Saving a sweater, elbow patches

 My flatmate had this sweater since forever I guess, though you could never tell, and she was about to trash it because both of the sleeves were torn under the elbows. Fortunately I stopped her on time, borrowed it for a couple of hours and gave it back refashioned and ready to wear, with the elbow patches on.

Firstly I mended both of the holes to prevent it from further ripping and then I just hand stitched wool patches that I previously cut out from some leftover material I had.

Have a nice week everyone!

My first big sewing project

 It has been a year since I started sewing learning to sew. I made quite a few purses, but I haven't really moved on from that point for a while and with the beginning of the new school year I felt I should push on.
My goal was an over the top embellished faux leather jacket. Inspiration, Balmain spring 2011

Balmain S/S 2011 photo credit Glamour

The whole process was very long, it took me hours and hours of cutting, sewing, re-cutting, measuring, broken needles, running out of thread, running out of material, written and video tutorials, tutorials in Chinese on youtube, sleepless nights, a mess in my room, needles, pieces of thread and fabric all over the place, not letting my flatmates and my neighbors sleep, countless visits to the closest haberdasher's.

Building a jacket

Sleeveless, Harley, anyone??

Meet Charlotte, aka Charlie

  I've always been good with hands, since I was very young I enjoyed doing crafts, sketching, cutting other people's hair, cutting my hair, whatever included manual work I could direct was my thing.
 A couple of years back my brother (who is a few years older) got me this super cool sewing machine as a surprise gift. His intention was to get me back on the track, to help me express my creativity and maybe to help me choose another profession. When it was first delivered, I didn't know what to do with it, how to use it and/or where to keep it, it seemed like a very complicated gift to deal with. I felt as if someone just gave me a hamster. Not that it was needy, but just as one of those gifts you're not suppose to present (you are not supposed to give animals, unless requested). Nowadays, I can say I really appreciate his gesture. It hasn't drastically changed my life, but for sure it has had some positive influence on me.

At first, I started off a bit too ambitious, got Burda (a fashion magazine with patterns) and wanted to sew a tailored jacket. The problem was that I didn't even know how to thread the machine, not even to mention the use of other parts. It took me ages to understand how to put pieces together, countless tutorials on youtube and numerous searches on google. By the time I learned how to do it, I got annoyed, it was too time consuming and I wasn't seeing any results, so I gave up and put it away in a closet.