Retro Tie-Collar Blouse

My sister had this fabric for a long time. It is a shifon-like and probably polyster-made from 70's. She had 3 meters of this fabric and asked me to sew a dress. But I suggested to make a blouse, because the print and colours are quite bold and a dress would have had far too much horde!

I had this design in my mind for a while; a V-shape neckline blouse with tie collar which is only attached to the back of the neckline in order to be playful and versitile.

For this blouse, I used my own pattern. I sewed it using my mum's old Hosqvarna sewing machin. I used French seam technique and snaps for front and cuffs closur.

The tie tails are loose in front and can be palyful.

You can leave it in a care-free catual state:

Or make a tie close to neck:

Or, at the side of neck:

Or, a tie away from neck like a Vshape neckline it is:

You can also twist the tails together and make a rose flower:

Alternatively, use a ring to hold it on place:

Possibilities are endles!

The construction is quite simple; I cut the tie on bias and attached it only to the back neckline.

I am very happy with the result and my sister seems to like it too.

Cheers!

Fruitful January

2014 started for me being very creative and active and I take it as a sign of having a year full of art and craft ahead of me.
In January, while I was back to my home country Iran, I made one blouse, one skirt, two tunics, two trousers, two dresses, and knitted one hat. Not bad, I guess!
I used my mum's old Husvarna sewing machine which only did straight stitches; and as I had no access to overlocker, I attached most pieces using french seam. Also, instead of normal bottons and buttonholes, I used snaps.

Unfortunately, I didn't take the chance to photograph all those projects; but here are some:

I shall have seperate posts with more photos of each project soon!

Sausage and Potato - Easy and Yummy

 This food is spicy, delicious and quick to make. This recipe is for two people.

Ingredients:

1 medium potato peeled, boiled and cut into pieces

100 gr sausage

1/4 bell pepper diced

2 tablespoon of finely chopped onion

1 tomato peeled and diced

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 tablespoon oil

salt, black, white and cayenne pepper a pinch of each

Pour the oil in a frying pan, and saute the chopped onion over the medium heat for a minute.

Add potato and keep frying for 5 minutes.

Add bell pepper and sausage as well as salt, black, white and cayenne pepper.

After 2 minutes, add tomato paste and turmeric and mix well. After a minute add the chopped tomato and cook for another 2 minutes. Pour a cup of water and let cook until the sause is thick. At this point you can add some dried thyme or any other aromatic herb (optional).

Serve it hot with the bread of your choice. Enjoy!

....

This is my first knitting design.

This is ruby 2012!

Finally, the exciting moment when you put your finished project on, and it brings a big smile to your face!

This is very warm and cosy. Although the winter is almost over, living in London I am sure I would wear it through spring.

I used a couple of short rows to give the collar the perfect shape.

The fit is right.

Now, I am looking forward to finish the knitting project I have already started!

wool red jacket is finished

I finally finished the jacket I was knitting.

It took me almost four months to knit it. I made a swatch first, Based on that I casted on the required stiches for my neck line and worked the way down. I didn't use any particular pattern, and as I went I designed it. I finished it by a series of triangles at the hem and sleeves edge.

After that, I grabbed a row of stitches from the neck line and knitted the collar.

I was very happy about the whole project until I realise that I made a mistake! In one of the triangles, I used the wrong stitches in a row.

I searched the internet to see if there was any way to fix that. To my surprise, I could not find anything. I had to find a way myself. That's what I came up with:

  

I believe this is good enough. In fact, after blocking the jacket, I could not even spot the mistake.

In general, I am very happy with this jacket. I sewed the buttons and it is ready to be worn!

I will post more photos soon.

Today's pick!

This dress is by Lover which is an Australian based label.  I love the lace and the colour. This dress is from its SS 2011 collection. There is another version of this dress  with short skirt in their collection. But I think this one is much more attractive.

I also found these two outfits:

They are designed by Franchesca Blardony. She is a young designer who recently finished fashion course at QUT in Brisbane, Australia. I love the clean and minimal cut of her design.

This is the wool red jacket I'm knitting!

 

 I'd say that it is almost half way done :)

It was not supposed to be like this! But, I gonna change!

It is over a year since I last updated here. What a shame!
When I started blogging, I imagined myself more enthusiastic and keen of writing about what I make. Obviously I failed, and naturally I should stop blogging. BUT, I'm going to give myself another chance!  and I have a good reason to do so. I recently ( 34 days ago) migrated to England to start a new life, and I'd like to think that it would help me to be a better blogger.
From now on, I'm going to push myself to keep here updated quite often.

By the way, the project I'm working on at a moment is a knitting jacket. I casted it on 2 months ago. 

September is here

 September has come and I was excited for the Self-Stitched-September. I wore my hand made outfit on September 1st  and took photo, but when I turn my laptop on to upload my photos, I realized that the internet was down, and it was like that the whole day. And the day after . And again the following day. So, unfortunately I missed the first few days of this challenge!
Finally today, we came back to civilization of having internet.

And these are my outfits for the first 4 days of  the Self-Stitched-September challenge:

I made this shirt about a year and half ago. The pattern is from Burda magazine , probably one of the issues of 2008.

This tunic was sewn in 2003, again from Burda. the fabric is Crepe, and I used leather cord to go with that.

Another project from 2003.

I embroidered the collar and cuffs. 

I made this blouse when I was living in Brisbane, Australia in 2007.

The pattern is from Burda magazine with some modifications

I also finished the black pants I blogged about  in previous post.It turned out quite good. I will upload the photos tomorrow.