Sade's Blog

A quicky to tell you that Ottobre Design has a contest up. You can enter here. Chances are to “be entered in a draw for a wrap and tunic made to your own measurements as well as for two viscose/wool wraps”. You can see the wrap on the cover of this number:

Today I went (virtually) for a fabric stash enhancement. I discovered the German store Stoffhaus Tippel on Sena Sews’ blog, Sew Be Do. On a note not related to fabric, I am amazed at how much German I understand now that I know Dutch. Anyway, with the pattern drafting project comes of course the sewing of said patterns. And to sew the patterns I will need fabric.

Taking advantage that Stoffhaus Tippel has a few fabrics on sale, and others are quite affordable while not on sale, I went on a spree and bought fabric enough to sew three skirts (one with underskirt) and a jacket (or two and a dress) for my mother and a t-shirt, some trousers, a dress and a skirt & jacket combo or another dress or trousers for myself. And so I don’t forget what fabric is what, and what is it destined to be, I’m listing here what I bought.

For my mother:

• Ramie Linnen in a dark natural solid color. 100% linnen, 140cm wide, 340 grams per meter. 1,6 meters at 6,95€/m. It will become a skirt.
• Broderie Anglaise in chocolate brown. 65% polyester 35% cotton, 145 cm wide, 110 grams per meter. 1,6 meters at 4,80€/m. It will become a skirt with underskirt.
• Batiste in light cream. 65% polyester 35% cotton, 150 cm wide, 160 grams per meter. 1,6 meters at 3,00€/m. It will be the underskirt mentioned above.
• Stretch Poly-Wool mix, in beige. 42% wool 55% polyester 3% elastan, 150 cm wide. 4 meters at 2,00€/m (down from 7,50€). It will become a skirt and a jacket, or a dress.

And for myself:

• Stretch Jeans in black. 97% cotton 3% elastan, 125 cm wide. 3 meters at 2,50€. Will become a pair of trousers for myself (either jeans style or dressier).
• Stretch Poly-Wool in grey. 42% wool 55% polyester 3% elastan, 150 cm wide. 4 meters at 2,00€/m (down from 7,50€).Will become a pair of trousers and a jacket, or a dress and short jacket.
• Pure wool in a blue / grey / lilac flecked colorway. 100% wool, 150 cm wide. 3 meters at 2,50€ (down from 9,50€). Will become a short sleeved winter dress. It’s sold out, bummer.
• Wool-Poly Jersey in black. 50% wool, 50% polyamid, 160 cm wide. Approx 1.9 meter at 4,00€/m (down from 7,50€/m). Will become a LBD (although not so Little since I’m not what you’d call little). This substitutes the flecked pure wool from above, that is sold out (insert pouting face here).
• Stretch cotton jersey in red. 95% cotton 5% elastan, 145 cm wide. 2 meters at 4,90€/m. It will become a t-shirt style top, hip length.

The total came to be 64,40€ (still the same since I ordered fabric for the same value to substitute what was sold out), plus 12€ shipping. That is 76,40€, and an average of 3,67€/m 3,88€/m including shipping. I can’t complain. If I add up how much it would have been with original prices, it would have come to 129,40€ 115,05€ before shipping (in which case the shipping would have been 6€, and 6,51€/m 5,84€/m on average). I saved 59€ 45€. I can do a little happy dance and start drafting patters now!

Quirks of this shopping:

• the store is only in German, so if you don’t speak German, be ready to use a dictionary or translation website,
• sometimes the classification of the fabrics makes no sense (at least to me), so take your time to browse all the categories,
• they only specify shipping for Germany and rest of Europe. If you’re planning on shopping from abroad, you’ll have to email them to check the shipping rates,
• they only take bank transfers for payment. Forget about credit / debit cards and paypal.

Other than that, it was quite a painless shopping. I’ll let you know when my fabric arrives and I’ll make sure to take pictures for the stash.

I have set myself to learn a new hobby, a useful one. Pattern drafting! Yes, you’ve read right, I’m going to learn to draft my own patterns, perfectly fitted to my body (ok, and maybe someone’s else).

I got all my tools: pencils, measuring tape, big sheets op paper (or actually, a roll of white paper), a French curve, and book teaching me how to draft.

Now, to start with the A-line skirt and move on to more difficult patterns. Because I have a dress idea perfect for autumn/winter.

It’s quite easy to turn an old t-shirt (actually, you only need the sleeve, as long as it’s a big t-shirt) into a phone pouch.

If you want to see the tutorial, please click here, or you can find it on the right, under Patterns and Tutorials!

PS: Edited cause the link was wrong. It’s fixed now. Thanks.

It seems like lately I don’t feel like updating much or often. It might be because right now I have nothing to update on. Life is mostly boring and routinely for me. I’m not in classes or have a work (yet, I’m looking…). I actually was supposed to be working now, trial period, but got called that they were going to hire someone that had previously worked at the place and wanted to work full time, instead of lacking experience me that wanted to work part time cause I’ll be in classes hopefully soon.

Last week I went to Knit Flanders. And I forgot my camera so I didn’t take any pictures. Mostly we knitted, had some drinks, and some people had cake too. It was fun. I had to leave early because I wanted to go to UCT and ask about enrolling in the intensive Dutch courses. I have to go again this week after I filled some paperwork so I can enroll and take a placement test.

I also won the Free Fabric Friday over at Sew, Mama, Sew‘s blog. Which means I got a yard of the fabric of my choice. And I chose a lovely Japanese Floral Blue Full Blossom:

Picture Credits: Sew, Mama, Sew.
Click on the picture to go to the store and buy this fabric.

I still don’t know what I will do with the 44″ wide yard (110 x 90 cm approximately) . Options that come to mind: easy peasy A-line skirt, some sort of top, bag of some kind, or just thought of decorating a bulleting board with it to hang in the studio.

Maybe next week I have more news, maybe not. Stay tunned!

I know I haven’t posted in a month and a half. Life hasn’t been so hectic as to put it as an excuse not to post, to be honest. I just haven’t been in the mood to post, and didn’t really have that much to talk about either. I still miss Macchiatto dearly, our little cavy, it makes me sad thinking about all that we could have done and didn’t know to do in time.

What has been going on since then? Not much, I have been getting used to living in Ghent with Jan, me mostly been at home doing stuff, as it was pointless finding a job for two months, then come back to Madrid for another month, then finding another job when I get back to our home at the end of the month. Officially, I’ve been marked as house-wife, never mind I’m not a wife! And that’s actually what I’ve been doing most: grocery shopping (thanks given that we have two shops within easy walking distance), cooking, cleaning, laundry, ironing, and so on and so forth.

I’ve also been preparing more paperwork to enroll at UGent. I need to fill in a lengthy application form and give them ton of information from my previous University. I’m hoping they’ll accept me and also transfer my credits. It’d be a great help if I only have 1 to 1.5 years left to get my Bachelors, and then another 2 for my Masters. The end is near, way closer than at my previous University, which is sad. I’m also going to enroll at UCT for either the preparatory year of Dutch, or only the levels I still need to take (3rd to 6th) preferably.

On the cooking and baking front, I haven’t innovated much or made up any recipes worth posting. I’ve kept to my staples with the savory, and not done much baking either. I made curry, and stir fries, some baked casseroles and the usual. I baked some muffins and was planning on cookies but forgot to buy cookie sheets!

I did get three balcony rectangular planters, and filled them with dirt, put some seeds in, and patiently waited for them to grow. I have Lettuce, Rainbow Chillies, Rocket, Leaf Beet (or Perpetual Spinach), Land Cress, Basil, Rosemary, Marjoram, Chives… All ready to pick when I need some. Nothing better than a sandwich with lettuce right off the plant. Or a pesto with such fresh basil (crossing fingers it grows enough that I have enough to make pesto soon).

Craft wise, I finished a beret (no pic), that still needs the ends sewn in. And I started on a lace shawlette using the Luna Moth Shawl free pattern from Elann, and a fingering weight yarn that’s a bamboo / silk / cotton blend, in creamy white. Since a post without pictures is boring, I’ll put one here of the shawl:

I also got a set of funny giraffe rubber stamps. I made some thank you notes and gift tags that I plan on putting up for sale. I sewed a beach dress for me, using my brand new sewing machine that I plan on use a lot (Promise!). I’m right now waiting on an eBay auction to finish, and hopefully I’ll be the owner of 3.5m of MacKenzie Seaforth tartan to make a high waisted skirt.

I think that’s about it. Hopefully next time it will be sooner than with this post.

Cheers!

It’s a smocked dress!

There is this contest where you can win a (nice and expensive Singer) sewing machine or a (nice and expensive Singer) dress form. All you have to do is sew a “swimsuit cover-up”, and post a picture on the flickr group, and you’ve entered. So I decided to make a summer dress that can double as cover-up and enter the contest. The result:

I used an Ikea remnant of Bomull (100% cotton, unbleached). Costed me 2,30€ for approximately 2,25m (normal price: 1,99€/m). A spool of elastic thread (3€), and a spool of matching thread (2€).

Yesterday I traced the pattern, loosely based on the Mendocino Summerdress free pattern, which I had to grade to my size (I am, sadly, not an L). Then I decided I didn’t like in-seam pockets, and I had fallen in love with pleated patch pockets. And finally today I cut all the pieces and got to learn how my sewing machine works (new one, cause otherwise I had to borrow one, and it wasn’t that expensive). And a few hours later, I had the dress above!

It’s not quite like MaryPoppins’ Carpet-bag, not because I don’t like hers, but because I’m looking for instructions to make one ;) It also doesn’t fit a lamp, or a night stand or an umbrella, but it does fit all the stuff I carry on Mondays to school¹.

It’s a simple zippered flat bottom trapezoid bag. Bottom is wider than top and the sides are straight. It has two long wide sturdy straps so you can hung it over your shoulder to carry all the stuff. It’s fully lined, and there is a (giant) hole on the lining to insert a cardboard base to make it stiffer. It also has two small pockets inside, for tissues and other small things that I don’t want to have floating around.

Read more »

So, I’m signing up for Iyengar Yoga in the end. I’ll go tomorrow to enroll. The pilates class is all full. And the Integral Yoga is too spiritual for my taste. I’ll only have one class a week, but it’ll be nice.

I needed a bag to carry my mat, so today I sewed one, from a bit of cotton canvas from Ikea. Less than a meter of Ikea Bettina (discontinued) cotton fabric, one 80cm zipper, and some black thread later, I got this:

Now I can take my mat along with style :)

I love reading, love it. I used to read one book per week, now with university and work, I’m down to about a book every two weeks, more or less. So, I was running out of reading material, and after I asked Jan for a few books to read, I decided to order some other books. What did I buy?

• The Secrets of Jin Shei, by Alma Alexander.
• In the Company of the Courtesan, by Sarah Dunant
• Empress Orchid, by Anchee Min
• Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, by Isa Chandra & Terry Hope
• Cocina Oriental (Asian Cooking), from IKEA cooking book series
• Cocina Vegetariana (Vegetarian Cooking), from IKEA cooking book series
• Cocina Festiva (Party Cooking), from IKEA cooking book series

(click the pic for a bigger view)

On top of that pile of books, my first Moleskine notebook. I fell in love with these expensive notebooks a while back, and finally I caved in and bought me a large blank one. It’s being used for random writing and doodling, for collage, for memories, that sort of thing. Where did I buy it? Altaïr bookstore stocks all the notebooks in Madrid! I’m pondering getting a City Notebook for Madrid as well, so I can note down all our finds.

On a side note, I have a five day weekend! The first of may is Workers’ Day, the second is City Holiday, and I’m taking the 30th of April off school (classes have been changed, anyway – so I’m not missing anything). Plans for this loooong weekend include: knitting, sewing (I have some pretty Ikea fabric to make a yoga mat bag and a weekender bag), studying (gotta boost up the study time, exams are coming up, dammit!), taking care of sweet bunny and pet sparrow, cooking, reading, sleeping, working on freelance project, and doing pilates (Yay I’m being a good girl and doing pilates and it shows!)