Evil Jersey Edge Binding

I'm back from vacation! Two weeks being outside in nature every day, fishing, hiking, and no internet access... it was very relaxing, but I'm glad to be connected to the sewing world again!

The last project I finished before going on vacation was a small one: a present for a friend who gave birth to a little boy about four weeks ago.

It is a sleeping bag for babies, made from a (boy appropriate) printed cotton and cotton jersey as lining.
It has an in-seam side zipper and snaps at the shoulders. The pattern is from Burda magazine 3/2011.

I allowed myself a little joke and added my own "fashion label" at the bottom, the sort I only used for my husbands shorts so far.

I also cut out some single birds of the scraps and padded them.

They were made into a mobile later, hung up on a music stand! (Doesn't that look like a happy little baby?)

So, it seems to be an easy little project, right?
But. I had to face a sewing problem that is a really awful one for me, a sewing technique that I never got right in the past and with this project, it wasn't better.

I'm talking about binding the edges of the neck opening with jersey.
Like always, and according to the instructions, I first attached the jersey tape to the edge, then fold in the free edge of the tape and turned the binding to the inside of the sleeping bag.
It still looked quite nice when pinned:

 Then I did the topstitching and as always the tragedy started. The jersey stretched out whereas the neckline didn't, the foot of my sewing machine pushed the jersey in waves that became bigger and bigger... I ended up with sewing the whole neckline without pulling the pins out, sewing over all of them (yes I know I shouldn't do that).

So that is how it turned out:

Not very nice, but acceptable for me. (My demandings for this are quite low, since I had only bad results with this in the past).

But the inside part looks really awful!

The seams are wonky and you can see very clearly where the pins have been.
Luckily, my friend who got this for her baby didn't care and likes the sleeping bag nevertheless (this is how you get to know your real friends!). But I'm not satisfied with getting results like that.
I have also tried using my cover locker for this, but that was even worse (the cover locker doesn't go around curves easily).

So, does anyone of you know how to do better than me? Then, please, tell me, I would be very happy about any hints!

Another Award!

I was given the Versatile Blogger Award by Sonia of La pequena aprendiz! (I know that there should be a wave on the "n" of pequena, but I can't find it on my swiss keyboard!)
Thank you very much, Sonia! I love reading your blog, although I have to read it with the help of Google translate, as I don't know any Spanish. From time to time I try to figure out the translation without any help, only with my rudimental knowledge of French, though. It's amazing how that works!

The rules are:


1. Thank the person who gave the award and link back to them in your post.


Thank you again, Sonia! I'm happy that you like my blog!


2. Share 7 things about yourself.


- I hate sports
- I like baking (and eating!) cakes
- I care too much wether people like me or not
- I feel lost when I have no internet
- I don't like the color red (I made an exception for my red dots summer dress, so far it's the only one!)
- I like when it's raining
- My favorite food is a slice of bread with honey, I could eat that every time of the day (although there is a lot of other food that I really like)

3. Pass this award along to 15 recently discovered blogs.



The most difficult part! I would like to nominate all the blogs I know since I appreciate them all, but a lot of the blogs that I follow already got it, and I'm not sure if a blogger can (or want) to get the award several times! I'm even not sure if there are any bloggers who don't want to get any awards...


So, my nominees are:


http://kolouri.com/sewing/
http://chanelno6.blogspot.ch/
http://sewingandso.blogspot.ch/
http://sewinggalaxy.blogspot.ch/
http://strugglesewsastraightseam.wordpress.com/
http://paulineguillet.blogspot.ch/


And now I'm off for the next two weeks, most of the time without internet connection so I will not be able to blog anything. I'll peek in from time to time, though, and am always happy to read any comments of you!

A Day at University

No, I'm not a student anymore, but I was attending some presentations at university last monday. I wasn't sure about the dress code, and a pair of jeans or a flower printed summer dress didn't feel right. And all my more "official" or "business like" dresses are made from wool, which is not so good to wear on a warm summer day, so it was clear I had to make one, very quickly because I had only a few days of time.

I thought that a shift dress could never be wrong for such an occasion, so I used a pattern from Burdastyle magazine which have always liked but never made (it is 5/2008, No. 125).

I bought the fabric and copied the pattern on thursday, made and fitted the muslin on friday, cut the fabric on saturday and did the sewing on sunday, and monday by 1am I was finished, with the hem and everything. I know that for a lot of you this is not fast speed sewing, but for me it is, I am a slow seamstress and felt like going crazy with speed this time (Maybe I should also mention that I had to work this weekend, so the weekend sewing as well had to take place only in the late afternoon/evening.)

I was lucky to find the fabric I was dreaming of for this dress: a dark blue silk, but in a sturdy weave, almost like cotton, with some irregular thicker threads in it. It looks more elegant that cotton, but it's not glossy, and it feels fantastic on the skin!

I didn't line the dress, because I don't like lining on my skin in summer so much, especially since the fabric feels so great. Instead, I drafted front and back facings for the neckline and armholes.

The problem was, the fabric was only the rest of the bolt, cut in two pieces, with 140 cm total, whereas the pattern instructions called for 170 cm, and in one piece!
I solved this by adding a waist seam to the back and with cutting the bodice parts on the crossgrain, otherwise it wouldn't have been possible. Luckily, my fabric was a few centimeters wider than the one in the instructions. At the end, there were only a few small fabric scraps left.

I used a center back lapped zipper instead of an in-seam zipper. I like lapped zippers so much and also hoped it would make the back view less boring.

I'm really happy with how the dress turned out! I was wearing it with a pink cardi, and I felt very appropriately dressed in it! (I'm even thinking about making a second one from this pattern in a printed cotton as a summer dress, but am not sure if a printed cotton would work with the pattern.)

Summer Shorts

Are you being asked by your husbands, boyfriends, brothers... to sew garments for them? I try to push my husband to let me make him a duffle coat every winter, but he refuses, and he doesn't want to get anything for him sewn by me either. With one exception: shorts! He gets a pair of them every year, and as we skipped last year, I had to make two pairs for this summer. Of course he has also bought ones, but he keeps telling me that those made by me are the best, and who can withstand such a wise and true argument?

So this is the first pair, made of a thicker cotton poplin, with huge pockets at the sides. I used the same pattern as always, although I made a muslin again to fit the pants. Again, it became clear to me that sewing pants is easy, whereas fitting pants is a nightmare. I know I didn't get it perfectly, but I couldn't do it any better, it's just too difficult. Especially men's pants. But my husband likes them, so I think the whole project can be assessed as a success.

This time, the shorts look nice from the inside, too, thanks to my new cover locker. I still have to practice going around curves, though. 

For the second pair I had a sturdier fabric, so I decided to make these up in a jeans style, with a fifth pocket and metal rivets and topstitching and everything.

They came out quite nicely, especially when you don't look at the snatchy topstitching at the fly-front. The topstitching with the thicker fabric was the worst part, after all. I was sewing with a pair of bought jeans at my side, to check the right jeans construction during the process.

I think this pair does even look quite good at the back, better than the older ones:

Please excuse all the wrinkles, once this man had put the shorts on, he didn't want to put them off again.
Now, my sewing duty for this year is carried out, and I can sew for myself again!

Being Awarded

The day started really nice when I woke up one day last week and got an email that I was awarded with the Sunshine Award!

I got it from KC from "The Sewcratic Method", who always commented so nicely on my photos in the MMM-12 Flickr group. She is sewing nice garments which suit and fit her so well, and I love her writing style, she often makes me laugh when I'm reading her blog! Thank you so much, KC, both for giving me the award and for your blogging!

The Sunshine Award comes with questions to answer:

Favourite Animal: In general: penguins. And anteaters. I always have to see those two when visiting a zoo. But I would really love to have a cat of my own, only right now it is not possible, unfortunately. But I know for sure that one day I'll have one!

Favourite Number: I really don't have any favorite number. I'm bad with numbers, anyway.

Favourite Non-Alcoholic Drink: Coke. Although I don't drink it a lot, but I love it. And I hate coffee!

Facebook or Twitter: I didn't figure out how Twitter works so far, so therefore: Facebook. I though sometimes have the impression that I didn't figure out Facebook, either.

My Passion: Apart from sewing? Books!

Getting or Giving Presents: I love getting presents!

Favourite Pattern: Does it count if I say that all my vintage, easy-bought patterns are my favourites? I probably will not use them all, but from time to time I do, and I also like looking at them.

Favourite Day of the Week: Saturday! This is when week-end starts, and it is the day with every opportunity, as I can go to Zurich for some shopping or stay at home or do anything I want.

Favourite Flower: Probably the orchid I inherited from my grand-mother. When she passed away, my mother gave me the orchid to care for, so I always feel like getting in touch with my grandmother when I water the plant.

Favourite Celebrity Role Model: Difficult question. I do have role models, people I admire for their characters or personalities, but they are no celebrities. For me the life of celebrities is so far away from mine, and I also suspect that they might be totally different in private than in public life.

Now I have to pass the award along, and to whom is the most difficult question of all of those. I decided to give the award to Gillian of "Crafting a Rainbow", who taught me some japanese words throughout Me-Made-May'12 (which I almost all forgot) and who finally dares to go for fabric shopping in self-made garments!