I Love Short Kimono Shirts In The Summer

A few weeks ago I made a kimono in a shorter version, from the same red fabric that I used for my long kimono (you can find it in the previous post).
I love it so much and wear it very often, the rest of my clothes must feel so unloved right now!

I find this short kimono shirt to be very casual because of its plain colour, solid red.
It looks super cool worn with jeans or shorts, over a t-shirt or a simple vest, with trainers or flat sandals. It's light therefore great for summers to cover those burnt arms or for slightly colder days can also be worn over a close fitting light sweater.
The laid- back look of it is what appeals to me the most as there seem to be more causal situations in my life than fancy ones.

I still want a kimono with a more luxurious feel to it though (perhaps to wear for my 30th birthday that is coming up later on this year..). That's why I am in the middle of getting a really awesome floral silk fabric as a birthday gift from me to me. ^_^

But that's in a next post hopefully...

And here is my short red kimono:

What I am wearing underneath:

This is a bustier top that I made a while ago.
It was a bit of a disaster. I don't know if it was the pattern or me taking wrong measurements of myself or both. Basically it turned out too lose in the waist with the cups a bit too small, the straps kept slipping off my shoulders (that's the pattern's fault, I had followed the placement marks!) and on top of that the hook and eye tape that it originally had ripped as I was wearing it out at a party once! (tape cheaply bought from e-bay and I've learnt my lesson!).
I had to replace the tape with a zip (which I have to say I like A LOT more) and take in the sides, move straps.. A lot of work for such a small top! I got the pattern from the burda style website http://mycolourfultexture.blogspot.com/2015/06/i-love-my-handmade-kimonos.html 

Thank you for reading.

Malgosia
xxx

I Love My Handmade Kimonos

I've loved Japanese culture ever since I was a child; the food, kimonos, manga and anime!
I am dreaming of going to Japan one day to eat a lot of sushi, get a geisha makeover, wear kimonos.. ^_^

Making a kimono had been on my list of things to do for a while.
I made a kimono inspired dress 4 years ago. Beautiful peacock blue fabric with embroidered flowers. The dress has kimono sleeves. I was so lucky to find the obi with the separate bow in a charity shop for pennies! And it's in my favourite colour too! Still LOVE IT!

As you can see I have a thing for dressing up^_^

And today my new kimono comes in red, solid red colour in a light summery fabric. I like to wear red with my currently lighter hair and so I have quite a few red items in my wardrobe. Apart from the liking part I still have half a roll left of that red fabric, that's why I've been sewing a lot of red garments!^_^ 

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I am wearing my red kimono with a fuchsia pink leather obi inspired belt.

I am planning to make a shorter kimono, probably in red too for a more casual style.

Thank you for visiting.

Malgosia
xxx

Royal Blue Loose Sleeveless Shirt

Finally, here it is! My new shirt in a very light and summery royal blue fabric.  

I designed it with sleeves, however, I had only bought enough fabric for one sleeve and when I went back to the shop this particular colour sold. As impatient as I am and couldn't wait for it to be back in stock, I went for a sleeveless design instead.. 

This sleeveless shirt in an awesome royal blue fabric has a contrast fuchsia pink top stitching detail and also (two first times for me) features hidden button placket and side french seam- both figured out as I carried on with this project.

And here styled with fuchsia pink clutch and obi leather belt. I just LOVE royal blue and fuchsia pink coupled together for this beautiful contrast. 

 And of course my lime green coat that goes with so many outfits had to accompany this look too!^_^

I have to admit I did consider one sleeve shirt.. thinking I could start a new trend:).


Thanks for popping over.

Malgosia
xxx

Ruched Black And White Stripe Dress

I have been working with the Drape Drape 2 book again.

 I am a bit of a bore here and sadly no new design to share. 

It's the same pattern with the altered top that I used for my first version in an awesome royal blue colour:  http://mycolourfultexture.blogspot.com/2015/02/royal-blue-draped-dress.html

Well I guess it's my favourite sewing pattern to use with stretch fabrics... ^_^

The hem of my new dress is slightly longer (about 2 cm), neckline simpler and the jersey fabric is a bit warmer. I fell in love with the fabric when I first saw it and since I don't have anything in stripes I really wanted to use it.

I was working on this dress when it was really warm and sunny and remember thinking to myself: 'Oh man, I'll have to wait until winter to wear this dress..'' with a sad face. 

How wrong was I! Be careful what you wish for as they say.. It suddenly got so cold that not only did I get to wear this striped dress now but I also took my green winter coat out again.

Note:  While sewing I experimented with a few stitches and machine feet and discovered that my Bernina can do a blind/ invisible stitch.  

 It's Bernina foot no 5 and looks like this:

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I was such a relief to learn that, from now on no more (or much less) hand stitching!^_^ 

When you try to achieve a minimalist look of your garment and don't want any top stitching then this blind stitch is perfect. I used it on the hem, sleeves and even to secure the interfacing around the neckline.

Malgosia

Revamp your wardrobe

Recently while decluttering my wardrobe, I found a lot of dresses that were pretty much new, I bought some of them on sale and others as impulse purchases.
I'd been reading a bit about body types and colour analysis and now I could see that the styles didn't fit my figure at all and the colours were completely wrong, no wonder these garments spent so much time just hanging in a wardrobe.
Unfortunately I worked through this project so fast that I forgot to take any before pictures..

You can see in my previous post that I've already revamped a shirt:  http://mycolourfultexture.blogspot.com/2015/04/revamp-your-clothes.html

This dress was made from below the knee pencil jersey skirt with side ruching and a loose tunic with a nice bra detail.

The ties look really nice crossed over the front:

Or can be tied at the back:

You can see the ruching here, it's a narrow hip friendly detail: