Summer sewing vol.1

I have been trying to sew away my fabric stash. I get easily carried away in fabric store... I still have quite a bit of fabric left to sew so you´ll be seeing more ;) Here are some more pictures of my recently finished projects:

Lace blouse with gathered fronts. Pattern is from Burda 3/2013, one of my favorite issues of this magazine ;)

Viscose dress from Burda 3/2014 magazine. This was super tricky to sew! Bustier has a million parts and it is lined so there´s another million parts to sew. Luckily the flower pattern I chose, is forgiving and I didn´t have to worry about matching it. But imagine something like a cherry pattern, that would be impossible to match in countless seams in this bustier!

Dirndl skirt made in gingham and dupion taffeta fabrics. The apron is attached to the skirt all the way around. The pattern is from Burda 9/2014. 

Dirndl dress with button fastening made in cotton. The pattern is also from Burda 9/2014. Bodice and sleeves are embellished with piping. Tip! If you plan to sew buttonholes on piped-edge garment, trim the piping´s seam allowance to minimum so that the machine´s buttonhole foot won´t hit the extra layers. 

Dress can be worn with apron for a folk look.

Detail of the decorative topstitching. I used embroidery thread.

Full-skirted dress made in gingham. The pattern is from The Great British Sewing Bee - Sew Your Own Wardrobe. I love this book and the series as well. The patterns are timeless yet vintage inspired. I lengthened the skirt quite a bit and made the fit-adjustments. Great pattern, I will be make more of these 50´s style dresses!

Boyfriend shirt made in cotton blend fabric. This pattern is from the first Great British Sewing Bee book. 

Cook´s apron made in quilt-weight cotton fabrics. This pattern is also from the first Great British Sewing Bee book. This is my first apron! Finally I can cook without worrying that my clothes get messed. :) This is really lovely pattern with vintage elements.

Machine Dust Covers

Some of my machines were still missing a proper dust cover. Since I don´t approve of the plastic covers, I made them something nicer. :)

For the Janome CoverPro CPX 1000 aka Cornelia, I made quilted stripey cover in green and white shades:

For stripes I used 100% cotton fabrics for quilting.

I used two home dec fabrics and a lace fabric on top for one side...

... and one home dec fabric, duchess satin and lace fabric on top for the other one. Satin ribbons are topstitched.

Details of decorative topstitching sewn on Henrietta. I used topstitch and embroidery threads.

For Singer 221K Featherweight aka Fiona, I made cover and some accessories. Foot control is stored in its own draw-string bag. Flip-table has its own cover since it hits the screw on the face-plate while turned up and that can scratch the table.

Cover turned upside down turns into a storage bag that fits into Fiona´s case. No scratches on my machine while pulling it out of the case. ;)

Dust cover/ storage bag with hand quilted hexagons. 

Union Jack cushion I designed last year got finally finished too! Blue triangles are replaced with little brown hexagons fitted into the triangles. Diagonal red stripes are topstitched with decorative stitches.

Singer 201K

As soon as I read the history about the Singer 201K, I knew I had to have one. Just to pick up some of the stories:

"Possibly the best machine Singer has ever made..." 

This machine was presented to HRH Princess Elisabeth as a wedding gift in 1947. 

Also it is rumored that Rolls Royce used these machines for some of their upholstery.

I searched and searched the local auction websites, but it seemed like this machine was nowhere to be found. I saw one in a treadle but hesitated to get it since I don´t have a room for another treadle. And I really wanted electric machine to see what all the fuss was about. :) Finally I saw an advert for "some old Singer sewing machine" and immediately recognized the 201. In a couple of hours the machine was mine. And (again) I foolishly went to pick it up without a trolley. Good Heavens this machine is super heavy! I only managed to carry it 8 steps at a time. Seriously, not what you would call a portable machine. ;) 

And here she is, meet Agatha:

Singer 201K made in Great Britain in 1936. I named her Agatha since most of Hercule Poirot films are situated in this year.

And now the problem, Agatha hasn´t been used for decades. All of her wiring was falling apart. I guess you can expect that from an 80 years old machine.

Light wiring after we took the lamp off.

The whole machine was taken apart, cleaned and rewired. Motor got lubricated and the machine got oiled properly.

Motor taken apart before cleaning and rewiring. The carbon brushes haven´t been worn out, so we didn´t replace them with new ones. I´ll have to order new ones just in case as I plan to use this machine a lot. :)

Here she is after the job was done. Ready to sew.

Agatha has beautiful ornamented face-plate. I saw the same ornament on some early Featherweight machines. My 1955 Featherweight Fiona has striped face-plate so I´m happy I got this one on Agatha.

Plug with new wiring. This model has a knee bar instead of a foot control. I cannot operate the knee bar due to my tiny sewing table. It doesn´t fit. But the plug is identical with the one Fiona has and her foot control works on Agatha well! Happy me :)

Even the motor cover is embellished with decals. It is a shame they don´t put decals on machines anymore. In my opinion the modern machines have a serious lack of grace. And they´re white! Why?

Beautiful trademark and the stitch length dial. This machine is famous for it´s precise stitches. Oh, and it sews backwards too, isn´t it great? ;)

I´m really happy I got this machine and it is now in a working order. I hope she´ll serve me years. I plan to sew most of straight stitch seams on her...

Summer is on the way!

Long time, no see... I was sewing a lot past time, but as I was so caught in sewing and getting my projects done, I somehow forgot to take the pictures. So I couldn´t really post any progress on this blog. Well, I´ll have to try better this aspect of creative process ;)

So, I finally took a few pictures of some of the projects I´ve made past two months, some are still untaken...

I made my first pyjamas! The pattern is from last year´s December issue of Burda. I used cotton flannel fabric and instead of piping I used (again) lace trim. I´m quite happy with it, I´ll make more nightwear in the future.

Detail of a pocket with iron-on patch.

Detail of a sleeve with lace trim. 

Asymetrical wrap-around skirt from January issue of Burda. This was super easy and quick sew. The skirt is fastend up with two buttons. I used slightly stretchy jacquard fabric.

Front edges are supported with petersham ribbon. The pattern suggest to leave all edges unfinished but I´m not a fan of frayed unfinished edges so I used my Bebe overlocker to finish all edges and hem as well.

Maxi dress in linen-cotton blend fabric. Dress is fully lined. Pattern is from last year´s April issue of Burda. This was quite a complicated pattern, it had many pieces and lining pieces had to be attached to main pieces separately rather then finished lining against finished garment. But it was fun. I have a fabric for another one. ;)  I entered "Summer´s most adorable outfit" sewing competition with this dress. Is it a winner? ;)

Detail of a bustier. Tiny heart shaped buttons and loops and of course a lace trim!

Back of the dress is knotted.

Satin blouse with gathered neck and sleeves from Burda 11/2013 and lace skirt from Burda 3/2013.

Jacquard dress with petersham ribbon embellishment from Burda 3/2013.