Tine Sews: Frau Ava

Last Friday I made an impulse buy. I saw on makerist.de that they were having a sale which also included the Frau Ava pattern by Hedi näht and since I was thinking about that pattern from the moment it popped up on Instagram I quickly hit the "Buy" button. On Friday night I taped the PDF pattern and on Sunday I made the coatigan. Of course, I wore it to work on Monday.

The pattern by Hedi, a German blogger and pattern designer, ist a loose fitting coatigan with wide three quarter sleeves and pockets in the front. It only consists of two pattern pieces, the pockets and the facings. A very quick make indeed.

The fabric I used, sat in my stash way too long, but it's perfect for the pattern. The wool fabric was one of my first purchases, when I started working for stoffe.de

I have to apologize for the very bad quality of these pictures, but it started getting dark, when I took them and I had to lighten them up quite a bite.

The coatigan is not as flattering as the Stadtmantel by Crafteln, but it's comfy.

The coatigan has no lining, only a facing around the front. That makes it such a quick make. I already have plans for a second version, but might line that as I plan on using a leopard print furry fabric.

Tine Sews: The Travel Tote Bag

It's been a while again, but this time I can actually show you, what I made. The past weeks I did rarely sit down and sew, because my serger is currently at the repair shop and there seem to be important parts missing that the repairman needs to make it work properly again.
So I only have my "normal" sewing machine at the moment and as I'm so spoiled with the overlocker, I can't stand unfinished seams anymore, so that's why I haven't really been sewing lately.

But this weekend I did and I made a new bag! Bags are rarely on the agenda nowadays, as I mostly sew clothes, but I'm going to Marrakesh on Wednesday and I don't have any bag that is travel friendly in a city where there are supposed to be many pickpockets. So I had to make a bag that closes with a zipper. And make some safe pockets inside the bag, so that I can store everything inside and be organized.

I knew the perfect size for a travel tote from my former trip to Portugal, where I carried a tote around and it was the perfect size. It just didn't have the safety features.

The new bag features everything that I consider to be essential safety wise. We'll see if I have to fear any pickpockets at all or if it's just a myth.

Anyway, here are the details of my new travel tote with safety features.

The bag closes with a zipper. Unfortunately I couldn't get a yellow one as I wanted, because my local fabric shop doesn't sell this colour. So I had to get orange. I could have gotten the perfect colour at work, but I was short on time and so I went to the shop on the day I was sewing.

On the inside there are two more pockets. One with a zipper and one that is padded.

Used the same orange zipper for the pocket. It's a 15 cm one and it's a patch pocket.

The padded pocket is perfect for electronics or my wallet.

The straps are 80 cm long and the middle part is padded as well.

For the bottom I used some sturdy upholstery fabric, which should take wear and tear better than the quilting cotton I used as a main fabric.

I'm prett happy with my new bag and hope to have an awesome trip to Marrakesh. Maybe I'l even get around sharing some of the travel memories later. Though I'm already three trips behind...

Tine Talks: Interview For German Blog ellepuls.com

Wow, it's been a while since I last posted on here. I have been busy sewing though in the last couple of months. Maybe I'll share the outcome, maybe it will take me another couple of months until you read something on here again, who knows.

I've been busy working though too and work opens quite a few interesting possibilities. German blogger Elke from Elle Puls was looking for an interview partner for a blog series and invited me to talk a bit about how I got into the professional world of the sewing business. And I was happy to give my thoughts on blogging, sewing and a little insight on how a company in the fabric business operates the whole (social media) world.

I'm very honored to have been asked. The interview can be read here. It's in German, though I guess you could make work with Google Translate.

Anyway, because Elke needed a current picture for the interview, I did a short photo session in the office with one of my colleagues who works as photographer in the company. I really like the result, so I guess I won't be shy and share it on here as well.

That's me pretending to be always on the go with my phone. In the back you can see a realistic version of my desktop at work, which is filled with Excel spreadsheets.
I wore a self drafted shirt and some jeans, I made with fabric from Stoffmarkt Holland.

Tine Inspires: Simple Seventies Styles

I rarely talk about my inspirations on the blog. Though I'm constantly inspired by my surroundings, blogs and the occassional day of window shopping in the city.

It's been a while since I've shopped in a "regular" shop. Most of my shopping is done in a charity shop or in the fabric shops either online or offline. Though I also try to keep that as minimal as possible. I orgnaized my stash quite a few weeks ago and was overwhelmed by the choice of fabrics I already got and made the decision to use all of these fabrics in this year at least for one project. So far I've been doing good and only bought additive notions.

This year I've been to one fleamarket yet, but didn't buy anything. I try to be more decisive in what I buy and find a definite line of style. I find that I often buy second-hand more easily than if I had to pay the retail price. And I'm not sure anymore if that's how I want to consume.

It my sound weird especially knowing that I work in marketing and my job is to sell to people, my personal ideas about consumption are totally against what I promote as a professional. Though I always tell myself, that at least I' not promoting to buy garments made by underage workers from low wage countries.

Anyway, sometimes life is just contrary I guess.

My latest inspiration is all about the seventies. It started with my flares I made two years ago, then this year I got myself some original Swedish clogs and made my own pattern for a pair of culottes, which I shared on Instagram alreday.

Actually I guess I've always inspired by the Seventies. I have the theory that you fall in love with the decade before your birth decade. And since I was born in the Eighties, I naturally love the Seventies. Simple, isn't it?
I love the shapes of the Seventies fashion, some of the colour palettes like the mustards and oranges and also the patterns. It's great though that nowadays I can also combine the Seventies classics with some more modern shapes and make an interesting mix of old and new.

Tine Talks: Interview For German Podcast

It's already been a while ago since I was in Bielefeld for the annual Annäherung event. And I totally forgot about the fact, that I took part in an interview series for a German Podcast.

Muriel, the blogger of Nahtzugabe 5 cm (Seam Allowance 5cm), has started the podcast in November 2014 and since then published fifteen podcasts. For the event in Bielefeld, the dear Chrissy jumped in because Muriel couldn't be there and it was so much fun to talk to Chrissy and totally forget, that the conversation was recorded. Thank you Chrissy, for making it so easy and leading the conversation so professional that I even lost my fear of speaking into a microphone!

Today I heard the podcast for the first time, as it was published on March 28th and I didn't see the blogpost about the podcast yet. And I'm really happy, that even though I always hated my voice, it's not as bad as I always remembered. Maybe it's not really radio-conform, but at least I don't feel ashamed of it anymore. Well, I guess I should be a little less critical with myself!

On another note: In the last weeks I had a really busy time, so I rarely got to sit in front of my machine, but I went fabric shopping in an African Wax Print shop in Cologne, visited the Baltic Sea, went to the most important trade fair for handcrafting in Cologne/ Germany and even managed to fit in a weekend with a friend to sew together. This blog has been neglected though and that is a shame, but as this is my very personal blog I'm fine with not posting continously. I manage to update my Instagram much more frequently, so if you want to know, what's going on in my sewing and partly personal life, check out my feed on Instagram.

Tine Thinks: Random Thoughts On Blogging

This is the best picture I can give you, of what's going on in my sewing life at the moment. This weekend I pretty much spent all time sewing. Well apart from the time I spent grocery shopping, apartment cleaning and general chores.

The only problem. I can't get decent pictures of my makes. I really love what I'm sewing and making at the moment, but somehow I don't get around to take appropriate pictures. I tried yesterday, I really tried and put on some make-up and thought I could make use of the sun outside to get a good lighting on the tripod pictures. But it didn't work. Either the picture was properly lighted but then I was having an akward posture, or the light was bad and I had a good smile on my face.

I know, you'll be thinking "Well, just ask someone to take a picture of you". But there's a thing. I feel really akward doing that. I don't have a problem to be photographed, I just grew up with an education of "being too full of yourself" when I'd care about how I look on a photo, if my smile was right or if my pose was fun. In my childhood we usually only took photos on a holiday or family trip. I guess that's how everybody pre-digital-camera grew up.
Of course I also experimented a bit with camera, when I was in school. I even went to the photography club after school, but we mainly developed pictures and didn't really do shootings. Somewhen in my teens, I got myself a digital camera and started shooting my sewn garments. But I was always very shy in putting the pictures out there. Well, even more shy telling my family about that. I guess for many people the most regular reader of the blog is their mom. I didn't really tell my mum about the blog in the first months after I started it, because I had the feeling of "being too full of myself".

Well enough rambling. In my personal life I have a couple of goals for this year, and working on the past is one of my tasks that I gave myself. So I guess, it's good to reflect every now and then. I guess a blog doesn't work without pictures, so I will think about how to get over the past and the judgement of other people on what I do. I like blogging and I like to get inspired by other people's blogs, so I hope to be able to share this year more of what I'm doing too. There's a huge backlog of garments that you didn't get to see yet. There's the Rosari skirt, the parka I made on Annäherung 2016, plenty of skirts, shirt blouses, culottes and bags.

This beautiful ribbon was bought in 2014 when I met Charlie in London, stayed with her and we did a bit of Walthhamstow shopping. It adorns the hemline of latest skirt I made. I'm in love!

Tine Travels And Sews: Annäherung 2016

It's become a tradition. Every January on the third weekend of the month, it's AnNÄHerung - THE sewing weekend for sewing enthusiasts and sewing bloggers in Bielefeld. As tradition dictates, it's also a necessary component of the weekend for me to miss the welcome dinner and arrive late to the introduction.

In the introduction on Friday evening everyone tells a bit about herself and the plans for the weekend. From skirts, to trenchcoats, childrens clothing and coat projects, everyone has their own goal for two days of sewing that is only interrupted by the occasioal lunch and dinner break.

For the first time I brought two projects, as I thought that both would be quick. If I hadn't done some things wrong on the first try, they would have both been finished, but since I hadn't marked some things on my fabric and got confused when inserting the zipper on my utility jacket, it took longer than expected.

So what did I want to sew? I had cut and prepared a utility jacket in black water repellent twill, that I made from a pattern in Burda 07/2000. It's the issue that started my passion for sewing and the issue that I made the most garments of yet. I still have some patterns from the issue, that I'd like to make - maybe even my wedding dress will be from the issue.

I also brought the Rosari skirt pattern pieces, which I blogged about at the end of last year. I found some suede imitate at a closeby fabric store and had a clear image of the finished skirt in my mind.

On Friday night I started the jacket, stopped sewing at around midnight because I was a bit tired and on Saturday afternoon I finished it. With some minor problems though, but the great thing about sewing in a group that everytime you sigh someone asks what's wrong and offers you help. Thank you Heidy! I hadn't marked the proper position of the zipper on the jacket front pieces, so I sewed the zipper in at the wrong place first, but then, we found the mistake and I could correct it after some seam ripping.

Basting by hand - that's what I do, when sewing people are around

I also had to adjust the front when I was at home, because the neckline on the left side was higher than on the right side. I don't like seam ripping and usually I tell myself no one will notice the mistakes, but for this project I was really motivated to make it as perfect as possible.

The finished utility jacket has four pockets in the front and elastic casings on the neckline, waist and hem. It has raglan sleeves.

This is one corner of our sewing room. We also had various ironing boards, but only one mirror, so that's where the chatting took place. I've been to Bielefeld since the sewing weekend started, so it's been my third time and this year I promsed myself to spend more time chatting and not rush through my project. So I tried to chat with the others and get the occasionaly snack after every third seam, which almost worked out.

I love the atmosphere that the working sewing machines create and the chatter of happy sewing people. It's amazing how this little hobby brings together people and also how much impact the blogosphere has and how it brings together women from all over Germany. Every year I'm so inspired after the weekend that I can't wait to get back to Bielefeld in the next year. Already thinking about ideas for next years project gets my head spinning.
One weekend is not enough so I plan to have some "private" sewing weekends with friends this year too.

I have to thank the ladys who had the original idea for the weekend and organising the event three years in a row so much. You're great and I hope that we can continue our annual meet up for years to come! Their blogs are in German, but if you want to see what they are up to, check out Mamamachtsachen, Drehumdiebolzeningenieur and Alle Wünsche werden wahr. Google Translate can help!

PS: The Rosari skirt deserves an own post and of course I will also blog about the utility jacket. Both should be wardrobe staples in the spring.