The last two weeks of my life were incredible: non-stop sewing with occasional breaks for lunches/dinners, fabric shopping and tourist visits. Not bad, eh? Because after one week in Baltimore and a couple of days in New York, I spent an entire week in Montreal! But most importantly, the purpose of my trip to Baltimore was fulfilled!

The real color is clearer to see in the picture below. This one was shot with artificial light.

I am probably not the only one who associates Chanel jackets with rich old ladies and finds them rather on the ugly side. But in signing up to Susan's class last year, I wanted to prove myself wrong and create something different and young, yet learning new techniques and hanging out with a gang of women crazy about sewing. It was a success, at least, on the last two fronts! During the week in Baltimore we talked mainly about seam allowances, fraying, grainline and pins with nobody saying that it was boring! A full week of ooh'ing and aah'ing and admiring each other's fabrics and sewing tools!

For those of you who are scared even to think about working on a similar project, good news - the classic French jacket was not that difficult after all. Once the muslin is fitted, gear yourself up for hours of straight machine stitches and hand sewing. Don't expect to find any underlining or super-difficult techniques: everything from the beginning to the end is straightforward and logical.


The only annoying bit (for me) was sewing in the lining under the armscye area! The stressful part was closing the seam without turning the sleeve wrong side out and thus distorting the amount of fabric under the arm.
When I first showed my fabric to the class, many of the students said their eyes ached from the amount of yellow. Judith, who I met during the class last year and who I visited in Montreal after the seminar, wears mainly black. But even she, by the end of the class accepted that "Colors rule!" and bought herself two colorful cuts of fabric!


In my previous post, one of the readers made a comment about the generous seam allowances on the cutting layout and I feel like giving this topic a bit of explanation. The fabrics which we worked with for the creation of the classic French jacket, tweed and bouclé, fray like crazy and so if you cut the seam allowances very short... I'd rather not think about the consequences! Also, wide seam allowances act as emergency spare parts. Quite often during fitting, we adjust parts of the garment so that a spare piece of fabric becomes vital in the construction process.

Luckily for me, most of my fitting alterations required me to remove some fabric rather than the opposite. But here's an example where the wide seam allowance saved the project!


This happened the next day after the muslin was fitted - my shoulders somehow increased in volume and Susan added approximately 2cm to the shoulder seam. If not for the seam allowance, I would have been doomed!

But it was not the case with the lining! This little patch of weird shape would not be there had I cut the seam allowance slightly bigger. Good for me that this was only the inside of the jacket! I would not be thrilled to re-cut the whole section, re-quilt and re-stitch it together if I lacked 2cm on the outer fabric. From now on, my sewing commandment: More (seam allowance) is Less (headache and work and stupid patches).


I'll continue the story of our seminar over the weekend!

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What attracted me most in these designs was the nice balance of neckline and hemline: casual and relaxed yet elegant and feminine. Let's see what happens at the first fitting!

Overcast by hand all the seams of the lining (three in total). To add some spice to the routine, I used red and black thread to overcast the edges.
Experimented with the waistband. Claire Shaeffer writes in her book that "only three techniques are used ...in couture for finishing the waist edges of skirts and pants: the self-fabric band, the faced band and the faced edge". For my waistband, I went for a self-fabric band. If you want to make the same one, here are the steps. I did not follow 100% the order and directions from the book, but couture techniques are meant to be improvised:

• I pinned Petersham ribbon around my waist to determine the length of the waistband. 
• Using the Petersham ribbon as interfacing, I basted it to the fashion fabric wrong side up. 

•  Right sides together, I basted the waistband to the skirt. Then I stitched it with my machine (this was the only seam which I machine stitched; all other seams were made by hand).
• I pressed the seam towards the band, folded the raw edge inside and, using fell stitches, sewed the folded edge to the seamline.

The choice of silk organza as underlining was obvious: this taffeta is sort of stiff, but is very thin and wrinkles easily. Organza, treated with my fashion fabric as one layer,  adds a little more weight to the lightweight fabric and results in a better-looking finished garment. How often do you see a RTW silk or any other lightweight fabric garment which ends up looking like a sausage?! Well, underlining prevents this effect.

Another great quality of underlining: it helps to conquer wrinkles! Despite being a lightweight fabric as well, silk organza is very tough. Organza strips are often used as stays: they are difficult to break but are flexible by nature. And that is why I used them to reinforce the corners of the vent in my skirt!

I cut four pieces of silk organza and sewed them on to cover the corners. Now I am not afraid to take long strides and hear the "crack" of ripped seams. The organza scraps will keep my seams in place!

Have you also noticed how I attached the pieces of organza? I sewed them into the underlining! If the skirt was not underlined, I would have had trouble attaching the pieces of organza and the stitches would probably have shown through.

After I finished this post, I sewed a hand-picked zipper and added the waistband. More to come in future posts!

No, this time I won't show you my butt! Some time ago when I was searching for some interesting knitting projects, I came across Danish Knit Design and their Charlotte lingerie kit. And I was smitten.

Charlotte lingerie kit

Danish Knit Design is a small family business run by a mother and daughter living in Denmark and the US who share a love for the tradition of Scandinavian knitting design.When I think that in the past (way before the Internet era and the beginning of mass production), most businesses were family-run and nurtured tradition, I wish I could travel back in time and see what it was like.

Luise lingerie kit

It took me several days to pick a pattern: both Charlotte and Louise were screaming from the screen "Pick me!". But since the winter's almost gone, Charlotte seemed a more appropriate choice. At the moment, I am not sure whether I'd wear it as pajamas or actual underwear, but I am pretty much excited to start knitting! And Louise can wait for later.


The yarn that came with the pattern is made of wool and silk. I picked the smoky gray yarn out of the four colors suggested by the designers. The soft thread reminded me of touching a fluffy puppy; oh, can't I just knit all day instead of going to the office tomorrow?!


I also wanted to share with you my favorite activity since the end of last year: Coursera! From the statement on their website, they are a "social entrepreneurship company that partners with the top universities in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free". They offer a wide range of courses from Maths to Humanities to Philosophy to Computer Science. If you, like me, are thirsty for knowledge and curious to learn new things, Coursera is for you! Of course, not all of the courses are great (I've dropped out from two) but since it's free, everyone can explore find the right combination of topic and teacher suitable for the. The great thing is that some of the courses can be perfectly combined with crafting!
Do you have experience knitting underwear? Have you taken any interesting courses online, craft-related or otherwise?

This my first blog post in a couple of weeks, most of which I spent with my mom. Having been diagnosed with breast cancer at the end of last year, she recently successfully underwent surgery where the doctor removed her left breast and replaced it with a silicon boob. Luckily, she's doing great after the surgery but a year of chemo is still ahead. Since learning about her illness, I have felt very motivated to improve my lingerie-sewing skills hoping to sew some cute custom-made bras for her one day.

I made this lingerie set from Merckwaerdigh supplies. Both the lingerie kit and the pattern MIX30I were purchased from their eBay shop. They also sell supplies and patterns on Etsy with slightly different offers.

Speaking of lingerie, I am a big fun of cotton sporty type underwear and never wear lace. This time, the choice of fabric for the set was a bit extreme but intentional - I decided to sex up my underwear!


In the past, I already made a bra using Pin-up Gils Classic Bra #1230 and I would have continued wearing it had my breast cage not widened because of yoga. For the new bra, I cut a longer band so that if my breast cage becomes narrower in the future it'll be easy to alter. Regarding the size, my previous bra was a 34A, but the new bra was cut as a 32B.

A few other modifications were applied for this set:

• Since my left breast is smaller, I reduced the left cup - an easy modification due to the princess seam
• I added 1.5 cm to the bridge because, as you can see from the picture below, the distance between my breasts is quite significant
• The bra is wired and it feels quite comfortable
• I added less lace to the panties because I am just only converting into a lace-gal

Following the suggestions from the pattern, I cut the panties in a M, but it should clearly have been a L. Luckily, there's still some fabric for one or even two more pairs!


As the next step in my lingerie-making journey, I'll try to draft my own underwear patterns. I am currently working with Patternmaking for Underwear Design by Kristina Shin and I hope to be able to show you some results in April.

P.S. I've never posted pictures of myself in my underwear before, but wanted to show how it sits on a real person! *Embarrassed*

This time, the Danni Dolman dress from Style Arc is made from a gorgeous panel knit jersey from Tesutti Fabric.  I decided to cut the fabric so that the bodice remains less print heavy. Needless to say, the girl in the picture is pretty happy with the end result!






This fabric was sitting in my stash for several months waiting for the perfect project: the Danni dress. I would put it on for work/party/after-party! I would wear it all year long with different tights, bangles, scarves and earrings. I intentionally avoided the back seam featured in the pattern. If it were closer-fitting, I would not like it as much. But maybe with your critical eye you think otherwise?

Quick-project-therapy did its job and I am ready to go back to my UFO! *SIGH*

At the beginning of January, Sarai from coletterie.com wrote about her wardrobe inventory and inspired me to do something similar.

When looking at my wardrobe critically, I realized that what hangs in my wardrobe does not entirely fit my lifestyle and the garments do not always go together. For instance, I own too many fancy dresses which I have worn only once. My wardrobe also lacks some simple essentials, and could benefit from a couple of classic pieces.

When you live in Japan, sooner or later you become an otaku (geek in Japanese). The more I sew/craft and the more I develop my skills, the more I prefer working with higher quality materials and tools. Lately, I have been focusing on needles and little by little this passion has transformed me into a needle geek.

My latest discovery is Misuyabari, a needle shop which has been in the industry since 1651. They were the official needle-makers for the Emperor's palace!


On their website alone, you can count 79 types of needles (there are more in the store), and after one hour of browsing I felt overwhelmed. I ended up ordering a kit with different types of needles. From right to left in the picture below: silk needles, tsumugi needles (for thin wool and cotton), cotton needles (for wool, cotton and hemp), okuke needles (for very thin fabric), a sashiko needle, dress-making pins and thread scissors.


The distinctive feature of Misuyabari is quite a wide eye. This picture from their website showcases an average needle (on the left) and Misuyabari one (on the right). This makes it easier to thread.

Source: http://www.misuyabari.jp/index.htm

Now, I want to go to Kyoto just to buy more needles! Meanwhile, I will be working with the ones from the kit and documenting my experience. Although Gillian won't see my sewing dare finished today (SORRY), I am using the silk needle to finish my dress.

The needles felt kind of lonely in their paper envelopes and begged me to make them a nicer house. Inspired by Kyoto, the needles' place of origin, I made this tiny needle holder.


I even dared to embroider the needles' names in kana and kanji!

These are the Japanese sewing needles which I sell in my Etsy shop

Allow me a few more weeks to work with more materials and understand the needles a little bit better, and I'll give you a deeper overview of these little darlings.

Is anybody else a needle geek? Or are you nerdy about something else?