31 augustus 2014

I guess this is my comeback then. Rejoice!


*drumroll*






















Hello friends! It's me!

This blogging break lasted longer than I wanted/expected it to. The boyfriend and me moved into a new place, and this, combined with me working loads of extra hours at work meant I spent most of my spare time unpacking and organizing! The new appartment is amazing though. Our first place together was a bit of a necessary evil: it was a basement level, dark and quite damp, but it was large enough for the both of us and our work and we needed to make a decision. Now we have the two top floors of a gorgeous building (wooden floors!), a little balcony and loads of windows and light. I even have my own sewing/drawing room! Expect some pictures when things are somewhat in place.






















Now, let's talk about sewing! This was sort of an emergency dress I made right before we moved, back when there was still a summer going on... Temperatures were really high all of a sudden, and the part of the store I work in doesn't have air conditioning. I looked at my wardrobe and figured out I needed something very lightweight and loose to survive!























This fabric is a very soft and drapey viscose knit I got from Wanderlust fabrics. That's right people, I made something in a knit! And it only took me three fours (making the pattern included!). Sewing knits is nowhere near as scary as I used to think it was, but for some reason I still prefer working with wovens. For this dress, I simply traced the shape of a tank top I already owned onto pattern paper, lengthened it and did some math for the bindings. It could have used a bit more length but I stop caring when it's hot and it's fine with tights...























I reinforced the hem with fusible seam tape, then just turned it under once and stitched it down with a zig-zag stitch. It has enough flare so it doesn't really have to be stretchy!

Something I'm really happy about is how the bindings turned out. I don't remember exactly how the calculations went but the finished strips ended up around 15% shorter than the holes they were meant to bind. I stitched all the seams in the garment, stitched the short ends of the binding together and folded it, aligned the raw edge with the raw edge of the garment, stretched and sewed. The edges were then topstitched down with a straight stitch, again because I didn't really feel they had to stretch!























Here's me being all smug about sewing a dress in three hours and moving into a nicer place. We see that building in the background from our balcony, by the way! It's like the town hall, but for the city district we live in now, so not really a town hall if that makes sense (does anyone know the proper term for this in English?).

I'm currently organizing my workspace and hoping to get sewing and working again soon! In the meantime, enjoy this picture of me ruling over my minions. Or, more exact, ruling over one pigeon. He didn't really listen to me so I wasn't exactly ruling over him though.