Not-your-ordinary-white-office blouse

 My inspiration was this white shirt from Burda 4/ 2012; mod. 117, size: 40.

and the color-blocking from this picture from the net:

My creation was this:

I've finally used 3 bigger pieces of leftover fabric. I've had them for about 10 years now so I'm really happy. The colourful one was actually bought for my wedding dress which I still have but it's in size 36.  I now make size 40 for myself .  Then there are white poplin stretch and a shiny white fabric. The shiny fabric is not exactly my favourite choice but I just tried to use what I already had in my stash. Keep in mind that I needed almost 2 metres of fabric (which I had but in pieces).

I changed the collar because I prefer a standing collar (in Slovene we call it a Russian collar). At frist I thought I'll just leave the shirt open but then I decided for a short zipper at the front. Now the whole shirt almost looks like a coat because there's a lot of fabric at the back. I love it.   

I had to construct my fabric (I needed almost 2 metres) so I decided to do the simplest variation possible. I arranged the pieces together so that they overlapped for 0.5 cm or 1 cm and first sewed them with a straight stitch and then went over it with my new cover stitch (Brother CV 3550) so the joining seams are exposed. (It might seem like a lot of work but it was actually easier than sewing wrong sides together as we usually do things.)

Front pieces:

 

I will show the rest: back pieces, the back tail and the collar in the next post because this is getting too long.

My Stoffe/ My Fabric/ Tesutti: free patterns on-line

 I found this website:  in German: https://www.stoffe.de/inspiration.html

in English: https://www.myfabrics.co.uk/inspiration.html

in Italian: https://www.tessuti.com/ispirazione.html

where you can find various free sewing projects (and knitting and crocheting etc.) in all of the above languages. Check it out. It looks interesting. They also sell fabric.

BEFORE - AFTER (losing weight - part 1)

 Just for the fun of it. I'm wearing similar clothes.

Here is my BEFORE picture: taken in the fall 2020; I have 81 kg.

And here is my AFTER picture: taken in the summer 2021; I have 72 kg.

Can you even see the difference? I look more chubby on the 1st one. The difference is huge in the way I feel and how my clothes fit me and so on and so forth. I used INTERMITTENT FASTING, check it out on youtube.

My favourite fake jumpsuit - finally completed

 This was my inspiration - from Burda Style 1/ 2019: 

This is my creation:

Fabric was bought here https://svetmetraze.si/ (a huge fabric store in Slovenia - located in the capital city of Ljubljana) on sale, I think it was 14 eur for 2 m of fabric. BUT it had a defect and I realized that at home. But I made this disadvantage to work for me.

I decided to make simple trousers and a simple top to make the illusion of a jumpsuit even though it's actually a two-piece outfit - which is a lot more practical.

Trousers are from: Burda 1/ 2019; mod. 103A/ B; size: 40. They are simple, with 2 pockets, elastic waist and 2 folds at the front. Great to wear. 

(I wore them last year and I thought that this size 40 is rather tight ... but I actually gained a lot of weight at that time and they were really getting too tight to put on. So ... I have lost 9 kg since then through intermittent fasting (which I absolutely love). I can go on and on about intermittent fasting. I was 81 kg in November 2020 and I've lost 9 kg, so I'm 72 kg now - July 2021).

The top is from: Burda 6/2011; mod. 106; size 40. So as I was saying the fabric had a defect and I ˝smartly˝ put it directly in front of the viewers' eyes, around my waist. What a dumb idea! :( It was very visible. So I sewed a pom-pom band around this defect/ mistake.

And it works great, people admire it.

Some more pictures of my garden and of the clothes, of course.

 

My favourite shirt tunic/ dress tunic at the moment

It's made of cotton poplin. It cost me around 9 eur (if I remember correctly - 5 eur/ m and I took 1.8 m). I bought it online (in Slovenia - my homecountry: https://svetmetraze.si/ (when they had discounts). I like to calcuate this to have a clearer picture. 

It's easy to make but I have a lot of distractions at home (3 children, my job, husband, cooking & cleaning, a cat, a garden etc.) so it always seems to me that is takes me ages to do something. I always choose simple, fast, practical things to sew.

I like wearing it over long trousers or leggings just because I like that style. It's from burdastyle 3/ 2019, mod. 103 B, size: 40.

CHANGES TO THE ORIGINAL: I made it longer beacuse I prefer a tunic/ dress to a blouse. I made the bottom edge round and used bias tape to finish the bottom edge. Bias tape is time consumig but it's fun. :) I simplified it like this: I sandwiched the bottom edge between the folded bias tape and used long handstitches to hold it in place and then sewed it with one stitch as seen in the picture below. I prefer that stitch (straight + zigzag) to the straight one because it's not so obvious if you don't sew in a straight line (which is sometimes very difficult to do).

I used a small belt behind my back to give my waist some shape otherwise I might look like I'm wearing a potato sack.

I love the puffed sleeves, that's the thing that drew me to this pattern. 

ADVICE: always iron the Vlieseline around neckline to finish it beautifully.

Who is that little guy in the picture !?! and what the heck is he doing ?!?

I really love my shoes, they look worn out because I've had them for a long time and wear them all winter. I bought them here: https://www.alpinashop.si/c1-9/modna-obutev/gleznjarji  (Slovenian shoe company/ factory ALPINA - love it, I always buy shoes from them).