Thursday 31 March 2022

Street Art in Krakow

 

When I saw this street art I just had to get some photos. Faery wings painted on a wall at just the right height ( for me anyway). 

We only spent a few days in Krakow, but found this street art in the Kazmeirz Area ( Jewish Quarter). Its a great area to visit especially on a Sunday by the looks of it. Or maybe we were just lucky. Sadly we never got to explore much of Krakow really because there are loads of galleries and museums and what I never knew till visiting but its the oldest city in Europe! Or at least as in architecure which dates right back to mediavel times and is pretty much still in use so loads of old buildings and culture. There is also the Wavel Castle where the Kid of Poland used to live which is huge!

We also got to see Auschwitz ( and Birkenau which is the much bigger camp attached to Auschwitz) and despite I grew up being taught all about the Holocaust I still found loads I never knew and the overall whole thing was very emotional and shocking. I would definitely reccommend you visit if every you get the chance to do so. Things like the sheer volume of human hair in just one room is so unbelieveable! And to know its just a fraction! How the Nazis treated people especially women - they shaved them everywhere by a male doctor and this back in the 30s and 40s when people were far more reserved than now and lets face it we would not allow that even now. Just awful and so shocking! But worth knowing about the whole thing - movement of the jews from everywhere which for some reason never quite hit me properly till that day - and how they also imprisoned and tortured others - Romanies, political prisoners, gays, religious leaders, artists etc etc and for some reason this ever sunk into my head before this visits. Photos of the jews fro Amsterdam, Hungary, Russia, everywheer in europe! A few times I actually wanted to cry and had to stop myself. 


Anyway back to happier things!

The wing height was not quite so good for Mick ( who is over 6ft) but then I am not sure he was so keen on posing for this photo either, but I forced him.😀

Mick with faery wings!

To be fair it was it was not really difficult, but as he said some of his mates will love this!

 

My only real regret is I had a very minimal amount of clothing and it was all neutral so I could not dress up for the photos as I would have liked.

With my New Years Faery theme for 2022 makes I kind of have to include these photos in this years blog though.

Take care

Bracken


Faery- Hoody Cowl dress in blue velvet

  

I made the same pattern before - twice in fact but both times it came out with the hood being bulky so this time I decided to line my hood with lace and I am very happy with the results and intend to make more of these.

These are my original versions: 

Click on the pictures for links back to the original posts. 

I since made the yellow version into a top, and I wear it much more so will probably do the same with the black and white one - when I find it. I think its currently under the bed in storage bags with my summer clothes although really this dress works well for spring so its probably time to unearth it. And maybe chop it!

Despite making this before and looking at the yellow version for how I managed it I still got in a mess. You have to sew the shoulders, then back of hood, then accross back of neck/hood and then its kind of eventually makes sense. I tried to explain when I made the yellow version but I do not think I made it a very clear explanation. Burda as usual does not explain well either so its a puzzle. I would say do not overlock the neck, but instead sew a basting seam for this till you get it right. Then you will not go cutting off the sewing allowance before you want to (like I did!). And this is very precious stretch velvet which I liked so much I bought some more of. And its floral! Wow! shocking for me. 

Here it is with the collar folded down.

So other than I shortened the hem to a high low mini there is nothing different from the original pattern in this dress. 







 
I think this really does fit my Faery theme though. 

 Love this. Going to make more of this kind of dress. Not a lot more can be said here but I do like this very much and will be wearing it lots. I am even considering another in the same fabric but maybe with different hemline and sleeves and just keep the hoody dress part. It feels good.

Happy weekend, and do come back and visit me again soon

Bracken

Friday 25 March 2022

Blue Fur Hoody

 

This is Burda Style 11/2016 and I made a wool version last year which I love.
I am really getting into this top since the weather started to turn into spring rather than freezing cold winter. The top also, I feel, fits my Faery Theme well beings furry and blue.

I added 1 inch wide elastic to the wrists - 2.5cm wide elastic that is. In the UK its weird cos we kind of work using some cm and some inches which is totally unscientific but that seems to be how we live. It makes for a difficult way when writing for an international audience. I try to remember to include both measurements but its hard. I buy my fabric in metres length but quite often they state the width in inches and similarly buy my elastic width in inches though my elastic length is sold by the metre. How stupid is that really!

Like the Rebecca Page Sweater Cape I made - though mine is hacked with a different collar/hood admitedly - this has a scuba lining which is sewn as one with the outer fur rather than a seperate lining. The scuba makes it more stable since this fur was extremely cheap and is not very stable at all. I still have quite a lot left of the red fur used in the sweater cape and some silver fur yet to use so have to do something else with this fabric. Especially now its the weather to wear this. Its not really as warm as standard fur coating fabric but is a lighter weight - probably meant for cushions or scarfs really, but I bought several metres in 3 colours and its very bulky in my small stash area so has to be used to make room for summer fabrics which really I should not buy, but probably will.

My scuba lining:

The only downside of this pattern is the hand sewn fastenings which of course I bought - from China - and they came very quickly. Also last time I bought 4 for around £5 from the UK and this time I bought 20 for £5 and they are much better quality than the ones I got from the UK. So I have spares. The Chinese ones do have beads in them which I never noticed on Ebay but I don't care. They work fine. And look good. If you are interested the fastenings from China took about 2 weeks to arrive so I sewed this a while before I actually finished it. 

I am thinking maybe I could have a zip neck next time?

Also another thing to note: This fur/ scuba combination wrecks the cutters on my overlockers. I have two overlockers and had to swap between them to finish this and I spent ages cleaning and oiling them and giving them time to rest while the oil soaked in but even then really I now need two sets of new overlocker cutters. 

Experience tells me I can get two sets from China just as good and cheaper that one set of cutters from the UK so thats something I need to order but its also a pain because my cutters will do light weight fabric right now but that does limit what I can make and I know they won't last much longer before they start to eat my fabric. The cutters can take about 6 weeks to arrive from China ( unlike the speedy fastenings for my jacket!) so I need to order them next payday. 

In fact the reason I have two overlockers is to fix one in the UK - as in get someone to fix it costs £85 + VAT at 20% and thats before they even touch it and you must pay for parts on top - which means its really not viable so a few years ago when mine broke I just bought another one because that was cheaper to do. And of course I got a brand new shiny machine. 

Then I took a chance on buying new cutters from China and at the time did not know for sure that was what was wrong with my broken overlocker. But the cutters which cost around £20  for two sets ( might be more now tho!) eventually came and its not hard to change them really - there are Youtube videos - and suddenly I have two working overlockers. 

So if you have the problem that your overlocker starts chewing stuff up and getting the teeth all mangled in the fabric try buying some cutters off Ebay and fixing it yourself. There are British sellers of the parts for overlockers but they cost more and the parts are exactly the same - though they do arrive faster but if you buy the cutters before you need them and keep in stock its all really smooth and you do not end up waiting.

 

Back to this jacket then:  I suspect this is going to be a favourite top this spring. It just feels right. 


So all in all I feel like this is a fun make and I will enjoy this. I am already planning taking it on holiday later in the year because I think it will work accross the seasons into summer evenings and of course it keeps me on target with my Faery Theme as well.

So now I have to think, what else to make from the rest of this lovely lightweight fur?

Happy weekend

Bracken

Friday 18 March 2022

Gold polo neck top

 

I do feel that this top fits into my New Year aims and fits the Faery Theme I was aiming at. This is from Burda style magazine 114, 12/2014..............and I have no idea why I made it. I never wear polo necks though perhaps I should do because I like it. Though it does possibly work best with more formal bottoms rather than my glittery joggers. I just had a need for glitter that day.

 I decided recently to make something with a higher neck to try to hide my aging neck but it really this top is otherwise is not my usual style. I think I will be making more now though. Its one of the joys of sewing that you make things you would never buy and then love the new style you experimented with.

This top was very warm the other day when it was horridly windy and rainy so I am considering another of these in a different fabric. I will make the sleeves a cm or so longer next time though because I think they are slightly short. Its OK if I stand still but when I move the cuffs ride up a bit.

I do not know what this fabric content is. Its a kind of shiny slippy silky knit. Its very stretchy but quite thin so has excellent drape. I, of course never made use of the drape because I had only small pieces of this. I suppose the polo neck might look more structured if this was less of a soft fabric but i like it anyway.  I bought the fabric some time ago from a very disreputeable online shop who I will not reccommend,  and it was covered in stains and rips and damage so I just could not make anything from it. They basically sold me something they should have binned. 


Then I realised if I carefully cut something that was made of lots of small pieces - like this princess line top - maybe I could actually make something. I originally had 3 metres of this but only tiny parts were useable. Even then I do have a stain on one sleeve and the back panel as well as the CF panel. I managed to cut a second CF so I doubled that panel and the stain is on the lining layer not the outside. The fact I doubled the front panel does mean it hangs a bit differently as you can see from these photos if you look at the hem its not quite right.

The rest of the fabric sadly went in the bin. Still because it was bought on Paypal and I got my money back this really is a freebie and a bonus, and I did enjoy the challenge of trying to make something from the small bits I had with no stains, but really its so sad to throw away most of 3m of fabric. Its taken me nearly a year to actually realise I could do anything with the fabric though so it is a bonus after all.

I no longer buy from the company who sold me this because I had so many problems with them. I also never claimed for most of the rubbish they sent me so I feel no guilt for actually managing to make something from this damaged fabric. Hopefully I never buy from anyone else who sells such rubbish in the future. 

My current two sellers are Minerva who is of course very reputable and nice to deal with, even though a bit expensive but do sell what you actually need rather than forcing you to buy in full metres, and Pound Fabrics who I rarely buy anything that actually costs a pound, but they send you what you ask for and send it fast and after many orders I still have nothing bad to report so would recommend checking them out.  They quite often force you to buy 3m minimum which seems their only downside but if you do not mind having a stash they are a great company. They also do a points system and its surprising how quickly they give you £3 off in the form of a voucher so I would recommend them.

Have a lovely weekend and thanks for popping over to visit me

Bracken



Friday 11 March 2022

Pale blue velvet joggers


These are the same pattern as my last few pairs so a free pattern. See previous posts for the link to that pattern. 

I have black ones which were my tester/ muslin and I wear a lot though I did make the hems looser on all my other pairs cos they are a little tighter than I want when I a lounging around. Despite that they are brilliant for a free pattern. 

I made red velvet joggers and my favourites are my glittery navy sweatshirt joggers. I wear them whenever I work fromhome which is sadly much less than it was. My green joggers, which I made when I made my red ones so see that post were a disaster. I still have no idea why they looked so awful but I must just accept sometimes not everything works. I am currently repainting the door frames in my house so am using them as decorating clothes and I have to say its much nicer to wear something nice, even if it was below the standard I aim for, for decoratig rather than the rags I usually wear so they are not a complete disaster after all.

The velvet is a dancewear grade stretch lycra velvet, which is also fluorescent so kind of good for January sportswear - even though I actually finished them off in March! 😊


The fact its fluorescent made it really hard to get good photos but I think you can see these. They are not very exciting but will be nice for weekends. 

There are loads of velvet and velour joggers around on the High Street right now so this kind of fits and when wearing them I should not feel too out of place or unusual. Despite I like original clothing I also do not want to stand out too much. I think thats probably down to my age though becase in my 20s I think I was far more extrovert than I am now.  Anyway, having loved my previous several pairs of this pattern I decided to make a blue pair. Though they have ended up having two incarnations. This is due to a problem with these because I ran out of fabric so originally had no ankle cuffs making these three quarter length due to lack of fabric - I had a scant 1m and the hems started out being uncuffed but they were a bit wavy but otherwise they were fine until I walked and they seemed to ride up my legs so in the end I used some offcuts from my grey glitter sweater dress and added contrasting cuffs. Now they do work and I think now spring seems to have sprung they will be worn lots.


Ignore the unbrushed hair - these are after all lounge trousers!
Elasticated waist:
I should wear shoes. It was surprising cold without.

The top is a self drafted top made from squares of fabric just overlocked together and then the edges are overlocked. Its s style I go back to over and over despite being so simple and unstructured. When made from mesh or like this very light weight knits its so versatile ( and a litle bit punk!) and if its really cold its great to have two tops layered or when its warm and in summer it makes a really nice cover up over swimwear and smaller summer tops. My favourite design for certain. I made a similar version with directions here: https://brackencrafts.blogspot.com/2015/12/8-dark-navy-top-with-step-by-step.html

I bought this velvet with a bright orange which were meant for the Linea Top from Sinclair Patterns so I only have 1m of each colour, but I never got round to making that because I realised velvet (stretch that is anyway) is really hard to sew up accurately without wavy seams and I now want to use it for something different because I do not want to make clothing that looks rubbish and I think the Linea is going to be too hard to make from this fabric. Therefore its best used for different items - like these joggers- rather than wreck the fabric.

First time I wore these was like Deja Vu -I was back in the early 90s when I had a pair of me-made pale blue three quarter length brocade jeans which were made from second hand curtains. I loved them so much. I still have two of those curtains I made them from so am now seriously cosidering making jeans  - in pale blue brocade!. We will see.

So whats wrong with these then? No real mistakes so I am improving a bit on the green ones I made.

 They are not very warm but the weather is warming up a bit, or at least some days are warmer. 

Its weird but I think the icy blue makes me feel the cold because the actual fabric is quite thick and I don't feel cold in other similar fabrics - like my dark red trousers which are identical to these! Its a problem with the colour but I suspect as we get closer to summer these will become much more wearable.

Thanks for popping over

Bracken

Friday 4 March 2022

Steam punk Robo/ circuit board fabric dress

I bought this good quality but very cheap lycra fabric before Christmas and its got a really nice kind of machiney robo print which reminds me of steampunk stuff - hence the title of this post. Though maybe its more like circuit boards? Either way I like the fabric and ended up buying 2m of it twice so had 4m in total in two pieces. I decided I want to show the fabric print so made a very basic dress with minimal pieces to mean I do not cut the fabric into many sections because I do want to show this design. This is really then just a basic T shirt dress.
The dress is the My Image dress ----- Candice which I used for my not-so-successful RTW dress copy.
I think its going to be a very wearable spring dress/ top though.
I have now cut a pair of leggings from the rest of this fabric leaving me with just a few scraps. I thik it will be good as leggings. Not sure what else to make with the rest of my scraps as yet. Once I get time to sew the leggings I will show them to you. Have to say for £2.50 a metre this is lovely fabric. Not sure I can get more of it but I am seriously considering trying to.
Well I am not so sure this one really fits my faery theme. But I recently listened to the Audible book Cinder by Marissa Meyer which is a futuristic Cinderella book where Cinder is a cyborg. I just bought book 2 of that series - Scarlet - and its good! Not something I would normally expect to like but Cinder was free from Audible so if you happen to come accross that I would have a listen. I am not so sure this dress fits in with that either but never mind. Its a good dress.

Have a great weekend and see you soon

Bracken