Oops....I did it again

My dress is finished. And I had big plans of showing It to you while I was wearing it.
But yesterday I had a little accident. I sprained my ankle.

I was on the bottom step of the stairs, fooling around with the cat who was at the top. We had a lot of fun. But when I turned around to walk away I forgot that I was still on the first step and my foot landed in the wrong way. I thought I heard a sound in my ankle and for a moment I was afraid something was broken. But I could still stand on it and walk with it, actually without any extra pain, so I decided not to see a doctor. But later that evening, after resting for a few hours, I got up from the couch and it was very painful to walk on. The pain stayed while I was not moving. So I feared the worst. Luckily this morning the pain had gone for 90%. 
Walking is still difficult so I just didn't feel like getting all dolled up for a picture. I'm sure you'll understand. The 'blue Lady' was so nice to step in for me, again.

First a little reminder of how the dress looks like:

Here's a picture of the dress, from the front and the back (I don't know if it works on your computer but if you double-click on pictures you get a closer view)

It turned out just great. On the inside I sewed elastic on the waistline. I was afraid of a bit of gaping in the front so I just sewed the rightside-front on top of the leftside, from where the crossed lines meet to the waistline. And hey...problem solved.

And while were at it, here are a few more detail-pics. The fabric is a bit shiny. I like that. It makes the cotton look a bit more stylish. You can see that in the next picture.

A great dress for hot summerdays. I'm not sure I'll be wearing this a lot in the coming period. Right now it's not very summery here. It's raining and not very warm. But if necessary I'll store it gladly for next year. No problemos. I can wait.

This was truly a very satisfying, easy and quick project. The pattern is definitely a keeper for (summer)times to come.

Now onto the next project. I'm not sure yet. I bought some lovely fabric for a knit-dress. I also bought fabric for a short-sleeved jacket. It's hard to decide but I'm leaning a bit towards the dress. I'll think about it some more and let you now what I'll decide in the next post.

For now, have a great weekend everybody (and be careful on the stairs....)

Gr.

Lilian

Summer-dress (KnipMode May/2010 - 13a)

This is what I'm working on at the moment:

(pictures from the KnipMode may 2010 magazine)

This is a nice, stylish picture, but it doesn't really show the dress. So here's the linedrawing to get a better idea of the construction of the dress:

I chose a plus-size pattern this time. I am so lucky to have a size 44. That means in KnipMode I can choose from all the patterns, because the 'normal' patterns include size 44 and the plus-size patterns start with 44. Lucky me!

Only 1 detail of the dress goes missing in the picture: the skirt has a slit in the back. And there's elastic sewed at the inside of the waist. 

This is the fabric I'm using:



















The scissors are placed in the picture to give you an idea about the size of the flowers. It's a thin cotton. I'll be wearing a camisole underneath but I have to wait and see how see-through the skirt is gonna be. If it's too much I can always wear an underskirt. 

Can you believe I discovered just now, while placing the picture of the fabric in this post, that there are butterflies in the print (in the middle on the leftside) ? I never noticed before. Sweet!

I'm cheating quite a bit with this dress because I'm using (self-drafted) facings for the neckline and the armholes.
Not what the original construction calls for. They have you cut out the top part (above the gatherings) twice so you can use one part to finish of the neckline and the top-part of the armholes. The rest of the armholes is finished with small strips of fabric. It seemed so much hassle to me and I don't want this to be a complicated dress. (Allright, I'll be honest with you: I didn't understand the sewing-instruction). I'm sure if I do it my way it will look nice too.

I hope I will be able to work on this dress in the coming days so that I can show you the finished result in the next post.


Did I mention that in two weeks my summer-vacation starts? Only 8 more days of work. I'm still not in the holiday-mood though. Can't tell you why that is, but I'm sure it will come any day now. (I hope it will: the anticipation is part of the fun right?)

Have a nice weekend/vacation everyone!

Gr.
Lilian

New sewing-plans, coming soon in your theatre...

Just a short message to let you know I'm still here.
Sewing has been slow, or should I say non-existing?
The reason? I think the hot weather we've been experiencing lately has a lot to do with it. And being tired all the time. Last weekend, during 3 days, I think I slept 50% of the (day!)time. But it did me good so I don't see it as waisted time.

Anyway, new plans are on the way. I'm not aiming too high after this short sewing-break. It will be a simple, summery-dress. I've got to make a fast move or else there won't be any time left to enjoy any new summerclothes. It feels like fall is just around the corner. I get that feeling too when I read all your blogs. There's already a lot of fall-planning going on, and I must say: I LIKE THAT A LOT. I love summer but when it comes to clothes I just love the transition from thin, frilly clothes to the more dressy style of autumn-clothes. All in due time....

And as for a short update on my fingers, it's not going as well as I had hoped. Fysio has helped me to move (bend and stretch) my fingers a bit more, but the last few weeks it feels like they become sore and very sensitive with all this bending and stretching, which makes it more difficult to do so. I even lost some of the movement I had gained and that's the most disappointing thing.
It's actually quite frustrating at the moment. I'm still having fysio and mid-august I (still) have (to make) a check-up appointment in the hospital, so we'll see how things are going then. Hopefully a bit better.

O..and if anyone's interested, Holland lost the finals to Spain. Well, that's life eh. Now let's move on.

In a few days I'll show you a picture of my dress-to-be and the fabric I'm gonna use for it. I really want to catch up on sewing and blogging because I've been a lazy bone lately. But I'm sure I had my (unclear) reasons for that so I hope you will forgive me  ;-)

Talk to you again soon!

Gr.
Lilian

It's final(s)

(non-sewing topic, sorry, feel free to skip)

Ok. That's decided. Holland will play in the finals of the World-championship Soccer, after a 3-2 win against Uruguay this evening.

Now, let me tell you...... these are NOT my colleagues.

But they COULD BE my colleagues.

You have no idea how full the air was with nerves and stress in the office today. 

You have no idea how crazy a soccer-loving-nation can get.

You have nó idea. Or you must be a real soccer-loving person yourself.

Which I'm not. But I'll smile along happily.

But still. Well done guys!! I don't know much about football (as we call it) but I think you are a great, great team and you deserve to be in the finals.

And sunday-evening......we will know.

Gr.

Lilian

Flouncy Top (KnipMode/may 2010 - 7b)

I had my eye on this pattern for quite some time. Then things were put on hold (as you may know by now). But it seems I'm back in the game!
It turned out just like I hoped. It's a fairly easy pattern and it should be a quick project but I always manage to mess things up. But I took my time to correct my mistakes and I'm glad I did because this top has turned out quite beautiful.
The flouncy sleeves give it a bit of a chic feel.
This is the linedrawing. I opted for the b-version oviously:

Here are some detail-pics. (Excuses for the fold-lines in the fabric. I hadn't ironed it yet when I took this pictures).

I had to make an alteration to the neckline. The original pattern is way to wide for my not-so-broad shoulders. That meant I had to change the flounce as well at the point where it's fastened to the neckline.
For that I first drew the original line of the flounce-neckline. Then I placed the front- and backpiece of the top with the new neckline, on the drawing of the flounce and changed the lines of the flounce accordingly.

The curved line at the bottom is the original neckline, at the top I drew the new (front and back) neckline. As you can see the lines don't meet in the middle. Which is quite logical as I narrowed the width of the neckline. To solve that I folded the pattern to remove the surplus and make the two lines meet again. It worked perfectly.

Ending one project means there's room for new plans. I'm not sure yet what I'll be making next.
I received the new KnipMode (the august-issue) yesterday and it has quite some cute patterns. But then there are so many old Burda's and KnipModes to choose from, I just haven't decided yet.

Next time, I'm sure I'll be updating you on new plans or maybe even some project in progress. We'll see.

Gr.
Lilian