Stuck / Coincée

I'm stuck.

I have two sewing projects on the way and there is nothing much to show because it's not quite going the way I'd like them to be.

Above is a sweater refashion, where I just discovered I don't quite have enough material to work with and will have to find a workaround or bin the whole thing.

Bottom is a bag, the second muslin looks horrible nothing like the inspiration shot, I may have taken on more than I can chew.

I have to make lots of design decisions which I am not very inspired to take.

In the meantime, Ruth and I are working on the website redesign, it's starting to look swell. I've been streamlining my web presence, my feeble attempt at time management, goodbye Hellocoton, Linkedin, Kollabora and The Sew Weekly, hello Thread & Needles, Bloglovin' and Feedly, damn you Google Reader. I'm still on BurdaStyle and We Sew Retro and Facebook.

I signed up for Onswipe which is a really neat way to present your website, Twitter and Pinterest feeds on tablets all on one page. 

I know I'm procrastinating when I start tweaking code lines in Blogger. I'm not proud of it.

Choose your platform and stay tuned while I work this out.

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Je suis coincée.

J'ai deux projets en route et je n'ai pas grand chose à vous montrer parce que ça ne se passe pas comme j'aimerais.

Ci-haut, un pull que je recycle. Je viens de découvrir que je n'ai pas tout à fait assez de matière et je n'ai pas de solution, soit je trouve, soit je jette.

Ci-bas, c'est un sac. J'en suis au deuxième proto et c'est une horreur. J'ai peut être été trop ambitieuse?

J'ai donc plein de décision de design à prendre et je ne suis pas très, très inspirée.

Donc pendant ce temps, Ruth et moi travaillons sur le design du blog, ça commence à être joli. J'essaie de rationaliser ma présence numérique, je suis désolée je n'ai pas le temps pour tout le monde, au revoir Hellocoton, Linkedin, Kollabora, The Sew Weekly, bonjour Thread & Needles, Bloglovin' et Feedly, soit maudit Google Reader. J'ai gardé BurdaStyle et We Sew Retro et Facebook.

J'ai signé chez Onswipe, ça présente les flux du blog, de Twitter et de Pinterest sur une seule page si vous me lisez sur tablette, c'est très cool.

Quand je commence à trifouiller des lignes de code dans Blogger, je sais que je suis en train de remettre à demain ce que je pourrais faire maintenant, je n'en suis pas super fière.

Choisissez votre plate-forme et restez connectés pendant que je réfléchis.

Happy Feet

I have said in the past that I was going to buy some presser feet for my Baby Lock.

They are very expensive, over €50 a piece around here and I delayed the purchase, until I was asked if I could sew 47 tutus for Jr C's dance school's year end show. That's a lot of tutus and I thought "man I need some serious equipment if I want this to be painless", so I started to look around for a solution. 

I prayed the Peter Lappin God of eBay Auctions (he is so successful doing that), bid on a whole set of little feet and won. According to the package, I saved about $200. That's all good.

I'm very impressed with the cording, blind hem and elastic feet, I am amused by the ruffling foot. I'm not sure the beading foot will get used much. 

I'm really happy, I have another set of sturdy tools to unleash my creative juices.

Meanwhile, the dance teacher decided to rent the tutus... 

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J'ai déjà dit que j'allais acheter des pieds presseurs pour ma Baby Lock.

Ils sont très dispendieux, plus de €50 pièce dans cette contrée alors j'ai attendu, jusqu'à ce que la prof de danse de Jr C me demande si je pouvais coudre les 47 tutus du spectacle de fin d'année. Là je me suis dis : "il va me falloir de l'équipement sérieux si je veux faire ça sans peine" alors j'ai cherché une solution.

J'ai prié le Bon Dieu des Enchères eBay de Peter Lappin (il y a beaucoup de succès), j'ai misé et gagné une boîte pleine de petits pieds. D'après l'emballage, j'ai économisé $200. C'est bon ça!

Je suis très impressionnée par les pieds pour élastique, ourlet invisible et passepoil, amusée par le pied fronceur, mais pas du tout certaine d'utiliser celui pour perles et paillettes. 

Je suis très contente et me demande déjà ce que je vais créer avec mes nouveaux outils.

Pendant ce temps, le prof de danse a décidé de louer les tutus...

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The Fabric Exchange

This coat is still impossible to photograph!

It's all Rosy's fault again and it's another long story. 

I'll try to be brief because it's going to get in the way of the actual garment which I love very much. I did Rosy's New Girl's sewalong in December, Maider did too, I visited Maider's blog and really liked this sweatshirt pattern she tested, I bought the ENE pattern from Naii thinking I had the right fabric in stash, turns out I didn't have enough. Later on, Maider said she had plenty of the fabric she used to make the hoodie and would love to do a swap. She chose 3m of Madras languishing in my stash, she sent me the printed plaid wool/polyester fuzzy jersey and I set out to work.

The first thing I did was to redraft the hood. I didn't really like the 2 little horns the darts made on the top of the head so I copied a Helly Hansen polar fleece hood I really liked. It's a 3 pieces hood which is smaller and anatomically correct.

The second thing I did was to line it with a couple of old t-shirts because Maider said the fabric was scratchy and she was totally right. 

The third thing I did was to taper the sleeve.

The fourth thing I did was to use foldover elastic at the wrist, hem and hood instead of elastic bands. I first serged the lining and fleece together to facilitate the insertion.

Some notes about the pattern : The instructions are in Spanish, they are full of pictures and easy to follow. There are no markings, no notches, you have to make up your own. I really like the way the front pocket is built, it's more flattering than a standard kangaroo patch pocket. There is a version for nursing moms which is very cool and there is a package with a children pattern so you can make sweatshirts for your whole family for 8€. 

If I have any misgivings, nothing to write home about really unless you are picky, they are about the sleeve heads and armholes which are the same front and back and they bunch up a little. I may correct that if I make that top again. 

 

This is a successful make, so successful in fact that I wore it every single day this week as the outside temperature dropped near 0°C and warmth was needed.

Epilogue :

Naii is having a very pretty top sewalong soon, you can join here.

Rosy has just finished a very ambitious New Girl coat sewalong and Maider participated. They are both wearing hot pink Kate Spade knockoffs and I'm jealous.

I'm warm!