shoulder. I actually like it as a detail. Happy ending...



So now to the collar. I took Paco's advice and I saw now a bit the one of Ana Carina's (is the same collar as the CE but without the pleats) - I made just a simple stand collar that can be folded down if I want it.






The cape without the belt and with the folded collar.



Funny backstage fact: As Matthieu saw this he said that it is too short and the sides are open and all at all it is not really practical. Hehe.

A Small Dracula Update

I've sewn the most of it together by now. I will show some details on the sewing with the next post.
Off course there are some issues here and there.

First the front - I had to add darts to give it a more shaped look. The flat front was working only for the softer muslin fabric (so I learnt not to take a fabric with a too different stiffness for the muslin with no respect how ugly it is). I left the end of the darts open and created some pleats that way. I like them. What I did as a general mistake is that I took a bit too much away from the shoulder - so they look a bit too narrow. But I can live with this. What I don't like is the collar. It is definitely too wide and I am not sure if the rounding is good for the overall look. I will add a stand but I am not sure if a pointed collar wouldn't work better. What do you think?



Here you can see better that a narrower and a bit higher collar works better with the puff sleeve. The collar in the previous image is just hiding the detail.





The back: The darts still need some fitting - it still a bit wide. I didn't fuse the whole back as I did with the front. I think I am going to fuse the back to add some stiffness to it.


So all together there is no major drama till now. Only the narrow shoulders maybe.

The Cape Story 2

So a small update on the cape.

The pattern after going through the shredder:



The shredder was me. As you see I took some width from the back. Then at the shoulder and off course the facings. The sleeve extensions ( my Dracula prosthesis - hm, I may call this cape Dracula) suffered most. I wanted it to drape more so it was made more circular. The small puff sleeve is not pictured - it was not changed at all! Matthieu doesn't like puff sleeves at all - I think he finds them too girly. Sometimes I try to picture myself how would I dress if I he would choose my cloths. No more leo print ballerinas and gold shoes, no more 80s reference and then all shades of brown... Oh, it scares me a bit! But on the other hand it could be fierce...

So the fashion fabric is cut. Remember it is navy wool with 10% alpaca and it is hairy. I love the hairs - they sparkle in the sun!

Ignore the seams in the photo - there aren't any. It is all pinned together. Next is some fusing time... I wish we had some Garment Fusing Service here too...

The Cape Story

So I thought I will take you along on the long way making my second self drafted pattern! It is actually an easy one. I must say in advance that I have drafted my sleeve, front bodice and back bodice slopers as basis anyway. But for this one you can take a jacket pattern as a start.

So this is what the first drafted pattern looks like. Front and back parts are similar to a jacket bodice only smaller in the width (they don't have to wrap the body all way around). There is the small puff sleeve and then the large sleeve of the cape connecting to the sides of the bodice. The collar is a rounded half-roll. May make a stand collar though? The rest are the facings.



So here is the pattern printed and laid on the fashion fabric so I can see if I have enough. I have plenty, thanks god (it wasn't really that a bargain fabric as I am always proud of - I think I paid 15 eu for it. Hmm still not bad!) ! I may make it a bit longer, or make a wide belt, or make an attachable hood. I think I like the belt idea most - I could make slits at the waist between bodice and sleeve so that one can pull the belt through.
You can see first changes on the pattern - the sleeve was not wide enough so I can move my arms...



Next step was to make a muslin out of a fabric I dearly hated. I got it in a package from ebay with the yellow dotted silk.
Funny backstage fact: I first though that the colours were awfully pale. I thought that for months! When I was cutting it I understood I was always looking at the wrong side of the fabric. It is like one of this IQ tests... So the colours on the right side are indeed OK, but it still looks like a tablecloth to me...
So currently I am checking the muslin. First thing - the pattern is too wide. The length at the shoulders is too much and I must work on the sleeve so it behaves the way I want it to!


You can enlarge the photos.
So I still have some work to do on this one. When the muslin works the way I want it I will mark the changes on the paper pattern and later I will redraft the pattern in my computer, so I can upload it again. It is quite a lot of fun uploading patterns - and I draft them for myself anyway...
I think this one is really easy to enlarge, since it has to fit mostly at the shoulder area.

I want to finish it till next weekend if I can.

I notice I didn't posted a photo of the grey-green jeans I made the tutorial of. Here is one. The are quite comfortable, but not as stretchy as the black one I made some time ago. The corduroy had 4% elastan. Same was written on the black fabric but they still behave differently. Mystery.
What I changed with this one, but maybe not so clear on the photograph is that they are longer and wider at the foot - like little foot trumpets. I like that. I can pull them over the shoes.




Buy for now!

Major projects of the next 2 months...

This are the 3 main projects of the next two months. I hope they will go smoothly. The first is the cape as I said in a previous post. So far I drew the pattern already - have to print it and do a muslin.
The fabric is a hairy wool with a 10 % alpaca in it. The colour is navy. It is quite thick so this maybe a problem.


I made a small dummy while drawing the pattern so I can imagine better how the parts work together. It is a funny piece - looks like a garment for a half a Barbie...



I don't know if you remember this - the 80s dress - I changed the pattern a bit. I will show you later on how and I bought a muslin fabric. It is again a shiny cotton I got for 1.99 eu so I don't care that much if I will make mistakes. Not that crazy about the print either but it may turn out nice.



Another project is this jacket which I baptise an Armour Jacket - due to the need of labelling the different projects... I am a bit bad on the naming thing.
I have this blue gardine - a polyester wool blend of good quality. I love the colour.


But actually I think the first thing I will make next will have to be an instant gratification project. Something to blow away my resent sewing frustration. I think it will be a pretty simple blue knit dress (still very cold here anyway) made after the leg of a mutton pattern made by JJ.