Hooded fleece jacket

This year I will have quite a few travels, therefor a comfy, casual jacket with a big hood to hide from a wind or rain is must have on the road!
Used two separate patterns for this jacket - hood is from BurdaStyle 11/2011 pattern called "hooded sweatshirt" and jacket itself is from BurdaStyle 04/2010 project number 117. I did change the neck line which was originally v neck. Also I put a soft, warm lining inside from a knit fabric.
This is warm, comfortable, light enough jacket to carry around and most important - you can throw it in your bag and it wont get wrinkles :)
 I am ready to go backpacking!

Crazy Felt belt

Starting to get into crazy felt, so much fun! Most crazy ideas can be realized with this method. 

It is quite straight forward - wool and yarn are arranged as you wish on a base material which is water-soluble stabiliser and temporarily attached with a spray adhesive before being stitched in place using sewing machine.

Got this idea in Jeannette Knake book called "Crazy Felt". You can find plenty of great designs and interesting ideas in this book.

And this is my first belt using this method :)

Dread lock accessory

Recently my daughter got herself dread locks. Simple hair-bands doesn't look good enough anymore.. So it is time to brainstorm through new ideas!

She showed me some pictures of her ideas and this is what I came up with - simple felting using irregular triangle form, long enough to wrap around her hair. Cut a button hole and sewed around to make it more solid. Looks really nice and holds dreads together perfectly. Ideal project for felting beginners! Highly recommend to try this!

Covers for iphone and kindle.

Trying out something new!
I have an iPhone 3GS and a price for a good, quality cover for it starts from €25... In the time of a recession even owning an iphone is too expensive, never mind paying an extra €25 for a cover itself... So I made one myself from a leftover fabric! Way better that a bought one :)
Created this pattern myself. Using the measurements of the phone, first I cut outside of the cover. Then I glued adhesive fabric on the wrong-side of the material to make it more harder and easier to embroider the fabric. Sewed on some ornaments.. Separately I made an inside of the cover - put together lining with polyester material and sewed together using embroidery style. Sewed some pockets over it and sewed together with the outside of the cover.
The same style I did for kindle covers. Just holders and pockets are different style and sizes... Turned out to be better that expected - very solid and strong and safe covers.
You should try it yourself - a perfect project to practice your skills on!

Folk-style dress

This is a dress I made for my daughters mother-in-low. She loves all kind of folk-style clothing and was looking particularly for a sarafan type dress.
She chose the material herself and it was a little bit hard to work with, to be honest.  It was one of the tweed type materials but very dense.. But pretty, indeed :)
 I found the pattern in "Botique" magazine and made slight changes to the neck line. Also added a heightened belt right under the bra line on which I sewed on crocheted circles and hand made buttons made of a modeling clay material. Unraveled some of the material from the belt making fringe-type finish to it.
She loved it :)

Great pattern for a jacket!

My daughter wanted a jacket which she can wear in different occasions, not too classic and most important - comfortable. 

After a great search I found this really pretty pattern in "Burda Style" (11/2010) . 

This jacket has a great fit and nice cuts. My daughter claims it is the most comfortable jacked she has ever owned. And the buttonhole pockets with flaps are really handy, too. Not the most easy pattern, I must say, I wouldn't suggest it to the beginners... 

I used good quality tweed fabric which I bought in Latvia. Lining inside and it's ready to be worn :)

tiny bag :D

Originally this was meant to be a case for a "kindle" for my daughter's mother-in-law. But my daughter found a great use of it and I re-did the inside pocket making it into a mini bag or over-sized wallet :D
I used felting + crazy felt method to create one large piece of material. Making it I used felting fiber, lace material, yarn leftovers and finished it up putting a lining inside and creating pockets over it which were re-placed with one big pocket as my daughter asked..
She loves it and uses it every day -->

Oh, so cozy coat!

Lets do it!
I chose my fleece coat to be my first work to share..
I took the pattern from a magazine called "Boutique"(10/09) and slightly modified it. Original pattern was much more wider at the bottom of the coat and I made it more slimmer fit by taking off a few cm of the sides of the original pattern. Also I shortened it a small bit. To make it more alive I added pockets on which I needle felted some free-style design.  Oh! - not to forget about the buttons I made using modeling clay and felting yarn which I gently rubbed in the buttons before placing them in the oven.
And I am very pleased with the result and so are my friends :)

Happy sewing!

About me and my work.

Hello and welcome to my blog where I am about to start sharing my work, experiences and knowledge in the world of sewing and crafts.


Few words about myself,
Being born in Latvia, where handicraft culture amongst the people has been highly valued for centuries, dressmaking and (most of the time) upcycling old clothes has always been a part of my everyday routine.
In high school years, living in a small town, chance to get a nice piece of clothing was quite limited. I was left with no other choice than to start experiment with shapes and patterns myself. And that was the time I realized I want to be a designer.
Having my sewing technologist studies done I worked in a fashion business and later had my own sewing business.
Now I am based in Ireland where recently, together with my daughter, we opened a little hobbit shop in etsy.com called Hobbit Friendly.


This is only a start :) I keep practicing my skills, learning many more crafts and updating my knowledge. 
I will be looking to get involved in some new projects and, hopefully, open my own workshop soon.


Best regards and happy sewing xxx