My first ever blog post!

Hello everyone,

I'm a complete novice to the blog world, so please bare with me....

I'm Petra and I have been sewing since I was 14, probably even longer, but it was when I was 14 that I have sewn first item of clothing for myself, until then it was only for my dolls. It was a shirt and even though it took me ages to make and caused few tear, when it was finished I absolutely loved it and wore it for many years. I don't actually remember why I decided to try. We had an old sewing machine at home, but my mum never use to do a lot of sewing, only repairs and shortening of jeans. Mind I still remember a jeans skirt she made me when I was about 12, I adored it and tried to wear it when it was way to short for me.

Since then I have made quite few pieces of clothing mainly for myself, but also for my sister, mum and few friends and later for my step son and my partner, who always try to push me outside of my comfort zone, by coming up with ideas, that I find a bit too challenging. Two years ago I found myself making goretex jacket for him, which for those of you who don't know is a bit tricky, as all the stitches have to have special tape ironed on the back to keep it waterproof and special zips as well. Hasn't leaked yet, I think. Here's few pictures for you:

One of my projects that I'm really proud of is my bathroom rug. It's knitted from old t-shirts, loads of old t-shirts, I think it's 22 or 23. I spent hours and hours or really days cutting the fabric into strips which I then used to knit the rug. And here's the result:

If you would like to have a go yourself, I'm more than happy to help and give you advice.

I think it was a point when I decided to have a look round the house and collect all pieces of clothing I could recycle and I found at least 10 pairs of old jeans, which are definitely never going to fit me again :-(, and that's how my first jacket was born.

That's about a time when I discovered Etsy and decided to try my luck selling my own stuff. I made few denim jackets and also women's tunics and tops recycled from men's shirts. I made one for myself first and I wear it all the time. Here's few pictures, you might get inspired and for those who rather buy it or would like to see more pictures and also more products, please visit my Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/PetraFedor?ref=si_shop.

I have also made couple of dresses out of recycled men's shirts, hopefully should be able to take the pictures and post them soon.

The recent addition to my sewing activities is couple of hand cuff bracelets, which I entirely enjoyed making, as it is more arty stuff, so I found it more creative.

The first one is a combination of lovely brown leather, which is soft but strong and embroidery/cross stich in an oval shape in the middle, which I hand embroidered on a piece of linen. I love a combination of leather and embroidery, masculine and feminine, so contradictory, but really working together. I found it a bit too clean, so I added purple stitching on the edges and buttons in different colours, big red one, small turquoise and yellow and wooden bead. The cuff is fastened by dark blue half ball button and elastic loop. It rocks.

The second one is much more romantic and feminine, I think. I called it Autumn Love as the colours of this lovely and really soft leather evoked autumn feeling when all the leaves change their colours into the most beautiful shades of red and yellow. Hence the leaf design, created from red and brown tweed fabric and beads.

And here they are. So which one you like more?

 



I am currently working on couple of similar necklaces, made of leather and embroidery. So I better go to work on them to have something to blog about.

It's been pretty long and exhaustive first blog, didn't hurt though :-)

I'll see you soon and don't forget to check my Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/PetraFedor?ref=si_shop.

Bye and have a lovely weekend!