Until I turned 16 I went to school in Cameroon, where uniform is mandatory in high school. Consequently, I wore a uniform approximately 6 years long. It’s an effective way to at least minimize the social status differences. Many would probably barely have anything to wear if it wasn’t for the uniform, whereas others still found a way to show off despite it. So when I stumbled on Sheena Matheiken’s Uniform project in my internet wanderings, I felt compelled to spread the word.
Here’s an excerpt of the project description (published with the author’s permission):
“Starting May 2009, I have pledged to wear one dress for one year as an exercise in sustainable fashion. Here’s how it works: There are 7 identical dresses, one for each day of the week. Every day I will reinvent the dress with layers, accessories and all kinds of accouterments, the majority of which will be vintage, hand-made, or hand-me-down goodies. Think of it as wearing a daily uniform with enough creative license to make it look like I just crawled out of the Marquis de Sade’s boudoir.
The Uniform Project is also a year-long fundraiser for the Akanksha Foundation, a grassroots movement that is revolutionizing education in India. At the end of the year, all contributions will go toward Akanksha’s School Project to fund uniforms and other educational expenses for children living in Indian slums.“
I was amazed at how she succeeds in transforming the look of a garment by layering or using jewelry, belts, vests, collars, hats, tights or knee highs, shoes, brooches, scarves or any kind of accessory. She even wears the dress back to front. Consequently, even if the ultimate goal is to raise as much money as possible, donations can also be made in the form of an accessory. Don’t hesitate to visit the site or its blog and support the project.
These are the first two patterns I’ve made up a second time. They are pants for DD. Now of course, I’ve made a few modifications.
The first one is the Susette pants, except this time I graded them to size 98 and I made them fully lined, so that they’re actually reversible. I had to squeeze this pattern on a fabric remnant and I think it was a wise decision to line it since it allowed me to skip the hem allowances. I really used every single square centimeter of fabric and even had 1-cm seam allowance on some seams. The fashion fabric is a dark green cord and the lining is a striped somewhat thick satined cotton, very soft and nice to the skin:
The top is described here.I like those pants with elastics at the ankles for the fall and winter. And I like the style. I bought some fabric at the Holland fabric market for mine 
The second pair of pants is from Bizzkids Winter 2007/2008, #3345. I made it up for the first time in the pre-blog era, at the time in a black velvet cord. This time I used a camo canvas and skipped the zipper, since DD cannot deal with them yet. The pants have seams in the front and pockets at the sides. DD’d like me to make the hip pockets a bit deeper next time. The back is yoked (click on the link, you’ll see that the alignment of these yokes is -I dare say- perfect). I made a mock fly zipper in the front, using the spare button that came with a store-bought pair of pants. The elastic is only in the back. Next time I transform a zipper pant in a non-zipper pant, I’ll taper the waist to the next bigger size because DD needs to do a fair bit of wiggling to put these up. Finish: french and flat-felled seams. Clean and beautiful *tap on shoulder*.
I have now released the waist elastic, so that the fit is better and the wrinkles in the front are gone.
The “Hello Kitty” scarf had to be in the picture. Don’t ask…
I went to the fabric market yesterday… *sigh*
I’m not a fan of La Campbell but I love this cape. Does anybody know a similar pattern?
The cape is from the designer Igor Chapurin.
So the new Burda is out. I didn’t comment on the October issue because I had nothing good to say about it. But this one I like. I like the evening gowns, even though I doubt I’ll ever sew any of them, for the lack of occasions. Here’s my personal favorite:
Then they also have a pattern for a wrap that seems better than the one in the July issue which had no shape at all. If you haven’t noticed it, wraps are big this fall. Burdastyle also published a pay pattern for a wrap last week. Mine is all cut out, following Sigrid’s tutorial and based on the Burdastyle’s Lydia.
I added this skirt and these pants to my already very long to-do list:
Here’s another pattern I might be interested in but how the heck are we suppose to see how it really fits based on this sole picture:
All in all I have to say that I like this issue.
Two pullovers I knitted for DD. The purple one is from a while ago. What I liked about it is the layered look and the hoodie. DD likes the pocket. The striped one I made this summer and then left in a corner when time to assemble came. I finished it last week. What I like about it is the triangular relief (that don’t really show on the picture here, of course). It made it an “easy but not boring” knit.
Both patterns are from the German magazine Emily Mausezahn (German only).
The very first “somewhat” disappointment from Ottobre:
1. Couldn’t make sense of the instructions. I had to refer to a tutorial I found on the blogosphere.
2. The sizing seems a bit off on this one. I made a size 98 and it really “hugs” DD. I wanted to have her wear a long-sleeved undershirt with it but I’m not sure it’ll work.
3. The instructions tells you to secure the collar “x” but if I did, the opening for the head would be WAY too small for DD. So depending DD’s posture, there’s one branch of the “X” that looks crooked or interrupted. We’ll see how much of a wear DD will get out of this…
4. I forgot to stretch the fabric while hemming, so it’s not really wavy but I can’t blame this on Ottobre.
The fabric is a single jersey, the bias is a flowered quilting cotton. You might (or might not) recognize the pants from here…
Taking care of her "baby" in her new shirt
Back
Temperatures have now been around 10 C so it was definitely time to update the door. I decided to stay by iris folding, and here’s the result:
Before
After
After-zoom in
All patterns are from the Circle of crafters.
I’ve hat very little time to sew in the past couple of weeks, let alone to blog. But I did manage to sew this tunic for DD. It’s from Ottobre 4/2009. The fabric is a bordered cord, so I didn’t have to use a complementary fabric like in the magazine, I just cut against the grain, which made the pattern much simpler. For the bib, I used a remnant of this fabric. The buttons on the bib are not functional so I decided to mismatch them, just for fun. The tunic closes in the back with an invisible zipper. I like the details of this tunic, like the pin tucks under the bib or the small darts on the back of the shoulders. I finished it with french seams and had to learn the hard way that you can only finish the armhole with french seams if the arms are set in and not sewn on the flat. DD is happy with this one and so am I:
Vivienne Westwood has been promoting DIY for a few seasons now (just google “Vivienne Westwood” and “DIY”, you’ll find lots of articles) and she kept true to this motto this season. So much that I heard there were no waiters at her after-show party at the fashion week in London last week. Celebrities had to pour their own drinks, DIY way. How cool is that?
Picture from amica.de
