Circle Skirt Web Version

Hier is a version of the tutorial for the blog, so you could read it without downloading. I will add the pdf as soon as I wrap my head around the tuts out there how to do it. I am a lazy slow thinker in my spare time. I've earned it.


To start off you will need a quadratic piece of fabric (or paper if you want to do the pattern first. You do need to fold it then). The 1/2 of the side length can only be an orientation about your final skirt length,  but  you may think of it in terms of about 15 cm shorter.
You will need a piece of elastic that is long enough to lay around your waist comfortably (not to tight) and long enough for you to put it on. I always find the best way is just to measure it directly on you.

Further you will need a waistband piece wide  enough to fit your elastic band, but actually as wide as your waistband iron on interfacing. It should also be long enough to fit you at your hips widest point plus added seam allawonce (SA).
Off course you’ll  need some thread as well.

Next Step is to fold your fabric as shown on the diagram. Once around the middle axis and than the folded piece again around the middle.
It is very easy but sometimes one needs time to figure out the easiest of things. So thats why the
pictures.

As you may remember or not from school there is this π = 3.14 (pi).  It is a constant value of the relation of  circles perimeter to its diameter (they are a couple, you know).
Now you ‘ll never forget that bad joke.
So now think of your hips (HM = Hip Measuerement) as a circle with a perimeter value.  Measure that value.  Since this tutorial is about making a circle skirt without a zipper you should measure at your widest hips point to be sure you will be able to put the skirt on later.

Now that you calculated the radius you can use it to draw it as your center circle on the folded piece of fabric or your piece of paper. It will be easier for you, if you fix the fabric with some pins or baste it bevor you start. 

Draw on the double folded corner. Start drawing the calculated radius using the corner as a center. After you are finished you can use the end points to draw the circle. 

Use the same techique to draw your skirt edge. Tape measure is handy at that point couse it is longer than most ruler...

So just cut along the drawn lines. When unfold you have the pattern piece.

If you want a half circle skirt you just have to fold twice and than double your HM in order to get the inner circle twice larger (cause you folded twice instead of four times). Then proceed by calculating the radius and drawing as described. Probably cheaper to make 2 piece pattern though, rather than one.

Cheers.

For how to sew togehter read the next post.

Circle Skirt

You know right now I am all for simple and quick patterns. I do not have any time at all actually. Sewing time is lost sleeping time. So instant gratification and a quick, please, not too much thinking involving stuff is the one I love.


On the other side I know well when Oona wrote she is not that much in love with cheap fabric any more. I was thinking this is something that happens to everyone who is getting more advanced in sewing. The excitement of I''ve made this bag all alone! is wearing off a bit and one starts to be more critical. Like "Now I want something that HM don't have for less that my fabric cost!". And "I want that my time spent on it to really pay off" (I don't mean the occasional wadder - it is part of the process).

So virtual dialog over I think that this kind of transformation happend to me like two years ago when I got obsessed with silk. I will scan shops and Ebay on cheap silk (buying full price is no fun) and be really euphoric when I happen to get some. Honestly I am more of collecting it since I mostly don't dare making it into a garment being afraid not to ruin it. Since I have my little baby girl I am even worst. Few weeks ago I cleaned my stash (never enough storage space here somehow) and threw away everything that is pure or mostly poly.

It felt liberating. But that is maybe mostly cause there is less fabric needed to be sewn. No time you know.

Hmmmmm, honestly I am still buying fabric, so there is actually not less fabric to be sewn.

Anyway.

I will post the pattern tutorial first and a sew together next. There might be some spelling mistakes in the tutorial I will have to check them later and than I will make a pdf too. Still if you download the image it is readable.

The pillow cases

I have some baby stuff I intend to post, but right now I fill like the pillow post.

I have done some baby sewing for K lately with the intention of making a Dawanda  -Etsy- toddler baby-cloths-shops (long phrase, ah?). Lets see when this project will happen... 


I am not particularly far kind of doing the same leggings with skirt pattern all the time. I want to get it really neat and test different colours. She already has four of them. And then friends twins had their third birthday and I made them really girly versions I forgot to photograph and must ask for photos of. These were soo large with 116 sizing and I didn't had a leggings pattern. So it took too much precious evening time completing. 
Now I've written unintentionally too much already about the baby stuff, so here one out of fokus photo: 

More in the next post.



So maybe you are thinking " aaah? what was that with the pillow post?". Yes. I really needed to do something fun and chic. And I wanted some new covers for three sofa pillows. The last ones are absolutely formless unintelligible blobs made 4 days before birth in a last minute frenzy:

Hehe. Ugly.

I have some scraps left of this cool ikea fabric I've made the living room curtains of.

So I thought I will cut some animals out and make them some nice triangulated landscape to dwell in.

I drew directly on the fabric and stitched it immediately on.

The finished product (and there is some thread I didn't clean up for the  photo...):

I feel I went a step to far. It might be too much with the straight lines for the leaves. Maybe I will be undoing them. Not quite sure.

Anyway I think next there will be some wolf howling at the moon and some rendeer in conifer landscape. But I will probably first make a paper drawing. Might be smarter.

Changes

I've been gone for soo long.
I know.
I can't even handle blogger quite right now. It has changed since the last time I've used it or I have just forgotten.
So but that is not the biggest change in my life and the reason I wasn't posting for such a long period. The reason is here:

                                                                           Kalina around 2 months old

This reason is quite a big girl already and is eating Müsli right now next to me. Eating is actually the wrong term - painting will be more like it. Or a study about the inherent potential of the müsliness not related to eating.

She was born on 21.02.2011:

  

Kalina around 10 months old

                                                       

 Kalina around 13 months old

I had tough pregnancy working full time and walking to work through snow and rain. I did a lot of stuff for her before she was born, but I never posted it, since time was an issue.

After she was born it was a lot tougher than I ever imagined. Probably even first time parents with pessimistic touch and great imagination are getting hit in the face by the reality of it at first. She used to cry for hours the first months with me carrying her around the whole time. It was crazy.

Later on we had a longer period where she was waking almost every hour in the night and I was tired as hell. Right now we are almost OK. She still wakes 1-3 times in the night but she is so much easier to take care of. I am even able to do some sewing with her playing next to me or sitting on my lap and trying to push every available button.

With all the difficulties of taking care of a small baby and later a toddler - every day still is so precious with our little crazy. She is so unbelievably funny and perfect. I am just amazed most of the time and miss her even if I am away for half an hour.

I will try writing on the blog a bit more next. I saw a lot of requests for the patterns I've made. I will try to put them on the blog next, but first I will have to find them...

So lets see if I manage to post more often!

Just for Info

I just bought another pair - the shop was on my way. It is more of a everyday pair. The leather is soo soft. It was really cheap. Like 80% off and around 30 eu! I should never go to this shop again...

Funny Backstage Fact: Matthieu was looking at the blog to check my new shoes. His words:
" Oh god, I hate them (the blue ones). And I hate the new background of your photos. It is sooo 80s. Oh Geri! This animal print dress, so awful!". There you go...
I must say I laughed so much. You may see how strong our friendship is - even a major taste clash cannot becloud it. He even walk the street down with me every now and then...

Actually his more tactful way to say stuff like this is :"Oh. This are definitely Geri shoes."

Go buy the shoes!

So there is a small info for everybody who is so lucky to live in Berlin!

I just passed by a shoe shop (Next to the bookshop on the corner of Schönhauser Allee and Shivelbeiner Straße - it is almost directly at the U2 Schönhauser Allee subway station) that had a total sale and I spent quite a lot of time there. They have pretty italian shoes marked down 80% and I seriously considered 2 pairs but kept it to one. I am still suffering though.

They had some boots even marked down to 30 euro so it is a diverse choice. I just have no need for boots right now.

Just for info originally they costed 270 euro and I got them for 58.

And again

I think this one is the last tunic based dress for now. I have mixed feeling about it. I still haven't put buttons on it and haven't worn it yet.

The fabric is a beautiful 40% silk 60% cotton voile. I really loved it and it makes me a bit unhappy I don't like the final result. The problem is that I tried to do the dress very carefully but did 2 major mistakes due to my absentmindness...

I put the left sleeve on the right and the other way round... It ended in the front sleeve curve being sewn into the back bodice curve. I noticed it when it was too late and now the sleeves are bending weirdly sometimes...

And the skirt of the dress is a bit to bell shaped. But I don't know which way it will look OK. All in all I feel it is somehow too old for me and I have no idea how to fix it. Maybe I should make it short as a blouse or make the skirt tighter. But somehow I don't imagine it working...

Black Pants and almost last Tunic

I know it is a bit weird the mass production of this tunics I made. There are few parameters coming together that triggered it.
First I think it is a really nice pattern - basic, comfy but tre chic.
Second I am constantly out on tracing paper and just use the already retraced patterns.
Third I am too lazy to retrace new patterns.
And there is even a Forth - I am getting better and quickert each time I sew it again!
The fabric is a cotton plaid that I got from the alfatex online shop.

The fabric is the same as the previous pants - 100% fine wool suiting in black. I got for 1.5 euro per meter as a 3 meter remnant piece in Alfatex. All in the pants cost me 5 euro and the fabric is a better quality as the most you get on ready made clothes. But off course it is a bit of a different account if you count my 6-7 work hours that totally went on this project.

The pants are a very nice shaped pattern with a slim fit. Means you always look good in this kind of cut. I will definetely sew them again. I couldn't find a link to the model on burdafashion. But it is Mod. Nr. 130 von Burda 05/ 2009.

Its a beautiful issue and I am still planing to do this emerald grean jacket:

And all the dresses are just perfect.

Black Baggy Pants

The same pattern as the gray baggy pants. The orignal is the 112 von Burda 06/2009. While doing this pair I made some changes. I made the legs long and narrow. At the same time I added one more pleat at the waist to make them even more baggier. The result needs some getting used to. But the positive thing is that you can always grow into this pants...
The fabric is a very fine black 100 % wool suiting. I got a rest 3 meter piece of it and made 2 pants. The other one is coming soon ;).

Tunic 3?

I think this is the third tunic? Or the second? I don't remember exactly. Fact is I used again the the Burdafashion pattern:



It is 120 from the 02/2009 issue. The changes I made by all tunic are putting elastic on the sides at the waist. The other thing is bottom is finished with a placket.

The fabric is a nice paisley patterned silk I got from Ebay some time ago. I actually didn't like it at he beginning cause I thought it looks a bit old. That was the reason I wanted to give to my mother. But she got a bit annoyed I want to pass things I see as old to her...
At the end I ended loving the final result. Silk is soo nice to wear!

Snake Dress

So snake print indeed. But I must say it is a mutant print - imagine it on an animal with both snake and leopard ancestors. And the photo you see it on is black and white. So.
I bought the fabric on Ebay. It was sold to me as a silk, but it is more of a cotton mix if you ask me. Anyway it feels like a natural fibre and it falls nicely.
I made the pattern myself roughly based on the Burda tunic pattern I made like a 2 million times (I still have to post 2 more of this). It is meant as a muslin for a nice dark blue crepe de chine silk I own.
Inspiration was a Gucci dress I saw in a window on the Friedrichstrasse in Berlin.


And than a photo of a small comfy project. This overall can be worn just as pants too. Next time the photo.

Nude Dress

Oh je. I have sewn so much, but I haven't posted in ages again. The real problem actually is my camera. I get always soo depressed with it. I need a new one soon.

So after I complained about it again I can post some clothes. First a jersey dress I made in 3-4 hours. Very easy, made out of my basic knit sloper. I will try to make a tutorial soon.

Funny Backstage Fact: I am totally horrified by snakes. It is a real phobia. But I really hate to have it, so I am trying to beat it all the time. The result is a snake print obsession. This leggings were love at first sight and a chance for a free therapy. Indeed the first time I wore them I couldn't look at my legs. Now it is all ok, so maybe I will try the terrarium next.