Just in time: Colette Beignet Skirt

I hope you all had a merry Christmas with loads of food, family time and gifts. I hope you didn't gain too much weight and your garments still fit! I finally convinced myself to step on the balance this morning and had a shock when realising I gained two kilogrammes over the holidays. I knew I couldn't believe that radio moderator who said you gain on average only 350 g over Christmas! So, no more chocolate, cake and loads of walking.

Also thanks so much for all your lovely comments about my Christmas owl sweater! I wore it a few times in Germany and it kept we warm and cosy when walking after all these massive meals :)

Excuse the wrinkles. I tried to iron them out... Pockets!

But now, let me finally introduce my Colette Beignet Skirt! I managed to sew it up before Christmas, although it took me some courage to get started!

Pattern: Colette Beignet, which is a high waisted skirt with lining, facing, pockets, belt loops and belt. That's why there are so many pattern pieces - A to O! - and as I always trace my patterns I couldn't convince myself for some time to get started. But I am glad I did! I didn't made any changes to the pattern but traced a straight size 4 according to my waist measurement.


Fabric: For the shell I used a brushed cotton from Goldhawk Road. I decided that the brushed side is the right side, as I just love how it looks and feels! For the lining I used a cotton-silk also from Goldhawk Road and for the facing/belt/belt loops some cotton with flowers on it.

Construction: The pattern is labelled intermediate and I suppose that is because you have to sew a curve when attaching the facing to the lining. I took my time when doing this step, so had no problems at all. The only other fiddly bit was the belt loops, which you have to sew right sides together and then turn the right side out. Turning them involved some (loads) of swearing and Internet searches, but finally I managed to do it by using this tutorial from Ashley from Make it & Love it.

The facing and lining.

Embellishments: I just love the buttons! I got them ages ago, when I was looking for buttons for my Picnic Blanket Skirt. When they arrived I just knew they would be perfect for the Beignet and so they were waiting for their time to come :) As I didn't had enough, I just added a different button at the top. I also love the flowers on the belt loops and belt. Before adding them my boyfriend commented that the skirt looks like a jute sack! But now he likes the skirt and he said, he only said it because he knew it would look great when finished, puh.

I know the seam on the left looks a bit weird here, but having worn the skirt a few times, its gone :)

Do I like it? I love it! I have worn it twice already and as it is a little bit loose at the waist, there was plenty of room for my "food baby", hihi. Now, I only have to make a few sweaters and shirts to go with it. The only drawback is that the fabric wrinkles super easily.

When looking at the photos, I realised that everything, including me and the wall paper, has a similar colour.

Will I make it again? I am sure I will! Now that the tracing it done, it should go much faster! 

Owl Christmas Jumper

Just in time for Christmas, I finished my knitted Owl Jumper. I am a little bit proud because it is my first knitted jumper (and my 2nd knitted garment) and I even made slight adjustments to the pattern.

Here come the owls!

Pattern: Owls by Kate Davies. When I saw it, I just fell in love with it because of the little owls at the neckline. Having been an owl fan even before the owl-trend started, I just couldn't resist!

See the little black buttons? Love that detail :)

Wool: Cascade Yarns Eco + in Merlot. Because of the color, I think it is suitable as a Christmas jumper, hehe.

Pretty from the back as well.

Construction: It took me only one and a half month, so pretty quick and easy :) You can see my Ravelry notes here, if you are interested. It took me longest to knit the sleeves! They were so boring, but otherwise it was fun :) (It was no fun, however, to sew on 40 little 5mm buttons, buh, took me a while.)

Look me in the eyes, hehe.

Have I worn it yet? Nope, because the UK weather is quite warm at the moment. But I will wear it in cold Germany, where it will keep me warm and cosy.

Do I like the jumper? I love it! The color, the fit, the OWLS!

One more to go, just because :)

Last one!

Here come the Flamingos!

Finally, after hording this fabric for 6 month in my stash, I decided it is time to use it. It is not really the season for Flamingos now :) but I felt ready to tackle such a thin jersey.

Sorry for the wrinkles!

Pattern: Burda 0010 from Burda Style Special autumn/winter No5/2013. As I had used the pattern before to make my Burda raglan top, there was no need to trace the pattern - win. The dress has a keyhole opening at the back and a turtleneck!


Fabric: A thin jersey which I got from Goldhawk Road at the summers blogger meet-up. Several people bought the fabric and since then, I have seen some gorgeous projects popping up (Naturally, when trying to find them again, I couldn't). But somehow I was unlucky with my fabric, as one half of it was off grain. The flamingos were walking up :( But I managed to lay out my pattern on the half with the straight grain, yeah! (Anybody else ever had the problem?) Except for the turtleneck, which I had to cut out 4 times!

Turtleneck and Pleats.

Construction: Again I had problems with the shoulder pleats, but I think they are a bit better than last time. Otherwise, the dress came quite easily together up to the point where you have to attach the (naughty) turtleneck. I just couldn't get my head around the pattern notes and sewed the wrong seam twice. Then there was only one seam left, I hadn't sewn yet, which turned out to be the one meant. You actually have to sew a cylinder (with keyhole opening) before attaching it to the neckline and I somehow didn't expect that. Then there was a lot of hand stitching involved. Which kept me wondering, if there is a special stretchy handstitch? Because you stitch the turtleneck to the neckline on the inside and when you try to squeeze your head through, it will stretch! I couldn't find anything on the web, so just kept stitching little zigzags. And it stretches fine :) I also attached two buttons and loops to keep the keyhole opening closed.

You can just see the black button loops.

 Have I worn it yet? Yes, when going for some fabric shopping and tea with a friend. I still have to stabilize the shoulder seams with some cotton tape to prevent them from stretching. I just had to get some advice first, about how to do it :) Looking at the pictures now, I somehow think this blue is not a color that should go closely to my pale face, puh. I look a bit like a ninja in a pink flamingo dress :P

More detail pleats :)

 Will I make it again? Probably not, as there are more jersey patterns out there that I want to try! Lady skater dress, here I come!

At least the flamingos are straight :)

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Are you in Christmas mood yet? Are you decorating, baking, crafting gifts or are you hiding behind the couch, waiting until Christmas is over? I am one of those people, who start already at the end of November to listen to Christmas music - I mean I have to be in the right mood, right?

Christmas gifts :)

So, the last two weekends I was busy baking German Christmas cookies, Christmas Stollen (there were 2 kg, but it was already gone after one week), decorating my living room, sewing Christmas presents (two more to go!) and last weekend I made a Christmas wreath!

So, I thought I would share a few pics with you and also show you the pillow covers I made for my grandparents.

To make the pillows I used the bordered star tutorial by Deborah from whipstitch and the Liberty pillow tutorial by Rumi from 3patchcrafts. The patchworking took quite a while, as did the quilting, but as soon as this was done the pillow came together quickly. As the bordered star pillow is quite big, I added buttons at the back to close it and for the Liberty pillow I used the normal envelope closure.

Bordered Star

and its back.

The fabric I used was the Hand Drawn Garden bundle by Anna Maria Horner that I won back in August. I still have some left, so I will probably make a pillow for myself as well! The bordered star pillow is quite big and I am going to buy the pillows in Germany because I don't want to take them with me on the plane. I had only small cushions at home to take the photographs, that's why everything looks a bit loose.

Liberty Pillow...

...and its back

I even made a little label :)

And some detail shots: I free motioned quilted the star pillow and for the Liberty pillow I mainly used my walking foot.

Some free motion detail - I love clovers.

Just some stippling

I will leave you now with a final pic of my pretty Christmas wreath! Have a lovely Wednesday everyone :X