Category — customize

when i’ve heard how big my stand at the craft fair will be (2 x 1 meter) i thought about how to decorate it. i yet don’t know it but i knew i needed a table cloth to hide some boxes unter it.

so i got me 2 pieces of white cotton from IKEA that i will sew together in order to cover the whole table. my brother made me a stencil of my label.

with white and navy blue texile paint i’ve mixed a pretty light blue color to stencil on the fabric.

the amount was JUST right to cover everything.

with a kitchen sponge it was pretty easy to dab the paint. since the template didn’t stick on the fabric it was a bit difficult to hold. the edges didn’t turn out 100% accurate but that’s fine.

happy happy joy joy.

yeah… welcome to idotland… don’t forget to put something under the fabric before you paint.

my paint dried very quickly so i could remove the stencil right away. after letting it rest until it’s desert dry i had to iron it to fix.

and that’s the result.

i can’t show you how it looks like on a table but i will tell about my stand after the event. stay tuned for more :-)

The other day I’ve found one of my favorite sweaters deep down in my closet only to realize it “shrunk”. Uhm… I remember that one day it didn’t fit anymore and makes me look fat but I still love it as it’s so warm and cozy. So what can you do? I decided to make a cardigan out of it in 3 easy peasy steps.

Cut it open.

I used some scrap fabric that had the length of the cut and made two fabric stripes

which edges were folded to the middle to have something that looks like the right stripe.

I pinned these stripes to the cut edge and sewed along.

15 mins later it was done. I attached one of my labels since I recently read it can be good to wear things you made yourself to promote and so I thought my label would be cool in there :-)

It looks very nice and it’s a quick adjustment that you can easily do even when you don’t have the slightest sewing skill. As long as you can stitch straight you don’t have to throw away your pullovers that you grew out of… uuhhmmm… I mean… pullovers that shrinked overnight! haha.  Happy sewing.

Something that made me think how genius certain problems can be solved was Jenny Hart’s idea how to make a red wine spot disappear. She simply stitches a lovely flower over the stain. Isn’t that clever? You saved your garment by even making it more unique. Think of how many kid’s t-shirts or dresses you can save with this technique. Amazing! Makes you want to get dirty all over :-)

UPDATE:

My sister-in-law sent me something in reaction to this post which solves this problem as well and made me burst out laughing. Here in Germany they are called “Kotztierchen” which basically means puking animals and they’re little pins that you can put next to the stain so that it looks like… well.. you know. Haha. The expression on their face is just priceless. Another nice way to deal with a stain.

Today I’m going to tell you about finding the perfect dirndl. The dirndl dress is essential for the Oktoberfest and women don’t go to the Wiesn without it. For me this was a task that almost made me go berserk. I thought I’d check the net, find one, order, try it on, keep, pay, done! YEAH RIGHT! I checked out the internet and found an insane number of different dirndls. And now – I mean I’m a woman looking for a dress – choose ONE. It took me 6 weeks and 7 dirndls to find the right one. After that the word alone made me scream.

It started with this one. The very first dirndl I liked very much though it made me feel like little red riding hood. I mean… I live in Hessen (German state) and I’m so not used to wear this kind of fashion except of maybe for carnival. It’s weird. Totally a Bavarian thing. Me with an apron…. Ok – but this dress was fine (that’s why I’m smiling) BUT the girls said it’s too large. It crumpled on the sides and they said if I can still breathe it’s too large. Actually I thought it’s too long but nooooo it was too large. NEXT.

This model here was exactly the size I needed (according to the girls). For me that was exactly the size that made me catch my breath. Standing was ok. Moving not so much. My boobs were right under my chin and I still wonder how we managed to close that dress. I didn’t like the color. On the screen it looked much better. NEXT.

The next dirndl looked fantastic on the model in the internet. It looked like a cleaning rag on me. It was too long, it was too large, the blouse had too many ruffles… uaahhhh. NEXT.

This one here was actually the one I liked best though the apron had a color that was not so much my taste but changing the apron would be no problem. I just thought the black would be too harsh. And by that time this one here arrived I already chose the one that I finally kept. While I waited for this 3 other ones arrived and in the end I chose

… this one! I just liked it when I saw it. It’s brown and the top and the skirt are in different colors, the apron is silky… it’s just fine. And I had to stop at some time, right?! Together with the little deer it’s a nice outfit.

Though breathing is difficult in this one too. I maybe have to wear it at home before the Wiesn to stretch it a bit.

And since I bought that in an online store I assume that there will be many many other women sporting this dress. So I thought I’d pimp it a little bit. I took the Tattoo Your Towel set from Sublime Stitching patterns and stitched along. First I wanted that banner but then I didn’t know what to write in it so I ended up stitching a heart.

A simple way to enhance a piece of clothing. One of my favorites. It’s easy and with the fabulous patterns from Jenny Hart it’s done in no time.

That was the dirndl story. Looking for a wedding dress cannot be worse now at least I’m prepared :-)

Tomorrow I’ll show you a nice collection of fun accessories for the Oktoberfest so stay tuned.

Even though some of you think I’m a sewing rockstar I can definitely tell you I’M NOT. I fail all the time – just like yesterday. My intentions were good but the execution sucked big time. I tell you upfront: THIS is NOT a tutorial – I want to show you exactly what you shouldn’t do. (hm… when I think of it it’s a tutorial after all)

So I have this great shirt by Diesel. It’s plain white with violet font. But it’s too wide as I bought a men’s size M. I didn’t know they had the shirts for women, too so that’s why I bought it. Though I like my shirts a little roomier these days that shirt was just too wide and so I decided to make it a bit smaller. Couldn’t be that difficult and it actually isn’t. Basically what I did was fine and worked well but let me finish this post so you can see.

What you need to do is really easy. You turn the shirt inside out and pin the edges so that the seams are all straight.

Then you make the mark away from the seam according to how small you want your shirt to be. I tried the shirt on and thought 3 cm on each side is ok so I marked at 2,5 cm. You have to consider the seam allowance.

Then you cut the shirt in pieces. Here I made sure the needles were still holding the shirt together after cutting so that everything stays in place.

Until here everything was fine and all this took 15 minutes. Now that it came to sewing I made TWO big mistakes that I wasn’t aware of until I saw the result. First bummer was that I sewed straight. The problem here is the material. The shirt is (to be honest a very cheap) jersey – which is elastic – which the straight sewing stitch is not! After I sewed the first line I had this tension in the fabric and somehow it didn’t feel right. And what was even worse – I could see the fabric was having micro small holes right by the sewing line. I googled and found the solution. For jersey you need a zig-zag stitch so that the fabric stays elastic by the seam line. OK. I did use the zig-zag stitch on the other side and realized that was way better. BUT the holes would still be there. I googled. Again. And THERE was THE answer. Jersey needs to be handled with a jersey needle. Uff. I didn’t know that.

Now I learned my lesson. Next time – before sewing with a material I’m not familiar with – google FIRST. What needle, what thread, which stitch!

Here you might see… the shirt is tighter now. I wanted to cut the collar as well and make it a bit bigger but I couldn’t bother anymore after fearing loosing my shirt any minute. It survived a party though. Next time I pass by an american apparel store I’ll buy a good quality shirt and sew the design on the shirt. This actual t-shirt is a mess and I wouldn’t wear it at daylight.

But it proves that I’m stupid :-) Basically I didn’t actually fail. I just found a way that doesn’t work!  Next time I know better and now YOU know, too!