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!

Berlin The Second

On my last day in Kassel I bought 2 fabrics. I am not quite sure what I will do with them, but the thing is they are somehow not typical for me. I was somewhat sick and feverish and I was stressed with all the packing. So I am quite eager to see what I will make of these, cause they are kind of a lunatic buy.
The first one is quite cute Swiss cotton. I like the colours and the print - reminds me of three eyed owls with five fingers...



The second one is something I never buy - a print corduroy. I just don't like printed corduroys. But I got seduced by the grey red combination and the print. I know I will never make pants out of this fabric - I hope I will never do... I still have mixed feelings - sometimes my personal repulsion against printed corduroy (I like it on others though) breaks the surface and in the next moment I am lulled by the print and colours again. It will be an interesting project...
You should enlarge the images to see the print.


So today Berlin images are of the Karl Marx Allee - a huge street with huge buildings (very cool and hip apartments nowadays) previously in east Berlin. In the back you can see the TV tower on Alexander Platz (square). Is indeed only 10 minutes walk from here. Or biking - everybody owns a bike in Berlin.





And I promised to put Matthieus book shelf in this post - he just built it himself! The images from above are taken from his place in Berlin.

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.

Berlin, Berlin, wir fahren nach Berlin!

Tomorrow I am off to Berlin! I will stay there for a week and then fly to Sofia for 3 weeks to visit my family. So I thought I will shoot the final images of the cape and the leg-of-a-mutton dress (I know I still haven't told you what decision I took on the neck line!) there. Could be fun, cause I guess a lot of you were never there - it is one of the coolest cities in Europe!
I will see which projects I can start there. Guess some stuff for my niece and nephews will definitely happen.
So in the mean time - a dress I made some time ago but was again a bit lazy to hem it - it was winter outside anyway. The pattern I used is the Celestina dress from burdastyle, but changed the sleeves and made it out of a two side jersey fabric - the silver belt is the back side. I omitted the zipper and the bow at the back. I think I made the neck line larger too. Maybe a bit too large.



Somehow I managed to wash it wrong this week - so it shrunk (shrinking jersey is weird indeed...). I guess you can call it a tunic now... But I must say that the waist was too high in the pattern already.




Sorry for the blurry photos - when I was using the flash the "tunic" turned transparent. Guess no red carpet with this one ;).
Yet another funny backstage fact: I was reading the comments on my coat Elisabeth on the burdastyle site and somebody commented - talking in third person of me (I guess she didn't realise it is not an official pattern) : "She looks like a videogame character!" . I had to laugh so hard. This has some background - when I was at school and had similar hairdo my classmates were telling me I look like one of this Japanese mangas... So to all my friends, who know how much time I spent with my laptop and my programs and programming - I am getting more and more digital and the borders are getting blurry...

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...

Award

Paco awarded me with the excellent blog award- very exciting! Thank you so much, Paco, for all your support and advice since I started my blog. You've been the kindness itself!
I am supposed to give it to 10 other blogs, but I am quite new to blogging anyway and I can't decide so easily. I want to give it to all the blogs on my blogroll (check them out they are great blogs) and dedicate it to all the other sewing blogs I look at! You all keep me inspired and this is not a small thing and easy task, believe me.



Update: Thanks Ana Carina! I hope you will find your kitty!

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!

The pattern!

Coat Elisabeth Pattern

I drafted and uploaded the pattern at the end. Had to do a small battle with the print-at-home pdf. Till now I am winning but maybe it won't download or something and get its final revenge that way...
You must have a burdastyle account to download it, but the account is free anyway. They have a lot of other nice free patterns so that is great opportunity to join!
It is in my size - 36/38 in BWOF - I never graded something but here are some grading tutorials:

sleeves
bodice
lenghten
pants


Hm. There are no pants parts in this pattern, but I thought I may link it anyway. I think the principle is always the same.
A note to be made - the fit at the shoulder is so that you cannot wear a thick pullover underneath if you cut it in your measurements.
If you want to read all the posts on the coat - a sew along and instructions so to say - click the Coat Elisabeth tag on the right side.
In between I haven't done any sewing, cause I invested my sewing leisure time into the pattern preparation. But I managed to purchase some fabric and make a real bargain - even the selling lady was impressed. And that says something...
First a not-that-a-bargain-but-anyway-great fabric - it is a 100% wool linen. Never heard of this one before. It is called this way because of the weave art - the same as in linen. The fabric is very silky and smooth. It was on sale for 3.90 eu (19 eu before) and I will make high waisted wide legged pants out of it.




The real bargain was a luxurious men suit fabrics once in dark grey and once in anthracite for 1.99 the meter. It is 100% wool and drapes beautifully. I had to buy the whole pieces - they were remnants. I think I got like 3.20 of each. They will definitely become spring pants and maybe a jacket.





I love buying great fabrics on bargain.

I bought a ponge silk too (no idea what ponge silk is) but it looks like this and I will use it to underline the yellow dress.



Bye for now!

Leg of a Mutton Dress Start

Since I got frustrated with my silk issues (thanks all for the tips!) I wasn't sewing for more then a week. This weekend I thought I can take on my instant-gratification-easy-quick project. It is not finished yet.
So first the infos:
pattern: drafted after this how to. Thanks JJ!
time to draft the pattern: I think like 40 min - that is even a bit overdone.
cutting the pieces: like 20 min.
time to sew the pieces together: overall like 2 hours - I did it like three 30 min sessions.
cost: 2 euro for the knit on ebay. Thread I already had - the colour is almost the same as the ballerina dress. I love this colour. I have some boning which I will be maybe putting in - like 1.20 euro. I will use it according to this article to prevent the dress from riding up.

The cut pieces:



The dress so far - no hems and no boning.




The big question. I am not sure about the neckline. It feels to me that it is maybe to much to have a high neckline on a long dress with extra long sleeves. So square or high neckline?

Coat Elisabeth Final

I made some photos myself at the end just to finalize this one. I will put the pattern for download in few days and link it to this post.





I must say I wear it a lot and I love it. It is very comfortable and chic.
Here links to all the posts on doing this:

the elastic at the back
the triangular buttonholes
the sewing order
the fusing of the parts

So done it is...

Funny backstage fact: This fabric was meant to become Matthieus first self sewn coat. He was eager to do that and bought like 4 meters of the wool fabric. At some point this fabric in the back of his closet became a major dread to his self confidence and time schedule. He solved it by giving the fabric to me and feeling free again. I still have like 2 meter of it.

Update: I made a technical drawing using this template. Was fun. The collar looks a bit like a plant pot... Actually Matthieu said I look like a light bulb when I close the collar. I know, he can be so charming...