frenchie flamingo

my love of dogs in all shapes and colours still continues (of course… i don’t think that’s something that will ever die down! LOL), and seeing this fabric made me squeal. without thinking too long, i bought it and made it out into a simple top almost immediately, too.

self-made top, New Yorker shorts.

i mean, what’s not to love about this print? French bulldog pups in cow pattern, looking in all directions. ❤

i got about 70 cm of this cotton jersey fabric because it’s super wide (about 180 cm). i wanted to do something super simple yet try out another decorative stitch from my sewing machine, so i decided to copy an old top i got from a thrift marketplace in Jakarta, Indonesia.

the ‘twist’ is at the front part where the seam between the bodice and the sleeves are. this was where i tried the decorative stitch (top left pic) and i am sooo in love with how it turned out!

the original top i have has these lace frills on the hem, but seeing the salmon pink colour on the dogs’ ears made me think of my flamingo fabric and so i decided to use remnants of that instead.

other than the hem, i used that same flamingo fabric for lining the edges of the sleeves… so that when i fold the sleeves up, i can show the lovely flamingos!

and that’s the story of how my French bulldogs get to meet the flamingos! probably not the most logical relationship in the world, but i must say, it works on my top, hahaha… and that’s all that matters! 😀

gonna take my frenchies and flamingos out for a walk now, while the summer days are still here. 😉

magic mushrooms

in my 10 years experience of sewing, i hadn’t got the chance to sew Finnish design fabrics other than the big brands like Marimekko, Finlayson’s Moomin, and Nanso. to be honest, i didn’t even know much about Finnish ‘indie’ design fabric brands that much, until some colleagues of mine started introducing them to me some time last year. and what a wonderful alternative they are to the other bigger brands!

i had wanted to get my hands on them ever since, but compared to the fabrics i usually buy & sew, these Finnish ones are naturally quite pricey. for example, i usually spend about 5€-10€ for a single fabric for one project, but these fabrics cost around 24€ per meter. so i wanted to be careful when choosing the fabrics to buy from these brands, and not end up regretting the purchase.

luckily for me, some months ago there was an arts and crafts event called Ommel where these brands sold their fabrics for cheaper prices. this event was also where i got to learn about & test the sewing machine i ended up getting (didn’t buy it from the event itself, though). in short, this event was my perfect opportunity to get deeper into my passion of sewing.

after some hours of deliberating, i decided to get 2 fabrics from Verson Puoti. the other one is to be posted later when i have made something out of it, but this first one is called Sienisato.why i decided to get this one is actually another story probably worth telling.

just before this event, i celebrated my 10th year anniversary at my work place. my colleagues had secretly prepared surprise gifts for me, and one of them was a skirt made out of a Marimekko fabric. ❤

i really love that skirt and want to use it everyday, however i found that i only have plain t-shirts to wear with it, either black or white. so i was looking for another special fabric that i can use together with that skirt, and thought that black and white print would be lovely.

self-made top, hand-made Marimekko skirt from colleagues, handmade earrings from another colleague.

but you can be the judge of that! even though i haven’t been using crazy prints that much lately, i do still like to mix prints and colours. now with this Marimekko skirt, i can go all out!

this piece of fabric that i got was cotton jersey, sized 70 cm long and about 160 cm wide. it’s wider than most jerseys, so at first i thought i would still be left with a small piece for some other project. but alas, the first sleeve piece i cut was much too narrow that my arm couldn’t fit it, so i had to cut new ones.

since i promised to really make use of my new sewing machine, i tested different stitches for this project. for the sleeves, since they are still quite tight even after i cut new pieces, i used an elastic stitch (left picture above) which is not really straight but also not really ziggy zaggy, more like a combo of these two. for the added detail, i decided to make straps from black cotton jersey and used decorative stitches on it.

i had worried that the decorative stitches would be uneven when i do it to a stretchy material, but since i folded the fabrics twice (so that it’s 3-layered) i suppose it helped to stabilize it, and i would say my machine did a pretty damn good job! (can you tell how much i love my new machine already?)

for this project, i used the good ol’ Ottobre design magazine pattern that i have used numerous times on different types of dresses and tops. since i am still learning on how to make my own patterns, i did this one the ‘idiot’ way: first i traced the pattern and cut the fabric as they were supposed to be (minus the neck pieces), and then i sewed the sleeves and back & front pieces together, and then cut the neckline so that it would be slightly off-shoulder. then, i added the straps.

as you can also probably guess, i love the result so much! i’m just so proud of myself and my sewing machine for being able to put the lovely print design to a good use. maybe it’s because of these magic mushrooms! also, i’m happy to be able to support these local indie textile designers, i do hope i don’t disappoint them by making this top out of their magical print.

monkey business

self-made top, New Yorker shorts

looky, looky, another sewing project already!

just a quick and fun project involving these monkeys this time.

i got about 60 cm of the fabric (about 160 cm wide), which is a ponte jersey. it was done without any pattern, just cut 2 T-shaped pieces and the leftover was for the sleeves.

 

the pleats on the sleeves were done just by feeling, and since i wanted the sleeves to be wide, it turned out that the leftover pieces weren’t wide enough… so i added some smaller scraps to the inner seams, hahaha! you can see it from the middle picture above, but when i am actually wearing the top, no one can see it. 😉

i was too lazy to change the threads of my overlocker (it had white threads at that time, this project needed black ones) so i decided to only use my regular sewing machine for this project.

just for fun, i made the front part shorter than the back.

my husband thinks the print and colour looks like Indonesian batik on this fabric. perhaps he’s right. but that only makes this even more special. 🙂

i wore this top outdoors once already, and then the weather here suddenly turned from winter straight on to summer!! 😀 somehow we’ve managed to skip spring! today it was about 27C degrees outside, hurrah!

well… i’m not complaining! this is still a successful top that i know i will wear many more times in its lifetime. after all, who doesn’t love monkeying around?

have a sunny summer, everyone! ❤