Weekly diary

I did not have time to blog last week, but this week i made time again. Soo…

Perfumes worn were Scherrer EdT, Pour La Belle, Cafe Tuberosa, Mitsouko EdT (finally a Mitsouko i can love), Empreinte, Tea Rose, Lovely Sheer and Roma for a sunny sunday.

Views from my week, Gemista, Snoopy boxers, bikewear in progress and some selfmade bikewear i wore this week

On my plate this weeks cooking was a bit erratic. Some asparagus frittata, cole slaw with pulled pork, gnocchi with chard, pancakes with herbed quark and a big greek gemista with bellpeppers and rice.

I biked to work three times this week, so 135km in total. I was quite exhausted after this weeks biking, i even rode on friday in the rain and felt quite proud of me… But it helps with getting fitter and loosing some more weight (and gasoline is very expensive too at this time, so its a win in all categories).

I also took some time for sewing. I promised my boyfriend some new boxer shorts and he chose a Snoopy print! So i gladly (and with some silent giggles) i ordered Snoopy fabric and finished the first two boxer shorts plus one in checkered jersey. I have three more to finish, but this is at least a fun project. I am always happy, if i can sew something for him, but mostly he is content with his wardrobe.

I also made another set of biking clothes, this time a spring set of long leggings and a longsleeved shirt in turquoise and grey leopard fabric. If i knew that activewear is so easy to sew i would have started this much earlier! I can really recommend Activstoffe.de in Berlin, they have a great selection of quality fabric, mostly fashion industry remnants for a great price. In all i sewed three sets of bikewear (shirt and leggings) for a whopping 80Euro in fabric, and there is some left to do more…

Sewing sportswear- finally!

Since my friend Petra gifted me a book about Sewing Activewear i contemplated on sewing my own sports clothes, especially because most of the bike clothes do not really fit me. it seems, that every woman on a bike has to be very slim and small-busted. Most of the ready-to-wear things often do not even come in my size, which is really frustrating. And mostly i have problems to fit my D-cup sized bust into normal clothes.

I started with the basic pattern of Melissa Fehrs „Sewing Activewear“ book and first did a muslin of some leftover swim fabric, some bike shorts and a longer legging. As this all went well and without problems i ordered some interesting fabrics from a German seller called „Extremtextil“. I bought a very nice and thick stretch with merino plus some thinner fabrics for summer shirts and shorts.

As i wanted a raglan top, because this fits often better in the shoulders i finally bought the „Surf to Summit Top“ from Fehrtrade plus the Rouleur leggings for biking base clothes. The leggings were made from the base pattern of the book. For the top i first made a muslin with a thin t-shirt fabric to wear under it, then i finally cut into my good warm fabric.

Basic leggings and the Surf to Summit top plus my trusty ebike

I printed out the pattern at home and had no trouble to assemble it, all fit perfectly. Also the sewing of the different parts is really easy and the pieces fit together well. There were enough notches for putting together and the sewing part took maybe an hours time. Instructions were good, with text and pictures and easy to understand.

The only thing that i changed was the collar opening. I thought about inserting a zipper, but with the bulky fabric i did not like the idea after sewing a mockup on a fabric scrap. So i just cut the front part not on the fold, sewed it together leaving a slit and did a contrasting collar lining, that i folded under and stitched in by hand.

All things considered i am quite content with my new bike clothes. The sizing of the pattern is a bit on the looser side, so if you want it tightfitting, maybe size a bit down. I did cut a size M, although i am a 14US or a 16UK size, so even a bit more curvy ladys have the chance to make nice fitting workout clothes with Fehrtrades patterns. Plus- Melissa seems to be a really nice person too. I had a problem with my order and she sorted it out in just a few hours (on Easter weekend!).

My psychedelic wearable muslin of the basic leggings