Grey dress Onion melange

 

The dress is finished, only missing my label

 

 Here´s a close up on front detail and sleeve and you can also see how beautiful the fabric is. I already feel that this is a dress I will wear a lot

 I got the sewing bee book today and the other book I bought a couple of months ago. What I don´t like about these books is that you have to tape a lot of papers together pdf patterns are not a favourite of mine...the sewingbee gives you the option of enlarge with help from a grid,... like even less... There´s one pattern for a sleeveless tunic thats fullscale in the sewing bee book and the sizes are 8- 16 the other book is interesting becourse you make the pattern with your own measurement

I thnk the sewingbee book reflects the joy I find watching the show, there are step by step instructions for a lot of clothes and home dec. including Tillys blouse ( finished edition) and my favourite; Stuarts dress ( love that fabric!)

I also finished the hem on Paco´s half circle skirt..... I fused it.... It´s a knit and that´s how I prefer to hem those items....and I´m not a skilled sewer then it comes to knits.

Onion 7063

I decided I wanted to sew a dress for SFO and looked through some options
Onion 5040 I´ve done it before but I´m not sure I blogged about it, I used a crinkly cotton-po light blue fabric and never really liked the sleeves, but I like the boho style of the body. I started with covering the lower part of the sleeve with my thumb and it looked so much better

Then it was this dress that I made the other year and then I thought about using the sleeves, the short puffy ones and that´s what I did. There was  a minor difference in size

I used a rayon from Stof och Stil and rayon lining. I decided to go with the rayon instead of the cotton voile becource this fabric is heavy and will work all year around exept for a hot summer day and I just have to make myself  another dress where cotton voile is a better choice, I might even do the 2023 with a simular fabric as the first flowery dress that I loved to wear...

 

It lookes like my visions for a sewing room are coming closer. A couple of months ago I wrote to the board of my appartment building and asked if they had any rooms in the basement that I could rent and yesterday I got a call that there´s a big room free from may 1:st : We don´t know yet if there are any outlets and the best part is that it´s a big room and its in my building

Ok now I have to set in the sleeves.....

GBSB

When I was in Edinburgh I met Deb from My happy sewing place ,she talked about The Great British Sewing Bee so I´ve been waiting and thinking about how I would be able to watch it and I was really happy when I found out that they are on youtube and since I´ve been very tecnial advanced these days and got myself a HDMI kabel I can watch it on my TV and it´s so much better...

 

 

This is the thirst episode, there are 4 in total, 2 is still to come. The best thing about this show is that it actually show how to sew and the judges give very constructive critiqe on that. Nothing like Project runways sarcastic approach.
Ann and Tilly I´m familiar with before there are six more contestants and they have managed to find a croud with very different backgrounds and I love that becourse it showes that sewing is for everybody. I loved when one of the guys said that his wife also had a mashine and they sew in front of the TV  together. That´s my kind of boyfriend!!
There´s a book too and of course I´ve already ordered it!

Counting days to SFO...

PR weekend Europe Barcelona 2012

What do you do on a PR weekend besides shopping for fabric...)Well according to my pictures we ate lot, and had coffea...
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Paco Peralta top and skirt

Two weeks from now I´ll be in San Fransisco, doing sightseeing and attending the PR weekend and shopping of course...
I will probably be the person with most RTW but I figured out that it was time for me to finish my Paco Peralta skirt and then I realised that I never blogged about the matching top that I´ve used a lot and I didn´t even blog about The PR weekend we had in Barcelona...
Here is a picture of Vibeke, Paco, me (and a sample of my postcancer curly hair ) Maria ( Mariadenmark )and Åsa. The picture is taken by a friend of Paco´s ; Cristina who joined us, and stolen from Paco´s FB page.

Paco gave us patterns for the draped top and the semicircle skirt and I did the top shortly after but the skirt was left behind. I´ve used the top a lot this winter and it´s so smart with the insertion of the draped part. I used a knit so I did straight grain. The top is elegant, dressed and easy to wear and sew!

The semicircled skirt is not just a half circle, it´s much smarter than that! Today I decided to do an elasticised waist and the tecnique is something aI learned from Threads a long time ago and I learned from Sandra Betzina then deciding of the lenght of the elastic you should measure your waist and reduse that measurement by 4 inches. It´s important that you use your true measurement not the one you want to have or the one you´ll had at 19. I don´t know if these pictures helps you but you attach the elastic to the fabric and then turn it and it´s really very easy, much easier than doing a casing

I´ll need some help with the hem and then it´s ready!
Paco´s patterns are hand drawn in three sizes and are exeelent drafted. Paco said that you might not like his style of clothing but every patternpiece fits correctly!
The elastic is a non fold elasic that are "boned" but totally sewable, I bought it in Seattle and I think that it is easy to find in the states I think I bought it at Joann´s.
If you are interested in Pacos pattern here`s a link to his etsy shop!

Mixing merino

I spent yesterday with two friends mixing merinos. We looked at a video with Deb Menz that was bought from Interweave and started to play with the different theories she had using the colorwheel from the book. We used boring merinos and I never thought that they would end with these wonderful batts. next step is to spin.

New hallway

My new hallway is almost ready the walls are not as smooth as I hoped for but with the grey color they have a rustic, industrial feeling


and here´s a pic on the front door that might be white instead of red, don´t know yet...


The floor before I removed the stuff between the tiles, actually it´s the floor in the kitchen and I will do the same thing there when I forgot the labour that went into it...


And the new look with dark grey "stuff"


Also a close up on my new bag that I bought on "Ness" in Edinburgh

Scottish sheeps

We saw lot of sheeps and deers along the road, ate some haggies too ( like it) and fish and chips ( not so much ) The sheeps are close to Loch Ness and where the picture of me is taken I don´t know....and my hair is getting longer with every picture I put up here

Edinburgh

Spent last week in Edinburgh and what a joy if you love wool and traditions. Edinburgh Castle, no tattoo until august but well worth a visit, the entire place is quite remarcable and so is the scottish crown displayed here Ness a local store that became my favourite, use tartans and tweeds in a very modern way. They have a webshop a more traditional use of tartan but in a very playful way shown here on our guide Alistair who guided me to the highlands, Loch Ness and more Just off the castle on the Royal Mile was a shop called Jeffrey tailor kilt shop and they also had looms and was making kilt fabric there and selling it of course as well as costum mede and RTW kilts. If you want a kilt I would suggest a visit to Armstrong and son a vintage shop chain in town for a better price. Men´s kilts are quite heavy!!! I visited 3 fabric stores and they where all nice. These fabrics is from Edinburgh fabrics that I visited with Debi from "My happy sewing place" It´was her favourite shop and I bought 3 fabrics and straps for a kilt, the purple green fabric is going to n´be a Billie kilt that a talked about before, and for that reason I bought a kiltpin with a purple stone on ( matchy matchy...) I visited one yarnstore too and bought a skein of locally hand dyed lace yarn and I also spent a night knitting with a local group also

Bra making again

It´s been a long time since I made lingerie but yesterday I teamed up with two friends for an entire day of sewing...and food and cakes. The leopard fabric and the lace is from a kit from Kantjeboord and the elastic is from Elöingeria and some old stuff from sewsassy that did not take the heat of an iron well.... The straps are from an old bra and it is missing the closure, I have to buy a black one. I also reduced the cups of a bra I bought to close to my surgery before all the swelling went down, now I can use it! It was a lot of fun sewing again and I have some more plans but the hallway is prio 1!

Kilt and tartans

I´ve been scouting the fleamarkets for years for the perfect kilt; my size, nice plaid good condition, lately I looked for one for my niece who loves Union Jack, I thought she would look great in a short skirt but it was not all-things-english so I skipped it. I was also prepered to through in a decorated pin for a fun look. I might have a word with here about it after all... I had a kilt or two back in "gymnasiet" that´s like collage... but since I bought myself a trip to Edinburgh next month my kilt fever rised and thanks to google I learned that a kilt is about 7 meters of fabric and this photo showes how it´s constructed

That´s a lot of fabric in areas there I don´t need any extras so I found these two models that I like better

To my knowledge my family does not have a family tartan so I can choose what I like the most!!! Yey!!! There are several kiltmakers in Edinburgh and also some other fabric stores that carry tartans for half the price. And they have a good selection of tweeds too. Yes I think we have to bring the big suitcase... There´s also a book on how to sew a kilt that my online source does not have and that I will be looking for and then I will be having afternoon tea, haggis, fish and chips and maybee some whisky and beer and a lot of sightseeing My hallway is doing some progress instead of small pieces of wallpaper there are now just dust everywhere and I need to focus!