Tweedledee & Tweedledum

Posted on August 13, 2016 by saxsilverain

from Wizard of Oz’s Emerald City, we now move on to Alice in Wonderland, another fave story of mine.

every time i see fabrics that even remotely reminds me of Alice in Wonderland, i think my heart skips a beat. that’s what happened when i saw this jersey fabric from So Cute brand. it’s an Alice in Wonderland fabric without Alice herself. 😀

at the same time, for many years–i’d say about 8–i had been waiting for harlequin print fabric. i did find some before this, but they were too colourful and all the wrong colours, the fabric was wrong (stiff cotton), or then the print was too big. by some miracle, though, i finally found the right one this year: in the form of another jersey fabric. perfect!

i honestly wasn’t thinking of combining the two, until i washed them and they sat nicely on top of each other in my cupboard. what a lovely marriage, i thought!

at first i only planned to make one dress, using the same pattern i used years ago for my optical illusion stripey dress. but after cutting the pieces, surprisingly i still had quite a lot of the fabrics even though i only bought around 1 m of each fabric. so i had yet another crazy idea to make 2 dresses using the same fabric-combo, but different style. i did them both back to back, giving birth to them at almost the exact same time, LOL. ladies and gents, meet Tweedledee and Tweedledum!

self-made dresses, Crocs boat shoes (left), shoes from Dappermarkt – Amsterdam (right), IKEA ceramic coaster used as background.

Tweedledee is based on pattern #121 from Burda Style magazine 09/2012. the original pattern’s front piece is actually double-layered: the side piece also covers the middle front part and then there’s another layer of just the middle part sewn on top of the side piece. that’s what i did with my stripey dress years ago, which looks fine but is always a little too heavy on the front because of that.

so this time i cut the side piece’s middle front part off and did everything in just one layer. the result, even though i actually copied the pattern 1 size smaller than my current size, is a loose-fit dress. go figure!

when i was done sewing Tweedledee, i thought it looks so much like a Desigual dress! well, So Cute brand is supposedly a sister brand of Melli Mello, which is kind of similar to Desigual, so no surprise there. to add a little bit of the ‘jester’ touch, i decided to sew colourful plastic stones on the neckline. i love the result!

Tweedledum is more of an ‘accidental’ child, haha! it means that i didn’t use any pattern, except that i laid down the fabric, put my Marimekko dress on top of it, and cut the fabric according to the Marimekko dress. and then i added the sleeves from some ready-made pattern, and decided to cut away a small triangle from the back side just to add a little detail.

it was supposed to be a quick & easy project, but of course mishaps kept happening: i ran out of my good sewing thread, tried to sew it with another sewing thread of lower quality and my sewing machine got jammed, sewed the collar binding too loose which made the whole dress look ill fitted.

the next day as soon as the fabric store was opened i ran there to buy more sewing thread, ripped all the seams off the neckline and re-sewed the whole neckline after work (i think it was about 10 pm when i finished sewing the whole dress. sorry, neighbours!).

though the back side is still a bit weird (me & my great idea to do triangular cut-out!), i must say, i love Tweedledum as well!

i guess you can’t really say that they’re midi dresses, but i’m currently loving knee-length skirts/dresses. they’re just much more appropriate for all kinds of things, even for work.

did i hear you ask out loud, would i really wear these dresses to work? my answer is, yes i would. i know, i’m lucky to work at a place which allow me to wear all kinds of clothes! 😉

although in the story Tweedledee and Tweedledum never agree with each other, i think these dresses go along perfectly well together. at least maybe until Alice comes along.

PS. i just realized now after i finished writing the post that usually Tweedledum comes first before Tweedledee. sorry for the mix up, but i was too lazy to change the names/pics! 😀

raining cats and dogs

Posted on July 19, 2015 by saxsilverain

you guessed it. it’s still a rainy summer, so i’ve been super duper bored this holiday. and what do i do when i’m bored? i take out my sewing machine (and overlocker), and sing, and sew like mad! yes, exactly in that order.

secondhand & remade Vogue t-shirt from UFF, secondhand Benetton blouse (worn inside t-shirt) from UFF, self-made skirt & necklace, ASOS cage shoes.

i’m sure you know the reason why i had to get this fabric. no? here, i’ll show you a closer picture of it.

that’s right, it’s ~~raining~~ featuring cats and dogs! oh! ❤

this was supposed to be a super quick project (like 3 hours max.), but i guess i subconsciously wanted to have more things to do so this ended up taking longer than i expected. first of all i made this using size 40 of the Burda pattern no. 7577 because, according to their size chart, i fall into that category. the result skirt was way too big. like 2 sizes too big. *sigh*

also since i used cotton jersey with no lining, i had no idea how to finish the top and bottom of this skirt. i ended up experimenting, failing, and experimenting again.

in the end, for both top & bottom i used twin needles but different coloured threads: white and black.

it doesn’t show in the pictures, but the top part of the skirt actually covers my whole tummy. i didn’t use any elastic band nor zipper. even when i’ve made the skirt smaller from the sides, it’s still wide enough to fit me without any closure.

if you look real close, the skirt isn’t really done neatly. it wasn’t my best sewing ever, but it’s wearable and i did only want it to be a quick, no-nonsense skirt. i’ve pretty much achieved it.

an even quicker sewing project was the t-shirt i wore in these pics. i bought it from a secondhand store, UFF, when they were having sale so everything was only for 2€. it was just a plain t-shirt, in size L (a bit too big for me), but i liked the shiny dark silver fabric so i decided to get it.

on my next blog post, i’m going to show a simple tutorial on how i remade the t-shirt. (i am THAT bored.) it only took me about 15 minutes to do, and i love the result. my 2€ wasn’t a waste!

ahem, and the secondhand Benetton blouse i wore in the pics was also from the same store, just that i got it on the next day of the sale, when everything was sold for 1€. that one doesn’t even need any remake, it fits me like a perfect glove. thank you, UFF, for having these awesome sales!

okay, i’d better end this here while it is still raining cats and dogs outside. stay tuned for my teeny weeny tutorial next! :p

how much is that doggie in the window?

Posted on January 9, 2015 by saxsilverain

i might as well just write it on my forehead: i ❤ dogs.

self-made dress, Zara leggings, Just Kulkith shoes, second hand belt from UFF, Evita Peroni hairclip.

and since i can’t commit myself to actually having a dog, this dress will do for now. i mean… there’s enough dogs for me to look & squeal at!

the moment i saw this digiprint dog fabric, i knew i just had to get it. i don’t even care if it makes me look childish. after all, i am young at heart. 😉

for the pattern, i used an Aquilano Rimondi dress pattern that you can find on the January 2014 issue of Burda Style magazine (pattern no. 124).

though i love this dog fabric, i can easily see myself getting a doggie overload unless i combine it with another fabric. luckily, i still had a fair amount of this knit fabric i used for this top. i used it for the center back pieces. i added sleeves to the dress, omitted the zipper, lace-up at the back, appliqué at the bottom of the skirt, the turtleneck, and the bottom panel of the skirt. instead, i made the top panel of the skirt longer.

i used size 38 for the dress, because when i measured my current body size it fell into the size 38 category. even when i measured the pattern, it seemed like size 38 was the right one for me. but when the dress was done, it was too big! oh, what a nice surprise, i guess i am still size 36 after all. 😀 (actually, maybe it has to do with the fact that the dog fabric is cotton jersey and together with the knit fabric they are quite stretchy.)

i also did not add any band/tape to the seams at the front part of the dress (as it was supposed to be). i wanted the focus to stay on the dogs, of course.

for the back side, i put 2 layers of the knit fabric because it was otherwise too sheer for comfort. a simple dress that you can wear to work is always good to have.

i look like a 6 year old at a friend’s birthday party, putting on my best dress. 😀 but so what. the most important thing is that i love what i wear. and of course, it’s super comfy, too.