I know it´s rather hot for tea right now, but bare with me for a couple of minutes because this kind of Tea is really a summer cool down if you´re needing one. The lovely Nelleke and some other talented ladies had this pretty cool idea for a tour and I must confess I was pretty intrigued by the pattern so challenge accepted, ha! The Tea House by Sew House Seven can either be a top or a dress, has cuffed dolman sleeves, a V neck with a front yoke accent and ties around the waist. It´s not my usual cup of tea as the style I usually wear, but I could see the pattern´s potential.

I had this fabric already used up as a kimono I made a couple of years ago when I knew nothing about sewing techniques; really, the finishings made me weep everytime I picked it up and I was just waiting for the perfect pattern to come along to save it.

In order to make it work, I had to make a few changes to the Tea House; I removed the back pleat and made the back yoke as part of the back piece so the back fabric panel would shine - back, back, back, haha! Then for the front yoke, since I wasn´t doing the ties, I joined it to the lower panel as a whole piece. The fabric had this band print that looked perfect for me as an accent but to make it work I had to add a center front seam. Also, it´s cut on the crossgrain so extra pins, basting, glue, whatever you can think of was used to keep it nice and steady when I joined it to the front side panels. I used the same band print as an accent on the cuffs.

Inside it´s fnished with the front and back facings the pattern includes (just shortened the front facing a bit because I didn´t need it that long), understitched and tacked down at the shoulder seams, you know the drill. The pattern is beautifully drafted with impeccable instructions, so it´s perfect to play a bit with the pieces if you need or want to change something to make it more you.

The fabric is a really light silky viscose with a Zara print (which they sold as a kimono, hence my inglorious try to copy it, ha!) and a nightmare to press. I did my best to match the print at the front side panels; still, is it too busy at the eye? Maybe I should have broken it up with some piping... Paneled fabrics are hard to use and match up and the fact that I was upcycling didn´t give me too much room to play around with the fabric pieces. Neverthless, the boho summery feeling I was looking for is there, the top is loose but still with a bit of fit, I´m a happy happy gal!

August 9th: Rebel and Malice / Gaafmachine / Stahlarbeit
August 10th: In a manner of sewing / Sew happy / Mottenfrosch
August 11th: Sew Mariefleur / KreaMino / Fairies, Bubbles and Co. / Frölein Tilia
August 12th: Made by Sara / Just Add Fabric / Little Cumquat

And what about some cookies to go with that tea, hehe? Would you like to win a pattern of your choice from Sew House Seven? Peggy from Sew House Seven has generously offered to sponsor this giveaway, thank you! And UPDATE, La Finch Fabrics is also on board, offering each winner 6 yards of apparel fabric, woohoo! So, come on and write a comment on GAAFmachine´s post! We will pick two lucky winners next Monday 15th of August using a random generator. Good luck and put those kettles on!

I think my absolute favorite sews are becoming hacks. Really, it´s getting in my system now and using great base patterns is making the hacking experience ultra gratifying. Not that the base patterns aren´t great as they are: it´s exactly because of that, because they fit wonderfully and are so well designed that they work so well also with some mods. A few weeks ago the new Eleena dress by Coffee and Thread was released (my tester version is here) and I couldn´t wait to give the pattern another go in a more relaxed and day to day look: meaning knit, right? I do love a good structured dress, but there´s no running away from the comfiness a knit dress gives.

The stripes + denim combo was something I´d seen on Boden a while ago and was dying to try. The stripes jersey was in my stash for a while now and the light denim was from some maternity trousers I had kept for upcycling. Now that I look at it more, it reminds me of "where´s Wally?", ha!
Let´s talk hacks: first I lowered the neckline by 1 cm all around, making the front curve more pronounced, so I could omit the back zipper. Another cm from the neckline was taken in account for the binding SA. The sleeves were also adjusted by slash and spread (or overlap in this case), removing about 2cm total ease from the sleeves head and adjusting the sleeve cap curve making it a little more straight. This made the sleeve fit perfectly regarding ease on the old armscye, but I should have adapted that as well, by rising it a bit, as it now sits beyond the shoulder point. No real harm done, she´ll grow and it will lay in place eventually.

To finish off the neckline I used binding that came with the fabric and was the worst finish I´ve ever done. It´s inconsistent in width all around but my serger hated it and when I went to my machine to try and correct it, it just made it worse, so I stopped fiddling with it and embraced imperfection. Ahh, liberating. Not really. I wanna rip that thing off and correct it asap. I also used the same binding for the cuffs; I kept the width of the sleeves and made the cuffs about 1,5cm shorter for the puffy look I love. Keep in mind that all these measurements I´m refering have to be adjusted depending on your fabric stretch, so always test first if it fits when it comes to bindings.

Of course, when you use stripes it´s mandatory you drive yourself crazy trying to match them at all seams. The flare line of the dress makes that chevron effect at the side seams where the stripes match. For the sleeves, well I tried. During cutting I realised they wouldn´t match perfectly because the stripes were to large and along the armscye curve they would go beyond their color match.  I also manipulated fabric a lot during the sewing itself, meaning I stretched it enough to make them match where I could but not too much that they wouldn´t match the essential notches to keep the fit right. Overall, I´m happy that the sleeves stripes follow along the dress main ones when the arms are down.

I prefered to keep the hem at the same stripe for visual purposes, so it´s not even but longer at the sides. Yep, people do crazy stuff for prettyness reasons, ha! If I had a large stripe at the bottom it could have worked with the original hem, but I prefered to match the stripes at top first. This way I ended up with my own unique hi-lo-hi-lo hem, ha!

Now, for some good stuff: the Eleena dress will be on sale for $7.00 (regular price $9.00) through March 7th, 11:59 EST. And there´s a giveaway too - two patterns of choice and one yard of Sara Jane fabric in the photo:

Thank you for having me Olga! Loved making this hack and, more importantly, my girl loves it too! And we had a blast shooting since she got me repeating silly jokes over and over again. For my portuguese girls, here´s her favourite:

"- Olá, como te chamas?

- Fu.

- Fu quê?

- Fumiga. E tu?

- Ota.

- Ota quê?

- Ota fumiga."

 "Rudolph, the red nose reindeer, la la la lala la la"

Are you impregnated with Christmas spirit already? Have you survived making the tree with your toddlers?

Well today I´m on a very special tour, bringing you lots of inspiration for the Holiday´s with an all star cast of bloggers. It´s the debut year for Holli Coats from Hello Holli, Gabriela from Chalk and Notch and Saskia from The Wolf and the Tree. These amazing ladies came together with this project and I´m so glad to be joining them. You see, Saskia reached out to me, inviting me for the tour; I had already seen her Abby´s footed tights pattern around and knew it was making quite a buzz. She told me there was also "a lovely dress and coat" on the tour and in all honesty, I freezed a bit: I was afraid of what kind of patterns these would be (c´mon, you know there´s some rather dubious quality stuff around). When I finally realized the patterns were the Blue Ridge and the Fishtail Kimono, I might have squealed a little!

I had won the Blue Ridge on a giveaway, I tested the kimono, and I had only read and seen very very positive reviews about the tights. Let´s face it: if you follow some of the things I do, you may have noticed some consistency about the patterns I use. Well designed and graded, with layers for printing when possible, good fit according to table measurements, notches where it matters, good illustrated instructions: these three pattern presented here have all this and more.

There´s a rather nostalgic mist around the Holidays. Yes, there´s joy and white light, but there are also lots of dark rich tones. The fabrics here are all from Girl Charlie UK & Europe, kindly given to me. I fell in love with the green cotton jersey with bambi print, which is slightly faded, with low stretch but very very stable. For the tights I needed a 4 way stretch jersey so I picked this beautiful mustard colour (though the pattern includes pieces for using 2-way stretch as well). The kimono is made with the softest navy sweatshirt fleece (not available at this colour at the moment, but there are other options here), which makes it the perfect warming layer piece.

The kimono is just a TNT by now, so I sewed up the regular size S (4/5), quick as can be. Even quicker, as I folded the neckband and just sewed that to the main pieces, stretching a bit, just like any regular band.

The dress was trickier. The Blue Ridge is designed for wovens and is sleeveless: I wanted to do knit and sleeves since it´s almost Winter here. I muslined just a tiny bodice in my daughter´s normal size 5 in jersey, without the back opening: it fitted through the head, even when I added the neckband I was planning. For the sleeves I changed the bodice armholes, by overlapping and copying the Rowan Tee armscye and using its sleeves. These might not be the best sleeves for the job, or maybe it just needs to drop the underarm a bit. Anyway, the armscye needed another tweak but I just didn´t have time to make it any better.

To accentuate that beautiful curve on the dress bodice and since I wasn´t using the bias tape (not a bias tape girl, sorry!), I made some piping with a subtle golden knit and used it on the neckband as well: not the best choice, ha! Really open and loose knit that just falls apart when cutting, I couldn´t get it exactly even all around regarding wideness. Finished all hems on the dress and kimono with a double needle.

The tights were graded from 5 to 4 from the knee down and the waistband is elasticized since my girl still haves a proeminent baby tummy and the elastic helps to keep them in place. The fit is perfect and lazy mummy here just serged them together (3 threads) and no complaints existed about the seams being itchy (the pattern includes instructions for french seams).

Calling the reindeers "bambis" was sheer genius, I think it clicked something in her little memory that made her love the dress, so much she wore it first without even being hemmed.

The whole outfit just needed something to bring it all together and give it a more festive and dressed up look, so I made a detachable peter pan collar with this free pattern, in faux fur with a purple wool for lining and velvet ties in the same colour. The shoes might look vintage but they´re like 2 months old from Zara, ha!

Monday, Dec 7th: Willow & Stitch | East & Eden | In a manner of sewing | Climbing the Willow
Tuesday, Dec 8th: Kaleidothought | Feathers Flights | Connected by a Thread | Call Ajaire
Wednesday, Dec 9th: Rebel & Malice | Free Notion | The Whole Sh-Bang | House of Estrela
Thursday, Dec 10th: Candice Ayala | Cindy Parrett | Hi and Hello | Made by Toya
Friday, Dec 11th: Just Add Fabric | Conversas de Hermanas | Glitter+Wit | Sew Starly
Saturday, Dec 12th: Paisley Roots | Petit a Petit + family | Life With Zeke | Made by Sara

Make sure to visit the posts throughout the tour and enter the rafflecopter below for your chance to win this great prize! In addition to the giveaway, our three designers will be giving away copies of their patterns via Instagram throughout the week, so be sure to follow Gabriela on Instagram and follow Holli and Saskia for more chances to win, too! Use the hashtag #holidaydebutblogtour to see some sneak peeks and follow what everyone is sharing!

If your star is just not shining bright and giving you no luck, you can get all three patterns with 20% off during this tour with the coupon code HOLIDAY.

And now it´s time to start dreaming about filling up your stockings! Amazing panel of sponsors!

Fabric Shops Gift Certificates:
$50 BWD Fabrics & Supplies | $50 Imagine Gnats | 20 EU Girl Charlee UK
Sewing Patterns:
Hello Holli-Blue Ridge Dress | The Wolf and the Tree-choice of pattern | Chalk and Notch-Fishtail Kimono | Baste+Gather-Copy of all patterns | True Bias-Men’s Hudson Pants | Jennuine Design-choice of pattern | Sew Sweetness-choice of pattern | Radiant Home Studios-Highland House Pattern | Paisley Roots- copy of all patterns | Atelier Louise-Silver Sans Sandal pattern | Tinman Pattern-choice of pattern | Pattern Pieces-Fun Tee Pattern | Lorelei Jayne-Tech Pouch pattern | Designs by Call Ajaire-choice of pattern | The Ruffled Stitch-Flower Stripe Top/Dress pattern | Petit a Petit Family-choice of 2 patterns
Gifts:
$25 Sew Sew Rachel

Before anything, I can´t help to say a few words about the recent tragedy in Paris. I know there are other places in the world where tragedy occurs everyday, but it´s impossible not to relate to Paris, since I live in the western world, it´s my reality. I would like to ask you to read no further, stop whatever you are doing and have a silent moment to say a prayer of any kind for those lost in the past days but also all innocents who have been victims of terrorism, whatever place in the world they live in. Whenever you feel ready, carry on.


Welcome ladies, to the first Japanese Sewing Week! I´m opening up the series today with 3 super talented ladies, check out the line up at the bottom. This tour was organized by Sara from Made by Sara: head there to read all the info about the tour and play along too, there´s a link up for those who feel like joining the fun by linking anything they made this year using a Japanese pattern.

My love for japanese pattern books actually started long before this blog and I was highly influenced by Soraia from Sew Happy, at the time she was making the cutest outfits for her kids (and still is, in fact, she´s in the tour as well). I just jumped in and bought six books at once, and if you look up in the Books section here in the blog you´ll find them all. Some of them are from Tuttle Publishing, one of the sponsours for the tour, who will be giving a prize to a blogger of their choice as well as the giveaway for all the readers (it´s in the end, stay calm).
I was going to use one of their books, but more recently I´ve received the most gorgeous one as a gift from my dear friend Emi (thank you again!) and immediately knew I had to make the whole book, or at least a whole outfit. So, no prize for me but I do reccomend their books, as they´re translated into english and very suitable if you´re wanting to give japanese patterns a try. And if you´re looking for reviews or just need help with a japanese pattern, this is the place to bookmark.

The book is Aoi Koda´s Sewing Lesson Fall and Winter Clothes and I´m pretty sure it´s gonna be a japanese lovers library staple soon. It´s full of the most gorgeous coats, blouses and pants, and whitin each category the patterns are slightly modified to make a completely different piece. For a more complete review see here.

I decided on the raglan blouse with elasticized front hem, the hooded coat and the basic pants. I found the most beautiful cobalt blue wool in my local shop and organized the whole project from there. There is something really similar in the Sweet Mercerie store, where I found this beautiful rayon challis and a cognac crepe for the pants. Except for the wool which I´ll talk a bit more later on, the fabrics were really easy to manipulate and drape beautifully. These ladies are really making a difference with quality affordable fabrics, with the most gorgeous prints, all produced in Portugal. I highly recommend the viscoses and the french terrys, my absolute favourite fabrics to work with.

The patterns were really easy to use: they´re quite simple regarding lines and construction, and it also helped that I´m used to their instructions. Even if you´re a total beginner, there are step by step ordered ilustrations, but it does help if you´re familiared to some basic sewing techniques, like bias finishes or adding facings.
The blouse has a shoulder dart and neckline facings and a little opening in the back, finished with a traditional closure, really easy to make (I used some elastic). The pants just have those two pleats at the front and an elasticized waistband with a flat front. My waistband is half the width it should be, because it should have been cut on fold but I missed the mark. I think they´re a little too high waist for me, so that´ll give me an excuse to change the waistband and adjust the height.

Now the coat: my original plan was to make the one on the cover, but a) I only had 1,2m of fabric b) I wanted something with a more relaxed look. Most patterns for coats in these books aren´t lined, and this one was very simple and doesn´t even include facings. The front panels rise up to form the hood, the shoulders are slightly dropped and the pockets are sewn between the side panel and the back. They gave the normal instructions to finish the seams either by zigzag or serge, but I wanted to try something different, since I wasn´t lining it anyway. That´s when flat fell madness began. Yes, I flat felled every.single.seam. First trouble was only noticing I couldn´t do it with 1cm SA after starting, ha! All the bulk from the wool weight and difficult pressing made me change the rules in the middle of the game: had to change to 1,5cm SA, and regarding size (I did size 5 for all pieces) I think it even worked better for me (but please, don´t try this at home). The seams were trimmed to the max (very close to 0,3) and steam pressed hard, always with a towel in between. Some are far from perfect, some were unpicked and redone, but overall I´m happy with the experience gained for future projects. The sleeves were the trickiest part since they´re already closed as a tube when you go and flat fell, so I had to do that seam in a two part way: first from shoulder to as far as I could (because the sleeve tube doesn´t go all the way in the sewing machine), then from wrist to where I ended. The coat is finished with simple double fold hems but I´m thinking of unpicking the bottom one and use the very little leftover fabric I´ve got to make some hem facings.

Wanna see what´s next? Here´s the ab.sa.frea.cking.a.ma.zing line up. How lucky was I to be a part and what an honour to open it up with these amazing ladies, check them out today too and follow the rest for a blow-your-socks-off week!

In a Manner of Sewing  |  Conversas de Hermanas  |  Pequenos e Verdes  |  Climbing the Willow

Bartracks and Singletrack  |  S is for Sewing  |  Sew Happy  |  Mamacosesola

Fairies, Bubbles & Co.  |  Sewing Like Mad  |  As it Seams  |  Sewing For Mini Me

La Folie Sewing Booth | Just Add Fabric | Blogless Anna | Sweeter Than Cupcakes | Needle and Ted

Miss Castelinhos  |  Made by Toya  |  Lil Luxe Collection  |  House of Estrela

Patty Made It  |  Paisley Roots  |  Rita Pirolita  |  Call Ajaire

So-cal Sewing Mom  |  Kiwi Crafty Chemist  |  Sew Shelly Sew  |  Made by Sara

And if that wasn´t enough on its own, here´s the giveaway running along with this tour, thanks to our amazing sponsors! There will be three lucky winners among all of our lovely readers. Each winner will win one of the following prizes: 

- One pack of 2 two Japanese Sewing books from Tuttle Publishing

- One pack of 2 two Japanese Sewing books from Tuttle Publishing

- A $40 fabric voucher from Urban Sew 

All you have to do is to try your chance by entering the Rafflecopter bellow. The more entries you validate the more chances you have to win! The giveaway will be open from Nov. 16th to the 25th.

I truly enjoyed every little stitch made for this project (and all the unpicking done and yet to be done), hope to have given you some inspiration to search your favourite japanese books and make that one thing you´ve been postponing, or have just given you the perfect excuse to buy a new book (you can tell your husband it was my fault).

The fabrics were given to me by The Sweet Mercerie, but the review and recommendations on their fabrics are my own and truly honest.

The clutch is the Fold Over Clutch, a free pattern by Pattern Runway.