Tine Sews: The Camera Tee

I have this T-Shirt for quite a while now, but I never got around to take pictures. Having a Sunday to myself I decided to take advantage of the light in my living room and take some pictures. In the morning I went to the Dutch Fabric Market, which travels through Germany and takes place all over the country. I've never been to this kind of market before, so I was very interested what kind of fabrics they offer. I left the market with some good stuff, which I'll show you at the end of the post.

But first some pictures of the Camera Tee.

I used the same Burda pattern as for the grey t-shirt from my last post. It's Burda (issue 2/2013 mod.126)

The fabric was a score at Stoffe Mahler a fabric wholesale company that also has a direct sale. It's quite a travel to get there, but they have great stuff. They sell a lot of designer fabrics as well, though they are heftily priced. I went with fifty centimetres of this jersey, which was just enough for front and back of the t-shirt.

For the sleeves I used some navy jersey that I had left from another project. I think that I once got it at work. We often get jersey knit fabrics for low prices and good quality from Italy, so I usually stock up on them.

The sleeves are ruched and then set in, which adds a nice detail.

I used my overlocker for all seams and then did the hem with the regular machine and a twin needle.

The shorts that I'm wearing are also me-made. It's the same pattern as the jeans and I just altered the length. It took me some trial to get a shorts length, because I couldn't imagine that the crotch is so short. I first ended with some kind of bike shorts, which looked very odd.

In the end the length was just right and I like the very much. I'll definitely take them with me on my next travel adventure.

The shorts are quite high-waisted which is comfortable and covers the odd belly.

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This is my haul from the Dutch Fabric Market. I got some black jeans fabric with stretch for 12 € ( 7€/m), some woven Peruvian fabric for 7€/m and some twill with unregular dots for 13,50 € (9€/m). I also got some needles and pins, because I needed them. I should've gotten them at work though, because they were pricier than at work. I thought I'd get them cheap at the market, but well I was mistaken. Anyway I think I'll check when the next market is and if I got time I'll visit again.
The market was well visited and at some times I was overwhelmed by the crowds but it was okay to browse.

Tine Sews: The Rockstar Outfit

Okay, so I have to catch up on a lot of projects. Just some days ago I got the e-mail about the next blogger meet-up event in 2015. I went there this year and made a biker jacket - then I never blogged about it, though it's been one of my favourite jackets in spring. Today I  had a lazy saturday and decided that it's about time to test my new camera (no DSLR but a very handy small camera from Sony) and did a mini photoshoot in my living room.

The biker jacket is made from a Burda pattern (issue 9/2004 mod. 127). I cut the pieces at home and then sewed the whole jacket on one weekend in Bielefeld, starting on Friday evening and finishing on Sunday morning. I had to make a quick run to a local supermarket to get the push buttons, because I forgot to get them before. Then Mema was so nice to bring a hammer on Sunday, so that I could finish the jacket. Unfortunately I messed up to of the buttons, so the jacket was 100 % finished at the end of the weekend and it took me another month to get new push buttons and add it, but after that I wore the jacket quite often.

The vertical zipper leads to a pocket, where one can easily store a camera or some keys. The diagonal zipper leads no where, it could be perfect for breast feeing ;). The jacket was too short, so I added a piece with 10 cm length to the hem and then attached the bottom band. Now the length is just right.

Details of the zippers and the cuff. The wristband is my favourite watch, which I made for a sewing tutorial at work. You can find the tutorial at Handmade Kultur (in German).

I got all of the zippers at Stoff&Stil, because it's just the cheapest place to get metal zippers and they have a good selection of colours.

I like to wear the jacket with a pair of black skinny jeans, that I also made, wear very frequently (that's why it's already a bit washed out) and that I never blogged about. The pattern is my pattern, as it's a heavily modified Burda pattern from an old issue. It was meant to have a side zip but I just made up a fly and pockets by using a pattern for a skirt.

You can also leave the zipper open and have a more casual look.

In the back I combined the two different fabrics. The black one was bought from work and the tweed is a vintage fabric that I found in the stash at my grand fathers old sewing studio.
The jeans have some wash lines, but I like the vintage look of them. The knees are a bit out of shape, but it's okay when I wear them.

The pocket lining is some floral fabric that I had in my stash. I love to be able to individualize my clothes like that. It's rarely seen, but I know that it's there and that makes me happy.

I also made the t-shirt of my rockstar outfit. It's another Burda pattern (issue 2/2013 mod.126).

In the back you can see two slits. Wondering why they are there? Well, I made a silly mistake while sewing the sleeve to the armhole and somehow caught a piece of the back in the seam and when I opened the seam I had a slit in the back. Since I didn't have enough fabric to cut it again, I just made a slit on purpose on the other side of the back and now call it a design element.

I love this pattern, as it's so simple to sew and also looks really good with contrasting fabrics.

Of course I am a true rockstar and also made my shoes! They are storebought espadrilles where I changed the fabric. Now I have shoes with a world map to take on my next travel around the globe.
Whee, this was a lot of pictures, hope you like!

Tine Thinks: Where am I going

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Recently I've been thinking about this blog and where I want to go with it. I started it in 2011 while I was studying, living far from my family and using this blog as a documentation of my life and sewing projects. I still had some semesters ahead of me and thought that blogging would be a good way to get into the groove of social media, writing and figuring out what I wanted to do later. I also had the idea of writing my bachelor thesis about turning a blog into a business, was even thinking about starting to write a business plan on how to make money with a sewing blog and what kind of market is out there that I could cater for. I worked part-time for an online fabric shop, so I saw the opportunity to use affiliate programs and such to monetize a blog. The only issue was - in 2011 no sewing online shop in Germany offered an affiliate program.

So fast forward to 2014: Three years later I have my own apartment in Hamburg and work in an online-shop that sells fabrics again. I'm responsible for blogger relations, finding people for our affiliate program, writing texts and coming up with ideas for sewing tutorials and the general work that comes with creating tutorials. Basically everything that I imagined to do in 2011 I'm doing right now. But one thing is different - I'm not working on my own or freelance, I have a contract with Europes leading online fabric retailers.

This has it's perks and I learned a lot in the last two years, but anyway lately I've been thinking about my initial idea again. I'd love to spend more time with my blog and not the companies blog. The only problem is time. As I work 40 hours a week + some more, then having to juggle everyday life with a social life and my volunteer work for a sports club, I'm basically happy if I have a free moment that I'm not sitting in front of my computer.

Today I had a look at my blog after two months of not having a look at the statistics and I was very surprised that I still have readers everyday. I guess the content that I already put up is interesting to some people, or they are caught by the blog title? Anyway, I just wanted to use this opportunity to let you in on my thoughts. Maybe you have the same problem about time and finding the time to do something which is basically a hobby, but that you want to professionalize for yourself. Any thoughts?