preparing for Christmas

self-made top and culottes, unbranded necklaces from Jakarta – Indonesia and from mum-in-law

finished making this top just in time for Christmas.

it’s the same model as this and made the same way too, in part just to see if i still remember how to do it. so the short answer is, i do. 😁

the fabric i used is merino wool knit jersey that is made in Finland. i probably had about 1,7 m of it and it’s about 120 cm wide. this time i didn’t make any mistakes on the front part, and that means i had enough fabric to make long sleeves.

this fabric was relatively easy to work with. the only problem i had was the fact that it shed quite a bit of dust/fur as i sew (even though i already washed it before sewing), so the cleaning up took a while longer than usual.

after i was done with the sleeves, i just realized that i didn’t make the cuffs as neat as i should have (and as i had done many times before). i was too lazy to open them up again, so what-evah.

i’ve never really been a ’red’ person, so i think this green colour is going to be my Christmas colour theme this year. surprisingly, the colour of this top matches perfectly with the colour of the culottes i made in the summer! all i needed to complete the look was some red accessories.

and i think i did a pretty good job! i’m all warm and comfy in this top, and i really love how it turned out, too. i’m still deliberating whether or not i should add some gold studs to the neckline, but for now i will let it be like this. ❤

Christmas, now i’m ready for you!

let’s do the twist

we’ve been having such a wonderful summer this year in Finland that i’ve just been taking walks whenever i can (read: whenever i am not working) just to enjoy the weather and views. this is of course not a reason for me to not write or sew, but it happened.

another fake (but true) reason is that whenever i feel like an inspiration is coming for me to sew, the fabrics i want to sew are the ones still in the fabric store and i really should first use my own fabrics before buying new ones! the dilemmas of a fabric addict, right? 😝

but one day i just had to sew something, and thankfully i found the right fabric from my own closet.

self-made top, New Yorker shorts, woven bag from Bali – Indonesia.

this spring i bought a super cheap top from Zara that i wore for my photo shoot here (shown on first picture). my secret motive was so that i could copy it and make many more similar tops! (insert devilish laugh here.)

after months of pondering about it in my head, i finally felt ready. the fabric i used was one i got for free from my co-worker J last winter. it’s a synthetic knit fabric which was about 1,5 m wide and long.

remember how i said i felt ready? well, i was wrong, LOL. i cut the fabric first for the front part… and struggled to make the twist just right. in short, i failed. so i cut another piece for the front part, for the second time. this time i just put it on top of my dummy and worked from there. this seemed to do the trick, so now i know that whenever i can’t figure out some cut/pattern, all i have to do is trust my dummy! 😁

but since i already cut the fabric the first time for the front part, i was left with too small scraps to get a full back part. so to save my sewing project, i had to improvise… as per usual. in the end, i think i managed to save it. 😊

if you ask me how to do that twist, i can answer truthfully that i don’t know, hahaha…. i put some detail pics above just to remind my future self of how it looks like from the inside, but i know i also won’t understand it just from the pictures. my brain just can’t think in 3D, so my best advice is to invest on a dummy.

originally, i wanted to make this top have long sleeves, so i could wear it for winter. but again, since there wasn’t enough fabric left, i had to change that plan too. so ‘short super wide and pleated sleeves’ it is!

as you can imagine, i am super proud to have accomplished this top! 💕

so come on everybody, let’s do the twist!