I'm returning

After my well-deserved Thailand vacations, the enthusiasm for sewing and craft ended up in the background.

The return to work was troubled, the weather get cold, and laziness spoke louder ... I've been spending my free time on the couch with my TV, PC and my loved fireplace.

 Then came the bustle of the gifts, my giant Christmas tree that I simply adore, a house full of people and action at the weekends .... and I've not  sewed anything beyond the hem of a dress that was in need :)

As I need to decompress (I have too many thoughts and indecisions to solve in my head) I decided that blogging will have to be a discipline, so at least I am committed to do something to show.

Commitments for the near future (next week???): finish the silk blouse and make the hem of my black pants.

Lots of new fabrics... no good ideas...

I work in the center of Lisbon, to 2 minuts away from downtown by subway. Not a very good thing when you have a monthly ticket (here we call it a pass) and a very nice fabric store at 2 stops way.

So at lunch time when I'm stressed and need some distraction guess where do I go???

It's a very nice and big store (I have no pictures to show you, I'll make some next time I go there). There's always lefts of fabrics at very nice prices, and if you know how to look for and have enough patience, you'll definetly find a bargain.

With these facilities I have just more nice fabric than time and ideas to sew them.

Here's one of my last aquisitions (both in sales). A nice, and very big piece of white jersey fabric, and a small white with pink and blue stripes.

They are pretty but I realy don't know what to do with them. Would you go to the beach with a striped kaftan, or would you prefer to use the horizontal strips effect for a nice blouse without sleeves?

Take a look at these too... "jeans" fabric, and another one I bought because of it's vintage aspect. I love it an I'm thinking maybe it would be great for a blouse. They fit well together don't you think?

These 3 are very transparent and light. The blue one also look to me very vintage :) and I love the way it touches the skin. But so far I have no ideas for it.

This weekend is my last one before vacations, and I have some arrangements to do before I go. I'll refashion an old jeans to make a pair of shorts and do some other small things that still missing, but when I arrive I want to start a new sewing project.

By now I only have some vague ideas, maybe you can help me... Look forward to see the first comments to my new project.

Ligth green blouse

As I promissed here's one of my first attempts of doing a blouse. I fell in love with the fabric. Is very light and soft and combines with a lot of diferent colours.

I didn't realy used a pattern, I just had the help of an "old" one I've made for a vintage winter dress (I'll show you one of these days). I used it to measure the neckline and the shoulders.

The buttons are from an old men's shirt.

It took me a couple of hours to do and wear it a lot to work. If I do something like this again I'll be definetly more carefully with the sleeves that don't fit perfectly because of the extra fabric in the front.

The begining of something...

Hi everyone! I'm back to rags, after 14 years without doing anything at all.

At 9 months ago I realised that my sewing machine was at my Parents house getting dust... I bought it when I was 18 years old with my first part-time salaries... My Father just made it a mechanical revision and there it is: ready to work again.

I just decided I need to do something with complete freedom to create, sometimes following the rules, sometimes not following them at all.

I will soon post some photos of my first (sucessfull) adventures. Hope you like it!