Computer Problems......

.... kept me those last few days away from the sewing machine. It's all working more or less again, at least I can post and upload, etc. again.

In the meantime a definite deadline came up for my Burda trenchcoat to be finished. It's dragging on to long as it is anyway. I learned a major thing with this experience: Never ever will I cut out pieces for a pattern I'm not going to sew up immediately!

Well, this is not keeping me doing something inbetween, though!

Big fat Virus-wormy-thingamy

I'm running on a crippled computer now for a couple of days. I got myself a virus, not a completely bad one, but bad enough to lengthen the responding time to hours and scanning the hard drive takes days......
So no sewing done for a couple of days, just sitting in front of this dam....d thing.
But, since it is running on one leg at least I started 'tidying' up my hard drive and came across some costumes and stuff I made a few years ago. I'll put it all up on my older Flickr account, if you want to have a look.

New Blog for June Capsule Contest

I decided to keep the the making of the items for the June Capsule Contest (JCC) seperate from this blog, like I did for the 'Paris-goes-Aachen Challenge'.

If your interested you'll find it here: June Capsule Contest 2008

Burda Summer Trenchcoat 02/2007-103 ... baby steps

5 30-minute podcasts later (well, I'm slow worker!) I managed to cover 17 medium size buttons and 8 small ones, just to realise that I actually need 16 small buttons and 9 medium ones! So much for reading instructions properly. I have to re-arrange them now, which is actually not too bad - in fact, I like it now even better.

The poly-taffeta gave me little bit of a headache when covering the buttons. The fabric is very stiff and even though the self-covering buttons are those with the little hooks on the inside, the fabric wouldn't 'hang on to them'.











I decided then to use the gathering method. Not cutting the fabric on the advised circumference but about 3mm outside, I gathered the fabric along side the original line. It really got awkward with the fabric when drawing it together and knotting it, to keep it secure in the inside before clipping on the backing. Because it's so stiff, it opened up before I could knot it properly. I finally made a loop at the end of the thread and threaded the other side through it when finished gathered it - pulled it together and it stayed!








On the left button you can see, that it is not as neat as I would like to have it, but on the right side, I eventually got there.

Now, after all the little things are out of the way I can finally start putting the coat together. I'll treat the outer fabric (the poly-taffeta) and the lining as one fabric, which means I have to baste them together. This also provides some support for the pockets and belt loops.

'Waffle' and pictures and no work done....

Since I was away for over a week I fully made use of Bloggers (finally!) new feature to schedule posts.
Taking with me the latest two dresses I made I got compliments wherever I went - even from strangers! This is very encouraging and of course satisfying and made me proud going back to the sewing machine again.
I even got the perfect (at least for me) sandals/open heel shoes(??) for the brown dress with the pink flowers in TK Maxx.













I got quite lucky a few times, but it's always a hit or miss in TK Maxx. This time it was a hit, maybe because I didn't intend to look for something specifically. Those shoes are last season, but who cares! Not me anyway - and with an original price tag of 221 Euro I couldn't afford them anyway, wouldn't even think of spending this kind of money. BTW, my friend finds them disgusting with the bow 'thing-a-me' on top and the 'clunky' heel/plateau - just shows you that you can't argue about taste. I love them, there are very comfortable to wear, they are the perfect colour for some other items, too and in case the bow comes off, I wear them plain.

Regarding the two tone silk fabric I found a couple of days before I left for the June Capsule Challenge over on the Stitcher's Guild, on the tag it only says 100% silk, but no specification regarding the weaving, etc. No use to ask the sales assistant and even though they are fabulously helpful, friendly and kind to their customers, they often haven't a clue what they're selling - which in itself is a shame. The fabric is not doupioni but still has those slubs (??) which are characteristic for doupioni. I had a look at the fabric descriptions for silk on Fabrics.net and it's not Tussah silk, nor silk linen so I think it's silk shantung.

Just a word to the sewing habits here in Ireland. Except for wedding attire (brides dress, brides maid and flower girl dresses) sewing as a hobby is quite extinct, which of course reflects in the choice of fabrics you get in the few (very few indeed) surviving fabric shops. But for the last few years, with the very high influx of Eastern Europeans, especially from Poland and Russia, I have the feeling that the 'sewing scene' got a bit of a revival. Even when I'm in the shop I never fail to hear foreign tongues, which I find absolutely great (Well strictly speaking, I'm a foreigner myself). I bet that the fabric shops yearly revenue increased somewhat and maybe it will reflect on the choice of fabric they will offer in the future. It just would be great!

JCC - Story Board Ideas

Here are some preliminary ideas for the JCC over at the Stitcher's Guild.
I dug into my stash and also found some nice silk on sale at my local fabric shop.
More details in my next post!

June Capsule Contest (JCC) - Planning Stage

Over at the Stitcher's Guild Elizabeth (ejvc) announced a capsule contest and since I never was able (and not for the next few year will be) to participate in the big yearly SWAP written out by Timmelfabric and my last contest didn't go that well, I decided to participate in this one.

The contest doesn't start until the 1st of June and lasts until the 30th, so there is plenty of time getting fabric, patterns, making decisions, etc., etc.

The Rules in short are: (either one of these)
four items + 1 accessory, all made in June or
three items + 1 accessory, all made in June, +1 item made earlier or
two items + 1 accessory, all made in June, +1 item made earlier, + 1 item purchased or
three items, all made in June, +1 item made earlier, + 1 accessory purchased

and most of all - no black or black-background fabric!

I have already some ideas for the 3 items, the accessory and the item which was made earlier! Well, not hard to guess what the item is I made earlier (meaning it probably has to be finished by the 31st of May to be qualified as 'earlier') ......
.... it's the Burda 2/2007 summer trenchcoat!

Burda Summer Trenchcoat 02/2007-103

I'm finally managed to start with The Coat. I now know why I didn't want to go near it for so long! The 'small pieces' like pockets, pocket flaps, collar, epaulets, loop, belt loop, sleeve bars, front facings and the back flap took me almost one day to do.
Don't get me wrong - I love the coat - but all the little bits and pieces are very labour intensive and by now I just want to have it over and done with.
Unfortunately, 15 smaller buttons and 9 large buttons are waiting to be covered and a lot of button holes to be stitched.

I'm so grateful to Tany, because she did all the work before with a great lot of details of the progress!
That saved me loads of headache - so thank you Tany! Check out her beautiful trench coat!

I took a lot of her advice but also did my own thing. What you can see here are the pocket corners. Usually there are done separately, fabric and lining, but I decided to do them together. It might turn out to be too bulky to top-stitch to the coat front, so we'll see.