Maternity jeans - upgraded

Again I had to transform my regular jeans into maternity jeans. Yes, that means I'm going to have a baby. I'm really happy about that. I'm a bit lazy when it comes to shopping. I really don't like wasting time looking for clothes in shops because many of those things don't appeal to me and because I'm also a very thrifty person. Anyway, 3.5 years ago (before my daughter was born) I had more time and more enthusiasm and I went to look for some maternity clothes and I was disappointed. 
Let's cut the long story short. If you know how to sew it's really easy to make yourself some nice and comfortable maternity trousers. I'll try to demonstrate my version in some quick steps.

1. I take the jeans that I like and that I can still put on with the zipper closed but leaving the big button open. I carefully rip the waist/ belt off (carefully - after giving birth I actually changed back the jeans and sewed the belt back on).

2. I cut the front and back pieces for the belly out of nice, soft, stretchy jersey. Here is the pattern taken from a magazine La Mia Boutique - Febbraio 2009 (Italian). I just hope I won't get sued because of that. (I once made my own pattern but lost it in a huge pile of patterns that I have.) (Before I cut anything out of fabric I put the paper pieces on my jeans and I imagine how the whole thing will look like. You can make the paper pieces bigger or smaller according to your jeans size. So don't rush, take your time, measure everything, use pins and pin everything in place. I always do that before I make any final cuts or stitches and it pays off.)

Belly part - download

3. I usually use an over lock machine to keep the seams neat. I also keep the zipper (even though you don't actually need it anymore) because there's less work and like I mentioned before if you have too much time after you give birth you can always quickly change the jeans back to normal.

4. I sew the two jersey pieces together on the side seams. !!! But on one side I leave 2.5 cm of open space on two places: right below the fold (on top but on the inner side) and close to the bottom seam again on the inner side. That's leaving space for inserting the elastic band. I mean the elastic band can be optional but it's better to leave room to use it. In my opinion it's good to have it because otherwise I have a feeling that jeans are slowly moving down my body especially when I squat or bend - jersey is just not enough tight.

5. Then you sew the jersey (belly) piece on the top part of your jeans all around the opening.

6. Here I actually inserted the elastic band only on the top part, not yet at the bottom. For now it's OK. I sewed with double needle before I could put in the elastic band, of course. So that's really the final thing. You insert the elastic band and sew it together.

I hope this wasn't too confusing. It wasn't exactly short but I hope the pictures help. And the bold print. 

New clothes for Anika

Anika has been lying around naked for some time. It wasn't a pretty sight even though she is just a doll. An opportunity to make her new clothes showed up when I had to shorten and hem my husband's pyjamas. The piece was perfect for a gathered doll's skirt. It was hemmed, so I just had to put in an elastic band.

For the top I used a pattern from Burda , She's a 35 cm high doll.

Anika is a nice reminder of the old times. My mum bought it when I was a young girl, so she is probably over 25 years old. Now I let my daughter play with her. At that time I think Slovenia was still a part of Yugoslavia and nice things were bought abroad, in Austria, Italy, Hungary and Czech Republic. If I remember correctly Anika came from Czech Republic, even though she was made in China.

I would love to make more doll's clothes (and Barbie clothes). That's why I started sewing as a little girl. However, it drives me crazy sewing them on sewing machine because they are so tiny. It's a lot easier to do this by hand. But that's something I just hate nowadays. Sounds like a vicious circle of want and hate at the same time. Anyway, there's another piece waiting to become, hmm, let's say, a dress?

Jacket refashion

 So far I haven't done any really good refashioning projects even though ideas are constantly running through my head and I have a huge collection of old and ugly clothes. But this weekend - boom - I had an idea and I made it happen. I've had this jacket for some time and I hadn't been wearing it because I didn't like it. It looked cheap. It's made of faux leather actually it's PVC, so nothing fancy. 

I changed the sleeves and the collar. I just love stand up collars. I had wonderful fabric (20% wool) to go with the faux leather. I think that I've finally achieved this cool, modern, edgy look. So I'm really pleased with this.

I took the sleeves from Burda 1/2015, mod. 104, and the collar from Burda 8/2013, mod. 113. It was risky that the sleeves won't fit in but I knew that I can squeeze them in some way or the other. I measured the opening and the sleeves curve and it was relatively easy to put them in. I also extended the collar to fit the opening that was left after I took the old one out. Easy-peasy. The old collar was just big enough to cut the new one out. 

Then I carefully ironed the new collar under a kitchen towel and I - of course - managed to destroy a tiny bit of the fabric. It just melted near the iron. I was so (pissed off and) angry at myself. But I just sewed a strip of faux leather over it and it looks fine now. I think that leather and jeans are that kind of a material that can stand ripping, threading, sewing strips of fabric over.

Sleeves

Collar

Our selfie (Tinkara 3y 4m)

My favourite on-line shops

Some are tried and tested and the others are just looked at from afar.

Stoklasa – http://www.stoklasa-eu.com/ in Czech Republic, delivery is on time, actually I think I remember it was quite fast and the goods are also great (even though some are made in China)

tissu fabrics – http://www.tissufabrics.co.uk/ in the UK, delivery was fast (even though I'm not from the UK), the fabric is as great as seen on-line

dortex – https://www.dortex.de/ in Germany, delivery is on time, not too expensive

21run – http://www.21run.com/ru_de/ in Germany, it's not about fabric and crafts but it's about my favourite hobby – running

Millet sports – http://www.milletsports.co.uk/  in the UK, for sports again, I ordered shoes some time ago, it was all right

widelbar – https://www.windelbar.de/ in Germany, for babies, kids, mums to be, clothes etc. I love to look at the colourful and cute things they sell, I ordered a safety bed frame for babies from windeln - http://www.windeln.de/

svet metraže - https://svetmetraze.si/ in Slovenia, a huge fabric store, I actually don't buy on-line but I drive there (30 km) and always find something for myself, everything that they have inside is not put on-line, English link https://www.bemafabrics.com/ 

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buttinette – https://basteln-at.buttinette.com/shop/g/stoffe-naehzubehoer/bekleidungsstoffe in Austria, not tried yet, I'm looking forward to that day when I order everything I drool over now 

Simple ruffled and rich blouse

I got this wonderful material from my aunt. My aunt has been sewing for more than 25 years and she is a huge inspiration for me. We decided that instead of going fabric shopping, which is by the way our favourite past time activity, we can exchange some fabric from our stash. I thought I have lots of fabric but my aunt has definitely more fabric than me. Anyway, this wonderful fabric was in a terrible state. It was shredded. It was falling apart. Here's a picture of the state it was in.

The most beautiful details of the fabric were falling apart. I had to construct the fabric again. I used zig-zag and tried sewing the shredded pieces back in place. Luckily it was working. 
I chose a very simple pattern for this material because it's so rich in itself and the piece was not exactly big. Lately I do lots of simple patterns because my time is limited: cooking, 3-year-old daughter, cats, job, gardening, crocheting, blogging, a bit of sewing etc.
So I made this wonderful blouse, Burda 7/ 2014, mod. 108, size 38. I added a peplum piece/ ruffles from Burda 3/ 2014, mod. 119. And as you can imagine I carefully trimmed every piece of fabric to prevent further shredding.

My  wonderful fireplace.

My name tag - finally.

Very simple neckline.

Wonderful material with small sequins.

And since I mentioned my aunt, here is a picture of her. I wore my blouse to an operetta Die Fledermaus in Schlosstheater in Vienna, Austria. There is my aunt (wearing her own jacket), 2nd from the left, my cousin who is studying opera singing in Vienna and she is pretty good, my mum is next to her (wearing a dress my aunt made) and me on the right.

Simple summer skirt

I made this very simple summer skirt (Burda 7/ 2010 mod. 145, size 104) for my daughter from jersey fabric remnants. It's super easy with an elastic band. I wanted to add a ribbon inside the casing of the elastic band but I was unable to make buttonholes so in order to hide a huge mess I made a strange patch at the front. She loves it. It's a great combination with leggings. I realize now that I would need a skirt like that for myself too.

island of Krk, Punat, Croatia, July 2015

Name tags

Finally I've ordered my personal name tag/ label from Dortex. It took me a long time to think about the ideas. It wasn't too expensive - 46 eur (50 name tags for me + 50 name tags for my daughter). I haven't used any of them yet. I don't want to put them on my old clothes but I want to create something new. So this would mean 50 + 50 new clothes. Gosh! :)  I hope I won't wait for too long. My daughter's name tags were also intended to mark kindergarten clothes.