A little piece of heaven

My friend Kristiina is a true sewist, that is she has some schooling in sewing and actually knows how to sew, and she was going to a sewing notions shop that I've never heard of before, called Irtico. She's making a dress for our mutual friend Anne, who also came along. I joined them for a brisk day walk, since the place was just accross the river, and  also cause I couldn't resist the temptation (lol). The shop was hidden in the old Barker weaving mill (a place where my granny and her parents, the original Malmikkos, actually worked in the 30's and 40's) and when we got there I felt like I was walking in to a dream! Shelves and shelves filled with buttons, threads, zippers and along the back wall even fabrics! I could've melted there and then I tell you. My friends knew exactly what they wanted so I was left alone to wonder what to take with me. And to top it all, all the fabrics were half off and the buttons 5 cents a piece! I guess in the end the overwhelming abbundance of drool worthy notions made me settle for just a tiny bit. I also figured that now that I know where the place is I can go there anytime, since it's only a ten minute bike ride away.

I had to have these, since they have the exact same color as the lavender satin I thrifted I while back.

These are going to a summer top that has been a U.F.O for quite some time.

These yellow buttons will brighten up some lucky dress!

And these olive buttons I got for the Ceylon dress. All I need to so is to find the fabric to go with these, hehee.

Too bad the picture doesn't show the real color, this is actullay a really deep green satin that I simply had to have. It was half off, and cost 6 euros per meter, I took 3 meters with me home and am now constantly thinking of getting some more..

I finished one dress today and tomorrow I'll try and finish a skirt and another dress, so outfit photos are bound to come soon!

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Ompelijaystäväni johdatti minut tänään uuteen ompelutarvikeliikkeesee, joka sijaitsee ihan liian lähellä, hehee. Paikka oli täynnä ihania nappeja ja vetoketjuja ja lankoja ja nauhoja. Oli vaikeaa tyytyä vain vähään mutta se onnistui, vaikka napit olivat vain 5 senttiä kappale! Jos paikka kiinnostaa, käykää täällä.

Quick post on another grey day

It's grey and rainy again. I had a terrible desire to just stay at home and do some schoolwork and sewing. Luckily though, I found myself without coffee (catastrophy!) and so I stepped out for a nice walk to town. And as I came to the river (I live right by the Aura River) I was greeted by running water! Just a few days ago the river had ice cover and now it's all melted away! How I love spring! Anyway, I carried on and went to get the buttons (and some zippers) from the fabric store. I came home and found a brown envelope on my door step. Inside were these lovely vintage buttons I ordered just last week, now how quick was that! I got these from LillianOlive  that carries a large array of buttons of all sorts. I'll definitely go there again! I already know where I'll use the brown buttons, but the others will have to wait for a suitable project.

Look how wonderful! Heather had added those little pink buttons in the parcel as well, how sweet!

And I finished the Pink Sweetness Dress! I'll post more pictures on that tomorrow.

Seven little buttons all finally sewn.

Progress on the Pink Sweetness Dress (hereby called)

I got so much done today! Yay me! I started on the Stil 8777 dress yesterday. I traced the pattern pieces and cut them from the muslin fabric. Today I made the muslin, alterations and almost the entire bodice piece!The first muslin wasn't much of a looker; the neckline was too wide and it dragged to the sides. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to show you, the sun wasn't my friend today when I tried to photo the muslins. I did a few little tweeks: widened the neck darts and straightened the shoulderline by taking 1 cm of. The muslin was pretty perfect after this. I then started to trace the patterns on the underlining cotton. The downside for me with this pattern (and all the Stil patterns) is the fact that it doesn't have seam allowances on the pattern pieces. Therefore there aren't any notches either. So I added the seam allowances and of course when it was time to cut the cotton I cut one of the sleeve pieces along the seamline not the seam allowance line. Luckily this was the underlining cotton so it was only a matter of doing things anew.

Tracing the patterns on my drawing table aka ironing board.

I followed Gertie's tutorial on the underlining except I didn't handbaste the pieces together. I don't trust my handbasting skills. Instead I used a ton of pins and machine basted the pieces together here and there. For example I sew a row of stiches in the middle of the darts and in the curved bits. This way the stiches worked also as a staystich. Don't be alarmed with the yellow lines, they don't show on the right side and should come off in the wash.

This was the first time I've ever sewn princess seams. I got to tell you that it wasn't a totally unnerving experience but I managed to come up with two nice seams. The princess seams are on the backside of the bodice, the front has darts and an opening for a button closure. I was a bit worried about the front darts at first because they looked really pointy on the muslin. Luckily they don't look that way once the bodice is worn. Since I used a double fabric the seams are also all a bit heavy. I'm thinking of maybe trimming the darts but I'll wait till the dress is all done. before worrying about that too much.

A nice and nearly perfect princess seam finisfed with a zigzag line.

I was beginning to dream about a serger after the millionth zigzag seam, sigh..

After I'd sewn all the darts, the princess seams, the shoulder seams and side seams it was time to sew on the facing. Although the intruction sheet only recommended using interface on the button strip, I used it also on the facing piece just to stabilize the neckline more. Though it seamed like a good idea, the result of two-layered fabric plus an interfaced single-fabric wasn't that good after all. I'm still hoping that after ironing and ironing some more the neckline will look alright. Interesting thing about ironing this fabric, the fabric (100 per cent cotton) changed color when I ironed it. The pink parts turned peachy. In the end I actually like the effect that it gives. Wonder about why that happened still.

Facing pinned and ready to be sewn.

After the facing I decided it was time to quit for the day. At least on the machine (lol). I covered some buttons with the fabric and came up with a new problem: what buttons to use?! The fabric is really really cute, and I'm worrying if it becomes unbearably so with the self-fabric buttons. I need seven buttons for this and the only ones that I have in my poor button stash are these ones:

Dark buttons, yay or nay?

This is how the bodice looks with the self-fabric buttons (need to buy two more):

Decisions, decisions, this is the world of a sewist.

Well, maybe I'll worry about that tomorrow. It's good have something else to think about besides setting the sleeves, yikes! I'm also thinking about making the handsewn buttonholes that Sunni shared, but will have to see if I'll be able to find descent materials for them.

The dreaded sleeves await for tomorrow.

***

Ompelukone sai laulaa kyllikseen tänään. Sain tehtyä Stil 8777 mekon koeversion, muutokset kaavaan ja ompeltua lopullista versiota yläosan verran. Vuorasin mekkokankaan valkoisella ohuella puuvillalla, koska päällikangas oli mielestäni turhan läpinäkyvä yläosaksi. Kaksinkertaisen kankaan ompeleminen olikin sitten hieman haasteellista, mutta nyt yläosa on vuorauksineen ja tukikankaineen koossa. Huomenna luvassa hihojen istutus ja alaosan ompelu. Sitten jääkin enää napit ja näpinlävet sekä tietysti vetoketju! Vielä kun saisi päätettyä mitä nappeja tuohon miehustaan laittaisi...

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Edit: I'm going with the self-fabric buttons. It'll make accessorising much easier.

Thrifted March (and some fabric shopping)

Until I discovered the wonderful of sewing and vintage clothing I wasn't much of a thrifter. I remember that we did go to jumble sales and thrift stores every weekend when I was a child. But for some reason that faded away when I moved on my own. I guess I thought that there just wasn't any good thrift stores about, at least at a walking distance (this for me means 5km). And there really aren't that many in here, but now I've found at least one that always has something to offer, the Salvation Army Thrift Store. There is another thrift store in the centre (the UFF Thrift Store) but it's way too expensive to be one in my opinion. There's also a big thrift store on the other side of town, but since it's such a long way away, I haven't really bothered to go there.  Since the vintage scene has become a bit of a fashion thingy lately there are new vintage stores popping out here and there. They are (at least for now) the only places besides the web that I've found vintage sewing patterns.

The reason I thrift is basically to find affordable fabrics. And it's also an environmentally friendly way to sew, I think. I always look through the linens and curtains. Some stores also have a big pile of abandoned fabric pieces and buttons and buckles. Here are some that I've found this month.

A big pile of buckles. Think of all the belts I'll be able to make! They're on some thrifted lavender satin that I'm thinking of making into this:

Metallic buttons. I just had to have these, they were so lovely:

Leather buttons! Do I need to say more?!:

 

The pattern here is thrifted but the fabric I found at the sale section of the fabric store. It's really light and sweet but I think I have to underline it with some white cotton:

This is a lovely sheer cotton piece that I found for 1 euro! I saw the film "Glorious 39" last week and have been dreaming about the yellow dress that Anne wore at the picnic.This fabric combined with some more yellow cotton would be ideal for this look. The film is filled with stunning pieces, I would gladly take them all home, but for now this would do:

Today I rummaged around the children's section in the thrift store and found these two duvet covers that fould make great shirts: 

Then there was this candy striped cotton that was a sale find. I'm thinking of making this into this:

And since it's always nice to daydream of being a classy lady with gloves I bought a pair of lace beige ones for 1 euro:

I also got some yellow lining and a deep forest green chiffon that will go to my stash for now. Some of the thrifted fabrics are already made into a dress, like the McCall dress. Hopefully the next one will be a success too.

***

Pelastusarmeijasta on tullut se paikka, josta aina löytää jotain uutta ja ihanaa ompeluja varten. Maaliskuun saaliiden jälkeen tarvikkeita on taas muutamia ihanan kevyitä kesämekkoja varten!