I wasn't here because I was there - beach dress and shorts

*** don't expect much sewing related stuff, because, well, SUMMER ***

THERE being BBK Live in Bilbao.

BBK Live is a 3-day festival in Bilbao. We only went the first day and we saw Editors, Depeche Mode and Biffy Clyro -the fact that the latter sing in an adorable Scottish accent doesn't hurt, neither does the fact that they almost always have no shirt on and they look like genuine badboys. (All links go to recordings of their performances on BBK Live) 

3 bands that are absolutely a must-see! And combine great music with a beautiful scenery -the festival grounds are set on top of a mountain overlooking the city centre of Bilbao, sporting a great view of the Guggenheim Museum- and you have a spectacular summer outing...

But I'm not just mentioning the festival because I had a lot of FUN there -Kalimotxo anyone? Trust me, it tastes better than it sounds- I also wore a Me-Made dress.

*** Warning *** There are NO serious pictures of this dress, just pictures of me having fun...

I won't go into too much details about the dress. It's a jersey dress that came together easily, made from a fabric I had in my stash since my London fabric-binge last year, that always was destined to become a summer dress. The pattern is from Knipmode, a Dutch sewing magazine, from a special knits-only issue.

Picture with the least 'dance' moves involved

 

On the front bodice there are five pleats that give the dress an interesting detail.  The hem is unfinished. I asked my husband to cut the dress to the desired length and that was it. I did try to hem it, but couldn't get a straight cut, so called in my helper. If you look closely, you can see he never paid much attention in pre-school, because the cuts are really jagged, but I'll leave it as is, because the hem has the tendency to curl, so it's not really obvious...

THERE also being the Pyrenees in the Spanish Comunity of Aragón.

We went for 4 days to the mountains, and it was breathtakingly beautiful! 

We didn't just hang out by the lake, we also went for a walk in the National Park of Ordesa and Monte Perdido. There are a lot of possible walks there, but we decided on the 14k-walk (7 one way) that goes past a few impressive waterfalls and through a forest of beeches. 

Ever seen a tree grow out of a rock?

 WATERFALLS!

I have always found a rainbow in a waterfall something magical.

And for the sewing part of the journey? 

I made shorts a few weeks ago with summer in mind. I made the pattern before, in a winter version. It is Burda 05/2012/#121A. The fabric comes from the tiniest fabric store in Corales de Buelna, a very small town -if you can even call it that- here in Cantabria. The fabric is a sheer yellow gingham cotton. I used leftovers from Ward's dressy shirt for the facings and the pockets. I added the folds at the hem because I felt the short was too long, they are intended as beach shorts. Because the fabric is so sheer, you really see the facings, which has a really ugly effect... If I ever make them again (and I probably will, I like the shape of the pants) I'll make a full lining, change the in-seam pockets for sew-on pockets and relocate the zipper to the side seam.

These pictures don't focus on the shorts and that's ok, because nothing can beat nature when it comes to awesomeness...

Talking to a tree?

And THERE also being my own town, where the Semana Grande began yesterday. 10 days of music, food, drinks, street animation and other activities - huge fireworks on the beach 24th of July and an ABBA cover band 25th of July amongst other things.

Opening ceremony in front of Townhall

Fireworks in broad daylight? Must be Spain! (Love it!)

Next time there will be more sewing stuff, but one has to know how to prioritize... And right now that is enjoying summer with my family and friends. And watch the live footage of the enthronement of the new Belgian King Phillipe tomorrow.

Do you guys have any fun things planned for summer? How do they celebrate summer where you live?

Indie Pattern Month 2013 - Deer and Doe Bleuet

I finished this dress the last day of June, but haven't been able to get pictures before, blame it on an urgent desire to go to the beach.

This dress is the Bleuet from Deer and Doe, and I love it. I am so so so happy with it! Finally a shirt-dress that actually suits me. I have tried several before in different stores, but something was always off, but not with this one!

The bow in the back is really cute.

I got the fabric on our trip to La Coruña last month, and I am in love with it. I had been looking for a small flower print for a very long time, and finally I came across this beauty. I knew immediately that it was meant for my Bleuet.

I found a great tutorial on photoshopping your fabric to your pattern by Mel from The Curious Kiwi, and just for the fun of it, I tried it out. It's such great fun. You can find the tutorial for Photoshop here and the tutorial for Gimp here.

See, I knew beforehand this dress was going to be great!

I had the buttons covered in my local haberdashery store, I didn't feel like messing around with those DIY-kits for 15 buttons, and they were only 70 cents each, so I was glad to outsource that task...

I'll definitely make this again, but I'll overcome my vanity and cut a size larger, this one is rather tight...

Nothing more to say about this dress, just enjoy the pictures.

 The sun is finally here, so off to the beach again it is! And don't forget: wear sunscreen!

XO

A whole lot of firsts...

... and not everything is sewing related (but most of it is), so if you're only here to see what me and Aline made together, just watch the first photos and then move on to the next post in your blogroll, if you want to know what's next, just read on... I promise there is some fun stuff at the end...

Last time I was here, I left you all with a very intriguing question about my plans for the future and a picture of Taylor Lautner. Does that boy have a nice set of abs and some shiny white teeth, not to mention a nice belly-button. Who cares about winning an Oscar for your acting if you have all that going on...

Carolyn was spot on with guessing that I might be making a shirt. I feel like she deserves a prize for that... Maybe I will. I'll definitely brainstorm about it... Maybe I'll definitely do it.

She made shirts too, she made 2 shirts, one for each of her sons, you should check it out!

Due to a lack of a 20-year old son, I made a shirt for my husband.

Two weeks from now, we are going to a wedding and he's best man to the groom for the ceremony at city hall, another friend is best man for the ceremony in the church. Every male participant in the bridal party is required to wear the same -rented- suit. I hope Ward's suit fits, because we're flying in the day before the wedding and so his suit is ordered and "made to measure" based on the measurements of his own wedding suit. If that's not a recipe for suit-disaster, I don't know what is... But he really looks good in a suit. Don't believe me? See for yourself!

Yes, this is on our wedding day

He is supposed to provide his own white shirt. A white shirt looks great under a grey tuxedo but is there anything more boring and plain than a white shirt? I think not.

So, to make Ward feel a little bit more stylish and to add a bit of personality to his atire of the day, I made him a dress shirt. We went to Bilbao -again- to our favorite fabric store and bought a really lovely 100% cotton satin. It was great to work with, has a nice weight and a really pretty, but not to obvious, shine.

I chose Vogue 8889, a pattern with 3 variations on the package, but if you want to, you can make that four, just add pleats to view A...

I went for this pattern because of the pleated detail on the front, side front and back seams, hidden buttons and because the sleeves have a placket. All ingredients you need to whip up a nice shirt.

Before cutting I measured my husband again. I do that everytime I make something for him, to get him to take his shirt off just to be sure. It's probably my favorite step in the entire process of making something for him.

Just kidding... NOT!

Turns out that guy comes right out of the pattern-envelope. A perfect size 36! I would like to say a perfect everything, but I'm afraid you might run away from all the cheesiness...

So now on to the firsts related to this shirt.

Pleats were not a first for me, I already made a dress with pleats so I knew I had nothing to fear.

Pleats are great! They look classy but are really easy, just like me. Just kidding, for real this time!

 

What was a first for me were the flat felled seams. I thought this was quite a risk because of the importance of this shirt. But, I didn't mess a single one up... Yeay, job well done!

Caution - this photo of a white shirt taken with flash may permanently damage your eyes

I did make a mistake whilst flat felling the sleeve and side seams. I sewed the first row of stitches with the wrong sides together and it wasn't until after I was done with both sides that I googled the correct way to do this. Turns out if you want to flat fell sleeve seams you have to put them right sides together, but then you have to fuss about with the sleeve to make it pass under the machine without stitching through the other side of the sleeve. So I decided not to unpick the side seams and flat felled those suckers by hand...

That took me about 2 hours, but I think that unpicking and redoing the whole thing would take just as much time, if not more, and then the fabric would look really manhandled because pins leave markings on this fabric, so imagine what unpicking two entire seams would look like... From hand-made to home-made instantly. NOT what I'm going for here...

Another really exciting first was that I discovered how to attach buttons with my machine... It takes just as long as doing it by hand (to be honest, it takes longer) but it's a matter of principle. If Aline can do it, than I'm sure as hell not going to!

In the middle of making this shirt, my iron suddenly started to steam rust stains. Panic mode was activated and a new iron was bought. For those who are interested, it is a Rowenta, made in Germany (manufactured in the EU is a very important consideration in our purchases), gets really hot really fast and has nice steam. And it's really pretty because there are Gingko leaves printed on the outside... Gingko trees are my favorite trees, so it was meant to be...

So here is the final result. He wasn't really happy with the Taylor Lautner-pose I made him do, but hey, if you want me to make you a shirt, that's the price you have to pay...

And just to give you an idea of how it looks all buttoned up:

Now on to other firsts...

* My first Deer and Doe patterns arrived. The Bleuet dress and the Airelle blouse. All that is in my way of starting on them, is the pair of shorts that I already cut out last week... Can't wait! They include English instructions now, so no more google translating! And in the meantime, I saw a really pretty Datura-blouse made by Rachel.

* My first PaperCut Patterns arrived. The Rite of Spring shorts and the Watson cape. I thought about making the shorts first, but since someone said there isn't going to be any summer in Spain this year, I might get started on the cape first (I think they might be right, because up until 3 days ago I was still wearing my winter coat).

Let me tell you, these patterns look really great. A lot of thought went into the packaging as well, and I love the fact that everything is made of recycled paper. Yeay!

* I knitted a scarf. I wanted a faux-fur scarf to wear to before-mentioned wedding because the weather in Belgium can be a little unpredictable. I stumbled into a yarn-shop and saw the most amazing thing... Fur yarn. Just really hairy yarn and if you knit it, it looks like fur. It's great! So that's what I did. Pictures will be posted when the wedding is over.

* I made jewelry. I don't consider myself very handy when it comes to things like that, but I was looking for accessories for -again- that wedding. I could seem to find anything I really liked RTW, so I went to a shop where they sell beads and threads and earpins and God knows what else, and bought everything I need to make my own necklace and earrings. It's work in progress but it's almost done. All I need to finish is a bit of superglue.

I'm not really crazy about the whole skull trend, but it was the only bead that was black and glittery, and I really wanted a bead to match my shoes. Is that irational and exagerated? I think not...

*** Update *** Husband-dear didn't like the necklace I made and sent me out to buy one we saw in Zara... But I'm still going to wear the earrings.

* I made curtains. It's not the first time I did this, in our old house I made curtains for the kitchen and the hallway, but they're the first curtains I made for our new house and a lot more are to follow, so it counts as a first. I still have to hem them, but the shirt was deemed more important... 

* For the first time since we've moved to Spain almost two years ago, my husband and I went away alone without our son. I instantly named it our Romantic Lovefest. That's because Ward's parents are visiting for a whole month and they didn't mind playing babysitter while I tagged along on a work-trip to A Coruña. I will tell you more about this later, but let me just leave you a picture of my Flamingo-dress in action, and Holy Mother of Jesus, did those Flamingos get some action!

Yes, I am doing what you think I'm doing...

While we're at it, let me show you another one of my creations in action:

Give Buddha some sweet lovin' baby!

Yes, we are crazy like that.

XO

Indie Pattern Month 2013 - and some finished Indie Pattern House Slippers

Mel and Kat decided to declare June 'Indie Pattern Month' to show them our love. A lot of love is already being thrown to all those great Indie Pattern companies, but a whole lotta love never killed anybody.

Just click the badge in the sidebar to go to the sign-up page.

I decided to jump on the wagon, because I have just completed 3 Colette Patterns and I loved them! The little booklets are just such a joy to look at, and the care and love and dedication that goes into these patterns just oozes right of the pages. I like the patterns of the big patternmakers too, but there is a lot less personality in their endproduct, and thus less attraction for the consumer.

Confession time: I am a pattern-hoarder in the making - I am working on my collection. I love patterns even more than fabric. Don't know why, I just do.

Let me show you my pattern and sewing bookcollection:

 That is an orange-crate full of books and patterns and a big binder full of internet-patterns and tutorials. 10 years ago I inherited cardboard boxes full of sewing magazines like Burda, but I donated all those to my sewing class teacher because I was still living with my parents and my mom didn't like all those boxes lying around...

And these are my Indie-patterns, very few but also a collection in the making, including 2 books by Belgian Sew-Heroins - Allemaal Rokjes (Just Skirts) by Mme ZsaZsa and Stof voor Durf-het-Zelvers (Fabric for DIY'ers - Dare it Yourself'ers).

And I have more on my harddrive, but that's too hard to show...

Patterns that I don't have but would love to own:

Papercut Watson Jacket      **** JUST GOT THESE****
Colette's Crepe
Deer and Doe Bleuet - that and everything else they sell
Sewaholic Thurlow Trousers
StyleARC Pippa's Dress  - I would be happy with Pippa's backside too.
Papercut Rite of Spring Shorts - I guess I would need Pippa's backside for this first     ***JUST GOT THESE TOO (the pattern, not the butt)***
Victory Patterns Simone   

And then some...

I already finished my pledged work: House Slippers!

I went from THIS - these look like smurfboots:

to THIS

I made Kimono House Slippers from IThinkSew.
Made from remnants in my scrap pile, so they were kind of free... Yay!
Mine don't look nearly as put together as those on the website (maybe I should press them?), but hey, they're house slippers, so who cares anyway, right?!

Now for the most important question: are they comfortable? Not really... I need to insert an elastic band in the heel section because they fall off when I walk, the inlay-soles are really uncomfortable because they shift around so I will be stitching those down or just leave them out entirely. They do seem to be more wearable without the soles.
I like the fact that they are made of cotton, which is huge progress compared to the polyester fur that lines my old slippers... Sweaty feet, anyone?
These new slippers will make for great sewing slippers! I'm already used to wearing them!


Oh no, what is happening here?

The new slippers are approaching their enemies

 

And kick their butts!

And now on to the next project... Here is a tip:

Source

Is it a six-pack, blinding, shining white teeth, being a cover model or being a teenage idol that I aspire? What could it possibly be?