Pannier 2

My father loved this pannier so much that we organised one for his birthday a couple of weeks ago. Not such a big deal since it's Swiss army surplus :) But of course, because it came directly from an army shop, it didn't have hooks or straps to mount it on a bike. Not a problem for my father - he just made his own construction. So cool!

Vitu gefiel diese Radtasche aus Schweizer Armeebestand so gut, dass er diese Munitionstasche zum Geburtstag geschenkt bekam. Natürlich hatte die aber keine Befestigung fürs Fahrrad, da sie im Originalzustand belassen war - Nichts, was Vitu nicht beheben kann wie man auf den Fotos sieht. Kultig!!
Pics/Fotos: Vitu

The Last Summer Dress (For Now)

After 3 foggy and chilly summers in San Francisco, I was actually looking forward to spending a "real" summer in Europe - but so far it's more rain than heat. Not that I'm complaining - I love the rain and the fog, but I would love to wear my summer dresses again... So, since July is almost over, I decided that this is the last summer garment that I make for this year and that I will start sewing fall and winter clothes. There's a leather jacket on my list as well as a couple of dresses from fabrics that I have in my stash. Back to this dress: I wanted to make a bustier line shirt or dress for a long time and here it is. The pattern is self drafted, I just went from my kimono sleeve shirt pattern and drafted the bustier line. Zoe has a tutorial on her blog for a similar t-shirt. The grey fabric has unfinished edges and I stitched it to the black top yoke with a twin needle. Pretty easy.

Finally: My Excalibur Dehydrator

I am beyond excited to announce that my Excalibur Dehydrater was delivered today!! It's been quite a while that I wanted one... It would have been silly to buy one in the US because I could not have taken it with me back to Europe (different voltage). And here, they are really expensive (especially compared to the US price...). But now, with the great exchange between the Swiss Franc and the Euro, I finally made the deal:-) So, no more dehydrating nuts in the oven and I can now make my own jerky, live crackers, vegetable chips, sprouted and dehydrated lentils.... I'm off in the kitchen!

Liberty!

I made my first Liberty of London garment! I'm usually not a print person, but I loved this fabric the moment I walked into the shop. I think it's is a bit Art Nouveau like whereas my cousin said that it reminded her of African prints. That's probably because I lived in Vienna for some time and she stayed in Africa for a couple of months ;-) Anyway, I wanted to keep the dress plain and simple to highlight the print. For contrast at the hem and inner front, I chose a black cotton fabric. The dress is fully lined with a cotton batiste both for comfort and opacity.

Homemaker Dress

Back when we lived in Zürich, we had this old lady in our building who would wear apron-style dresses as her daily outfit. This dress reminds me of her (and her dresses). It has this 50ies homemaker vibe, but I think in a good way;-) I found the fabric at the same thrift store as this one and they are the same quality, just with diffrent designs. The pattern is from Burda style 4/2010, Dress 116. I added darts in the front and in the back and wear it without a belt.

Little Black Wrap Dress

This is a self drafted wrap dress with some of my favorite elements: collar, kimono sleeves, A-line skirt, black knit fabric. I first made a classic wrap dress with ties around the waist. This didn't really work with my body shape since I don't have a tiny waist that needs to be highlighted :-) I ended up making a belt-like construction in the back with two mother-of-pearl buttons that leave the front uninterupted. I really love it now and it's pretty versatile: I wore it with tights/boots in San Francisco last summer (I miss the fog!!), with sandals or as shown with Jeans/Chucks. A camisole provides modesty during the day; however, I can also wear it with just a bra for a night out.

Mirror, mirror on the wall....

They had these wonderful yellow flowers at the farmer's market this morning. A great opportunity to showcase our "flower mirror":-) It's a salvaged mirror, painted in gold. The Campari Soda vases are mounted with spring clips (the ones you use to hold tools on a wall). It't always fun to decorate it according to the season, be it with candles or branches in the winter or any kind of flowers during spring and summer...

Men's Shirt

For a long time, I thought that it was just not worth the effort to sew men's shirts - too much hassle with the collar and the cuffs and everything. And there are only so many possibilities to be creative or you have this handmade look instead of taylored perfection... Then again, my husband really looks great in fitted shirts and they can be pretty hard to find for the slim and tall. When Peter started his Men's Shirt Sew-Along and discussed fitting, I suddenly realized poorly fitted shirts everywhere. I therefore decided to join the community and embark on the journey towards the perfectly fitted shirt for my husband. This is the first attempt in the sense of a wearable muslin. It was pretty hard to find a pattern that included a small enough size, let alone that it was long enough. Burda 7767 was the closest to what I had imagined and the only adjustments I made for this first run was to add some length and darts in the back. The fabric is a thrift store find with a rather rustic look. The finished shirt has some fitting issues, but not worse than the average RTW shirt and it's perfectly wearable. It wasn't even half the pain of what I had expected and Peter loves it -there will sure be more shirts (with more alterations and hopefully less wrinkles...)!

Sewing Pattern Seat

A couple of weeks ago when we visited Hamburg, I walked into the Werkhaus store and my eyes fell on this seat immediately - I know a good sewing pattern when I see one;-) The guy at the check out however was totally surprised that I knew what I was buying - apparently, it took him several months to figure out what these lines meant....

Asymmetric Twist Top

Butterick 5283, view D. I made two modifications: First, I used the view B sleeve pattern (and made the corresponding changes to the bodice as well) because I didn't like the wide shoulders of view D with long sleeves. And second, I followed this advice and didn't line the front piece. I used fusible stay tape and a twin needle to finish the neckline - I just omitted the stay tape at the twisted part in the front because it would have shown on the outside. The picture below is a bit overexposed but I think it shows the details pretty well.
Pics by my sister.

The second to last bag I will ever buy

Guest post by Peter

For years, I wanted a stylish weekender bag that I could also take on board a plane. Then, a few weeks ago, I found a saddler who was really responsive to my wishes. The bag turned out fantastic - the leather is just awesome, the details were executed meticulously and accurately, and all the features I wanted are there. It makes full use of the permitted carry-on baggage measurements, which is perfect when this is the only piece of luggage that I take along, but might be a little too much if I also have a suitcase. The easy solution (since the saddler still has ample stock of the same leather): I will get a second one, at about half the size :)
It's super-sturdy and even has an extra front pouch to hold my little travel organizer.
Detail of the shoulder strap with a belt buckle to keep it in place. The red color was an idea of Marlise.
The inside: at the back wall is a pouch for my laptop, on the right an adjustable strap to hold a water bottle.

Grey Blossom

Yarn: 100% wool, Bernetta Davos, recycled from an old sweater
Pattern/flower in the back: adapted from Rebecca no. 29, sweater no. 22 (not in the preview)
Pattern/everything else: by me; knit in one piece with kimono sleeves

Knit Dress

I have a Knipmode subscription since December and even though I really like the magazine, this is the first project I made from it. It's dress 3 from the June issue, but I made some modifications: I added a shirt collar and omitted the lowest pleat. The finished dress had a bit too much fabric in the bust/arm region and I therefore added darts to mimic a raglan sleeve. I really love kimono sleeves, but with the pleats, a set in sleeve would probably have been the better choice. Overall, it'a a cool dress and it goes very well with jeans or leggins.
Pics by Peter

drape drape 2: no. 2 dress (long sleeve version)

This dress is inspired by drape drape 2 (by Hisako Sato), but I made my own pattern using my t-shirt sloper and the sketches in the book. The sleeves are extra long and can be pushed up for a crinkled effect. I added a bit of shaping on the side seams but I don't think this is crucial. The rayon knit I used is rather heavy but very drapey and this prevents the dress from being too bulky or shapeless. Again, this dress is flat and only drapes once you wear it.

In The Loop

I usually have two knitting projects going on at the same time: one that I knit at home and an easy one that I take on the train or plane. This was my last traveling project: a scarf, knitted in garter stitch with two rows of cables. It's a loop, the ends are crocheted together with red yarn.