Ireland 2013

I spent 10 nights on Ireland in august, first I went to Galway there I meet Karina who took this pic of me and Oscar Wilde

 

 

 I saw a lot of Celtic crosses, and took quite a few photos of various knots

 Saw a lot of stones, they are called drywalls since there are nothing to glue them together

 Karina took me on a trip to the Country Life museum in Castlebar that showed a lot of old Crafts like this tecnique on making roofs from straw, it´s a traditional method where I live too but made slightly different

 The museum had some Aran knitting displayed too. There was a lot of nice knitted stuff in the stores and those with a zipper had a zipper pull with a celtic knot

 We visited a woman way up on Connemara, Karina had to call her twice becourse we got lost and it was pouring!!! She is a felt artist as you can see on the picture below  and she gives classes on a lot of other crafts too. She also sells fiber for spinning and Karina bought wool for a sweather and I bought fun stuff like silk hankies, corn, nettles, linen-jute, linen that I will have fun with

 

 And I had some pints of Guiness too and also visited the Storehouse in Dublin, Here´s an artistic pint, look at the foam part it´s made from fabric with some lace

Oysters are a favourite of mine and I had plenty of them!

I visited the Titanic museum in Belfast that was really a museum on building ships and about Belfast and I learned theat the linen industri is from northern Ireland and this is a photo from a photo in the exibition

Both the Titanic and the Country Life museum has photos that showed the True life and the Idyllic life in Pictures and I´m really happy that I live now and where I live...

I also saw some beautiful scenery, this is Giants causeway.
I visited some fabric stores, none of them Worth writing about, a very nice yarnstore in Dublin called This is knit! and my new love is called Avoca, Next time I go to Dublin I will take a tour to there mill. The store is fantastic and the cafe is great and I could have spent a lot more money there, they sell Merchant and Mill Products and I bought pins and two mugs that I´m unable to load in this post



Lace again

And suddenly I was  proud owner of three more shawls,

I have a tendency not to block at once...
This one is called Scotish tistle and I chosed the pattern for it when I was going to Edinburg, thought it was suitable. One of the borders are a frost flower but this yarn does not let the pattern show off. The pic is from the blockning, I´ll do it on my bed, and I sometimed put the matress on top and sleep on it to...

I let the shawl soak for about 10 minutes in lukewarm water with a little shampoo in it and when I block I´m brutal!!! and I use pins with glass nobs so they don´t get stuck in tha matress and they are also easier to remowe, I just bought new ones, not that I needed but there was this little cute retro tin...

In Edinburg I bought the yarn for the Lotus shawl that I knitted on when I was in San Fransisco and in San Fransisco I bought a recycled denim yarn that I have to have a plan for when I´m going to Ireland....

Knitting shawls when travelling is super it´s really packing light



The vintage pattern selector

Since I´m unable to load pictures both to FB and blogspot I´ll write a little about a new sewingbook I bought.
It´s called The Vintage Pattern Selector and the author is Jo Barnfield.
I like vintage looks but think that the whole kit is not suitable for my age and posture , It will look "matrony" as Heidi would have said. But I love all the different details in vintage pattern and I can use it in a more modern way and what´s what this book gives you!
They show you a vintage typical pattern and then pics on how you can style it in a modern way, these pics are both from patterncomanies like Colette and various manifactors and there´s patterns too!!!
Patterns for skirt, dresses, lingerie and accessoires too. They are sized S to XL and comes on a dvd.
There are not any pics of clothes from the patterns and I miss that.

Right side Burda July mod 136 ( or so I think...)

 I used my very nice Liberty print, quite busy and with a little stretch in it. A true summer dress! Had a little messup...sewed the gatherings  towards the right side of dress so I made som bias binding and covered the mistake that really is a design detail now. I also used bias binding for the neckline and sleeve caps, tiny ones. The fabric is from Shaukat and I´m so glad I´ll probably will be going back to London in october...

 detail of the mistake/ designer detail, the fabric is almost identical on both sides and not my usual choise

I also knitted and blocked a variation of Haruni in a matching color. The yarn is "Gotländsk pälsull" a domestic yarn, bought two shades of blue this one is called denim and the other one is more navy, very navy!

Bubbelless bubbeldress

I challenged myself to making one nice dress for my birthday and one for christmas, My birthday was a couple of days ago but I´m going out with a friend to salubrate tonight so in my world I made it!

 The fabric is an eyelet cotton and a cotton voile for underlining, both from Stone Mountain in Berkely. I used the voile for the interfacing to get minimum bulk. The eyelet is a little uneven blue at some parts but I think it´s becource I left it in the laundry mashine and one of my neigbours foung it when it was there turn so it dried all mashed up and was kind of wrinkly when I found it. The entire dress feels like it has structure and I really like it. I used the same pattern as this one but did some modification and I like the finished dress very much.

 I´ve started to use blue clothes again and this will be a summer favourite this year.
Summer has finally arrived here and the cat likes the balcony a lot

Think outside the box!

This dress is from for me the latest Burda, it´s in the plus section and I´m wild about it!!

I´ve seen som opinions about it on the net how ridicoulous it looks etc. In the magazine the dress is made in a sequened fabric and there is a optional top too, cut where the lower gathering is on the left side.  I have to agree of the opinions BUT look at the sides and think of them with the same design on the other side and there are two really nice dresses and it´s easy to make a straight skirt on the left side too for a third variation. I´ve made a muslin today of twice the left side and I´m planning to use one of my nice libertyprints for it!

The dress is so nicely shaped, unfortunately I have to go to work so I have to wait until tomorrow to cut it!

 

Lace addiction

I like everything about lace shawls, I love shopping for yarn, knitting, wearing, giving them away and I actually love to watch how they transform during blocking. I always bring a lace knit when I´m travelling since it´s lightweight and last a long time. This shawl is called "Lotus" and is knitted in a yarn I bought in Edinburgh and I knitted on it in San Fransisco. It´s dyed by a local dyer and that´s how I prefer to shop. I have two more shawls to block, one of them was finished yesterday and I already has a new one on the needles; a variation on a Haruni only using the last border.

The great thing about these shawls are that you can wear them two ways; over your shoulder for a light warmth or around the neck as a scarf. So you really need one in each color...

Lemon juice, Ottobre spring/summer 2013

I guess it´s not totally clear why this top is called Lemon Juice? It was yellow in the magazine...

I really wanted to do it in a very nice vintage blue rayon but wanted to try it out before in another fabric, this fabric is from the remnant table at Stof and Stil and has borders in both edges, I used them for cutting the sleeves.

I really love this top, it lookes weird on the hanger but when you wear it there are a nice assymetric cut to it due to one side seam is flat and the other a kind of waterfall.

 

Close upp on neckline. I was planning to use my serger but didn´t find the cord...It´s so much easier to get the neckline even cutting it with a serger

 A pic from the cut out, you can se the borders on both side of the fabric here, it´s on fold on the right angle and on the left angle is the hem

 I used framilon/ clear elastic for the ruching, ruching is onother reason why I would have prefered to use a serger, it gets a little uneven

 I´m wearing this top today with a black jersey skirt from one of our chain stores in Sweden; Lindex, think a little more mature than H&M and they have a plus section that might not be brilliant but much better than H&M, but let´s face it; everything is ...

The reason for showing this pic is that it´s quite simple and brilliant in the constructon. The entire skirt is double at the hem, has one seam in the back and is turned with an elastic attached at the wrong side, you can see how the outer layer of fabric rolls over the upper edge and then the elastic is stitched through both layer to hold it in place, NO HEM! talk about fast project...and adaptable to other knits!

Burda 09/2011 mod 128

 

 This blouse cought my eye in an old Burda, it´s not a plus size but I enlarged it by splitting and adding at the side seams. It´s the first project made in my sewingroom and I absolutely love beeing down there

 I used a rayon from San Fransisco from Satin Moon, It costed a little more than other fabrics I bought on that weekend so I got frugal and bought 1,5 yards, not really thinking that there is a difference between meter and yard and with this small amount I should have bought some more. I really love the pattern and they had it in one or two other colorways.

Does it look like in the magazine is a common question on PR and part from beeing more busy due to fabric choise and using sets of three button placement, it does. The original model is made in white and really nice ( hmm I have some white linen...) and have badly done buttonholes...shame on you Burda! I hate then they show poor workmanship och take a photo of a skirt not in the right position ( Yes I have a pic on a skirt rotated 1/4 around the body)
The blouse was easy to sew once I realised that the collar should go on first before attaching back and front....Thats why they have instructions...right!

And now clothes on and go down and sew girl!!

A little prinsesse

Happy National day to you!  This is Prinsesse Estelle wearing a childs national costume. The swedish national costume is an invention although quite old I still think it´s cute if you are 1years+ but the old folk costume or regional costumes are much more interesting.

Upstairs Downstairs

I got the keys and have starting the move, there are still some fabrics upstairs, as well as furniture, notion, dressform etc, etc but it feels great to be able to look at all the fabrics and pet them too...
I´ve sorted them in wools, knits, linen, silk, tops and dresses, bottoms, odd fabrics and I have some pieces that are like "treasured-fabrics-of-small-amounts-suitable-for-trims". I have some fabric in the attic too, like a lot of quilters cottons and I´m actually looking forward doing some quilting
I knew I had some nice wool but I was surpriced how much knits I´ve collected...

Soon to bee sewing room

 This is my soon to be sewing room! It´s in the basement of my appartmentbuilding, quite big, has some loose shelving also and is just been repainted, It does not have an outlet but it will any day. I will pay 200 crowns for this!!! it´s like 30 dollars / month at it will give me a chance to keep my appartment free from snippets and some of the dust but most of all it will give me a chance to indulce in my hobby!

1920 extravaganza

I went to a 1920 style burlesk extravaganza and had a fabulous time, I wanted a flapperstyle dress that I could wear casual also, so I used no 432 from the Burda Plus that I wrote about before and added the angle cut and the ruffles from Vogue 8082 that I oicked from the unloved table at PR weekend SF

 The fabric is from Paris, marked as rayon but I think it´s polyester, and even though it´s kind of retro it´s really not 20 something, I underlined the dress with Silk organza that I brought home from Stone Mountain in Berkeley

 The headpiece that I bought at Claire´s in London and a elastik trim with sequens on bought locally

 The skirt looks like this and I made view A since I was kind of lacking in fabric, I even hade to piece some fabric for the ruffles. The rufffles was cut on bias and hanged out very uneven, the little point on the upper ruffle had to be shortened becource it was longer than the under ruffle.

It was fantastic to see what everybody was wearing, next time I´ll put more glitter into it...

Shaukat

Shaukatwww.shaukat.co.uk is at 700 old Brompton road and you´ll reach if by taking bus C1 from Victoria station. They sell tweeds and Liberty and the prices of Liberty is so much better than in any other store I visited, You can shop 3 meter pieces or have them to cut from the bolt for you

 

This is 3 meter pieces very eatly folded and the store is very clean, fabric stores have a tendency to be dusty but nor here

They also have chairs for company who dont want to explore the shelves. This is Hanna without the mask...

and this is the two pieces I bought, the first is very Liberty to me and the second one not so but has a nice retro feel to it. Liberty cottons are so nice to touch and have the nicest drape....yum!

Next week I will be given the keyes to my new sewingroom. I decided that I lacked a room and wrote the board of my appartment building if they had any vacancies and they did not but shortly after this room, right down the stairs was available and now it´s been cleaned and painted and I can start carry down thing very soon. There´s even very functional shelves down there, so I´m looking forward get my appartment livable again....and the rent for this room is less than tiny...

Oh yes! and I´m going to Ireland in August!!!!

Good night mask

I don´t know what the proper name is for this but my niece fixed one for herself fast

Protect and serve

I`m not in the army but at Stonemountain and dauther in Berkeley I bought a pattern from Decades of style, they had a lot of nice patterns, but I like aprons, have some vintage in the attic and also some vintage patterns, but they are kind of small in sence that they don´t protect very well.  On this apron almost all seams are finished with bias tape and I had readymade in my stash, the fabric is a quilters cotton that are more stable than usual and I thoughyt that the combo had a vintage feel to it. I would like to do this again but then I would make the pocket bigger.

The pattern is no 5005 1950s Ptotect & Serve Apron, highly recommended!



 

Burda Plus spring/summer 2013

Burda Plus have the last years been a kind of " best of" so if you by Burda Style you already have all the pattern...Now they are back in business with this issue; all new patterns, at least for plus size and I can basically see myself in almost everything Nice stories and fab fabrics.
Thank you Burda!!!!

I´m working on a flapper dress that I´m going to wear to a party extravaganza later this month and used one of the dresses from this issue as a top and going to use a Vogue skirt pattern for bottom. I´m using a kind of retro fabric bought in Paris and underlining with silk organza and the fabrics don´t behave in the same way...I´ve done underlining before but not this large pieces, but there´s still plen...some time to get the job done.

Napkins

I dont sew much home dec, but I´m proud to live in an appartment where all the curtains are hemmed...
I do enjoy cooking, baking etc and used to write a blog on those subjects too, today I sometimes read foodblogs and one of my favourites are Chocolate and Zucchini A long time ago she made napkins by sewing two fat quarters together, turning them and topstitch, really nice and I thought I could do that with my reproductionfabrics that I´ve been stashing and then I forgot all about it until I watched the FQ table at Peapod fabrics and I bought 8 pieces that cordinated in pairs. I cut squares as large as I could get and used a contrast from one of the fabrics for the topstitching. Really nice and fast and great for a gift.

San Fransisco

I can´t believe it´s a week since I went home, due to timezones It will be a week tomorrow from when I returned. I´m still on vacation and have not have any big issues with jetlag maybee due to that I was up early the entire week in SF. I toured the city, shopped a lot of fabric and attendet PR weekend and listened to Sandra Betzina....and bought some books from her and got some patterns for free that where unloved by others
and here´s some photos that are not fiberrelated

OK there might be some fibers in the strawberries and the tea leaf sallad...