I love Fabric!

You probably know I bought Claudette on Ebay. This was my first Ebay purchase ever. But you know how it goes. I think I have to admit I'm becoming a fabricoholic. After my first purchase on Ebay I started checking sellers of fabric. Someone recommended a seller on her blog (sorry but can't remember who). When I visited the Ebay store May's Silk store I fell in love with a fabric. I just got to have it! At first I was a bit doubtful, but then my love for the fabric won! I bought it, and today (10 days) later the mailman rang my doorbell :D

It is even more gorgous then in the picture and I'm so happy with it. Here you can find the link of the fabric I bought.

The seller claimed it was 100% silk. I had to test this!

Test one: 

When you rub the silk together it has to sound like walking in fresh snow.
The fabric DID sound like walking in fresh snow! What a delicious sound. Reminds me of my holidays in the mountains and snowboarding!

Test Two:

The legendary burn test. When you burn a little piece of fabric or a thread it should smell and behave like you're burning hair. When I burned it it definetly smelled like burned hair. This website says the fabric should stop burning when the flame isn't near it. Mine kept burning, maybe it would stop eventually but I panicked and blew it out immediately :D So I'm not sure about this one. The ash was the same like described in the above website (see picture below). I think it is a 100% silk or at least it contains a lot of silk.

What matters to me is that I'm totally in love with the fabric.

The big Question!

I've never worked with silk so this will be my first! But how will I manage to do this? I don't even know what to make out of it!

I have several questions.

1. Can you pin silk or will it be ruined when you do?
2. How do you sew silk??? I have a hunch that this won't be easy because the silk I bought is very very very thin!
3. How do you finish the edges?Zig-zag won't do I assume? I think I will use the French seam technique, but what do you advice?
   
   French seam. The French seam is a couture seam finish used in high-end clothing and is one of the most beautiful seams for any type of fabric—not just silks. It completely conceals raw edges and is sometimes used on the outside of garments. Since it ultimately has many layers, it is best used with lightweight and sheer silks such as three-ply or four-ply silk or silk crepe, crepe de Chine, charmeuse, chiffon, and georgette.

   With wrong sides together, sew a 3/8-inch seam.

   
   To make a French seam, start by pinning the fabric with the wrong sides together. Sew a seam 3/8 inch from the raw edge. Use your bird and clamp tool to hold one end of the fabric, and carefully trim the seam allowance to about 1/8 inch.

   Use a bird and clamp tool to help you hold the fabric steady as you trim.

   
   Position the seamed fabric on an ironing surface with the seam allowances showing. Press the seam allowance to one side. This step helps you get a good, crisp edge in the next step.
   
   Now, with right sides together, fold the fabric along the seamline over the raw edges and manipulate the fabric between your fingers to bring the well of the seam to the very edge.

   Fold the fabric with right sides together over the previous seam (above). To finish, sew a 1/4-inch seam, and press to one side (right). The seam allowances are completely hidden.

   
   Pin and sew a 1/4-inch seam allowance. Press the seam to one side; then press again from the right side of the garment. (http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/3702/seam-finishes-for-silks 

I hope someone can give me some advise.

Wallet/Clutch

In July I found a great tutorial on how to make a super cute clutch (I use it as wallet) on How about Orange (watch my post about this tutorial for more information To put away all that cash!)

In my town there is a fabrics store that is not quite in business any more but still sells some old fashioned top quality fabrics. The owner of the shop gave me a sample book with all kinds of fabrics. Out of these fabrics I made myself, my mother and my sister an adorable clutch based on the tutorial on How About Orange. 

Beneath you can find some pictures of the result.

The corners are not that beautiful, but that's because I've made the clutch out of fabric to cover seats. This fabric is quite thick. The ribbon's on the clutch are vintage. These used to be decorations on old curtains of my grandmother.

This clutch is an ideal beginners project! This way you learn to attach zippers.

The clutch is very practical, everything fits in to it (all your credit-cards for example :)) U use a very small purse for change. I even put my keys and cellphone into it!

Have fun making these! I tell you, once you start you'll end up making these for every women in your family!

Sales, you've just got to love them!

One one of my plenty shoppingtrips to the Veritas I've found three wonderful patterns on sale! (only 2 euro à piece!) My to do list is once again expanding! 

burda 9802

Burda 7494

 

Burda 7215

To cute to be true!

This was a project i've made for my boyfriends godchild's first birtday. It took for ever to complete this project, but I'm in love with the result.

This pattern is for free on www.garnstudio.com.

 

This is the one I've made, I've used a differnt kind of yarn so the result is a bit different. It took me ages to get the eyes right, so in the end I gave up and mom came to the rescue!

To put away all that cash!

Op het volgende blog kan je een super leuke, super simpele tutorial vinden om een leuke portomonee helemaal zelf te maken! Ik moet nog even schattige stofjes sparen vooraleer ik aan de slag kan, maar jullie kunnen dit misschien wel al proberen?


Je kan de tutorial terugvinden op How about Orange

Nog leuke doe-het-zelvers...

  Heel leuk om als klein cadeautje aan iemand te geven!

De tutorial hiervan kan je terugvinden op volgende website: Erin Erickson


Het volgende lijkt me zo cool om eens uit te proberen, zou alleen niet weten waar!

 Hoe je dit zelf kan maken kan je terugvinden op het volgende blog: A bit of bees knees

Dit zie ik mezelf ook nog wel eens maken! Volgende keer dat ik in de Brico ben eens uitkijken voor touw :D (Etsy)

Super cute bloomers

Ben dit super leuke gratis patroon vandaag tegengekomen. Je kan dit patroon downloaden via colette patterns. Veel plezier!

Eerste kledingstuk

Hieronder kan je een foto vinden van mijn allereerste kledingstuk door mij gemaakt. Ik ben er super trots op!
Voor dit vestje heb ik Catania ecru en marine (Veritas) gebruikt, dit is een katoendraad. Het vestje weegt hierdoor wel heel wat!
Het patroon is (gratis) terug te vinden op www.garnstudio.com. (knoopjes komen ook uit Veritas)