Making of House Sewing Box! - Finished!

Finally, I found some time to finish my little dream house! I love it and wanted to share with you its evolution! So enjoy the video below and  I hope you like it!

Now I have a little place where I can store all my fabric remnants, that I just cannot throw away, thinking I could need them one day. :)

Scarf Scenes by Anthropologie

I already told you about my love for scarves. Found this amazing video, yesterday, and just wanted to share with you and wish you all a wonderful and creative weekend!

Anthropologie "Scarf Scenes" from Tatiana Arocha on Vimeo.

House Sewing Box - Sneak Preview

At the moment I am working on my House Sewing Box. Maybe you have seen my little sketch in one of the earlier posts. When I saw Cath Kidston's Town House Sewing Box on Tilly's blog I could not resist and immediately wanted to make me one on my own. I didn't think that it would be so much fun. It is not finished, yet, but I would like to show you a little sneak preview!

These are the exterior embellishments for the facade. I got some inspiration for the windows and the door from a book called 'Faciful Felties'. I tried to embroider them by hand and machine.

The apple tree is similar to the one on the original box. I added a dog and its kennel, a clothesline with cloths, many colorful flowers and some ivy, which I want to stick on the walls of my house.

But, of course, first of all I had to build the exterior. I didn't use nails, as my wood was too thin, so I used some wooden sticks and glued the whole exterior construction.

 After that I glued red felt on the walls and bright beige felt (which I first embroidered with red stitches to give it some kind of wooden touch) on the roof. Maybe you can see the embroidery by clicking the photo.

I am looking forward to get it all together, soon. Unfortunately, that will still have to wait a little...too many ideas and not enough time!

P.S.: Welcome to all new followers and readers! Thank you for all those lovely comments! ♥♥♥

Braided Layered Scarf with Lace Neck

First of all thank you everybody so, so much for your huge response on my jacket! I was quite overwhelmed by all those lovely comments and am sorry, that I cannot get back to all of you individually. Anyway, I owe it to you, that I can wear that jacket with confidence now! 

 
Today's post is about a scarf I finished in about 1 hour. I always wanted to try braiding fabric like American Apparel's fine jersey braided belts. But to give the scarf also functionality I wanted to add a simple wide stripe of fabric to keep my neck warm.You surely have seen similar scarves on the internet, everywhere, and I know that it is no new invention at all. Nevertheless, I just wanted to share with you the simplicity to make one on your own.

I have to admit, that I am a total scarf fanatic. No matter what time of the year it will be seldom for anybody to see me without. I guess I am like that for more than 10 years now. And if I do not wear a scarf or some other lighter cravat, I feel like getting a sore throat very quickly. It is odd, I know! :)

I used some light weight viscose and cut against the straight grain. It rolls up very nicely, so I can really recommend viscose. 

Cut as many stripes as you like and braid as many ropes as you like. Then hand sew each rope's ends together.

Do the same with some wider stripe of fabric, which you might also gather a little, as it will be on the back of your neck.

Take some broad lace and pin it onto the seams. Hand sew the lace on all parts of the scarf.

And that's it!

For more details on how to make this scarf click here

Next, I am surely going to try the lovely winter warmer cowl by Colette.

P.S.: Did you see those lovely blue earrings I wear proudly on the photos? I finally won something!!! Thank you Laura so much. I just love them! Besides Laura has a wonderful blog, too. And you can get hands on her handmade jewelry in her Etsy shop.

Wishing everybody a wonderful weekend!

Ruche Boxy Jacket (Coco meets Anthropologie)

Remember my post about that Coco Chanel inspired boxy jacket? I really wanted to make one for myself. Unfortunately, I was not able to find bouclé fabric that I really liked. Even not in black...

Anyway, I ended up with a woolen fabric, which color is a little hard to explain...sometimes it seems dark beige-brown and sometimes more grey...

For a plain boxy jacket this fabric might have looked too conservative, so I made up my mind, used the pattern for the jacket as a basis and combined it with a ruche front, which I have once seen on a jacket by Anthropologie (I guess autumn season).

Besides, it took me great effort to get these 3 photos yesterday! I wanted to take advantage of the blue sky (which is seldom in Germany, at the moment). So I went by bike to find a nice place for photos. The good weather made me believe I would not need a scarve. That was no good at all. I had to look for a good place for about 25 minutes and it was freezing 3 degrees cold! When I finally found one,  it was already sunset AND I had the chance to take only 3 photos, then the battery ran down. Afterwards, of course, I had to ride my bike home again for about half an hour...

So I hope you do not mind the photos' bad quality. I had to brighten them up quite a bit.

 

That's why I decided to take some additional photos in my room. One showing the jacket closed and one open.

This jacket's ruching were a lot of hand sewing work. As you can see on the photos above I created a hand rolled hem on the outer edges of the ruchings. I had to do this as the wool would have been too thick just to turn it inside and sew it with a machine. In addition to this I also sewed the ruching punctually onto the jackets front, so that they lie flat to each side.

I, especially, like the lining fabric. It gives the whole jacket that little 'something'.

So what do you think? Frankly speaking, I am not quite sure whether this jacket is really wearable or whether the ruching is just too much. Maybe I am just not used to them. I am curious to read what you think about it!

Bye bye! ♥

Misc

I was really flattered by the huge response on my father's sewing closet! Thanks to all of you for sharing my luck with me. I have told my father all of your compliments and though he does not show it, I know he feels very proud! :)

Anyway, he is also relieved that he does no longer have to work on it...hihi...

So today's post is a litte miscellaneous. I have so many things to share, so I decided to put them all into this post. I even have some other finished sewing projects, that I haven't posted, yet. Unfortunately, you will have to wait to see them because I had no time to take any more photos, yet.

This is a blouse I finished arround christmas. I used very soft and warm flannel for it. This definitely can keep one warm in the winter. I had some problems with matching the checks on the front and had to recut one side of it to make it work. Luckily, I still had some fabric left. I like the casual woodchopper look of it. A simple everyday wearable blouse.

On the left you see another christmas present of mine. One of my best friends knitted them especially for me! It was her first try on mittens and they came up beautifully!
They are warm and cozy and I love that mustard colored yarn.

On the right you find my little earrings frame.

DIY instructions for this kind of projects can be found all over the internet at the moment. I liked the idea and it was a quick and fun project. All I needed was a frame, some laces, some wool for the hanger and a good strong staple gun.

Luckily, I do not have so many hanging earrings, so I could go with this small frame.

And here a little sneak peek on what I am working on, at the moment. Inspired by all that wood crafting done by my father I wanted to work with wood, too. We had wood construction lessons in school and it was pretty fun.

Then I found a wonderful wood and fabric combining project on Tilly's blog.

A house sewing box! Perfect for all those fabric scraps lying messy all around!

Left you see my construction plan. I am now working on the wood to built the house's base.

Hope, this post was not too miscellaneous, but I really needed to update! Have a wonderful day and take care.

I am so happy...

Finally it is done! I am so happy and proud to show you what a wonderful sewing closet my father has made for me!!!

So this is the front! Isn't it just awesome?! I cannot say anything else about it. It is even more beautiful than I have ever imagined. I love that the structure of the wood is so vivid and those colorful knobs just pop out perfectly!

  

Do you perhaps know 'Pippi Longstocking'? A very naughty, but dearest little girl with red braids created by Astrid Lindgren. I think I remember her having a closet in which she had many surprises and little gifts for  her friends Annika and Thomas. This sewing closet definitely reminds me on that. Finally, I can organize all my favorite tools and crafty stuff. A closet full of surprises! :)

Oh, I am extremely thankful. This is one of the most precious gifts I ever got. I have seen how much effort and time my father put into this project and it took him about 2 months to finish it (of course not twentyfourseven!). This is a gift for a lifetime. I am always going to appreciate it! Danke liebster Papa!!!

A happy, happy new year!

With new year already here I would love to say thank you for taking time to read my blog and for sharing your lovely thoughts.

I have been blogging for 3 months, only, and did never think that it would be so much fun! I am also grateful for getting to know so many people all around the world, who share the same passion and are a wonderful creative inspiration for me. Thank you girls so much.

I wish you all a wonderful year with many beautiful projects, memorable moments with your family and loved ones, lots of success in whatever you are doing and, of course, health!