Burda Boho dress

I´ve been sewing more than usual the last 6 months and this is one of my favourites. It´s from Burda´s june issue and I liked the to me very 80 style, I could totally have made this and wore it back then. The fabric is a rayon I think you can call it a challis, I bought it at the remnant bins at Ohlssons; a Swedish chain store that I don´t like that much but they have remnant bins there you buy per kilo and here you can find a lot of nice stuff, for instance I bought a lot of active wear fabric there last fall and you have to go often so nobody else grabs the good pieces.

I made some changes to the pattern like the neckline I just used a bias tape from the fabric instead of the shaped piece the pattern calles for, I also did not do the big sleeves of the pattern, they have a kind of very widely spread shape, mine is straight and I also did a casing with elastic instead of a placket, mostly due to that I screw up measuring so I just used the fabric, I omitted the front seam and the belt and added pockets in the side seams. 

This picture showes the cut that my fabric hides and my dress looks very different from the one in the magazine die to fabric choises.
It was a fun make and I have been wearing it a lot and I always use the black belt becourse I like how the leather make a contrast to the flowery and sweet of the dress.

neckline with ties from twisted floss and sleeve with elastic casing

Pink Ribbon 2018

The Pink Ribbon 2018 id designed by Bea Szenfeld and slightly different becourse it´s made from paper that is her prime media

Bea is born in Poland but lives in Stockholm and beside paper she is famous for refashioning, I first came in touch with her work when she appeared on "Fashion House" that she won, Fashion House was a pre- Project Runway there the contestents where from different countries in Europe.

This year I salubrate 7 years after cancer treatment and I urge you to not to put any hearts or colors of your underwear on FB but to actually donate Money to research!

I started a new job 2 weeks ago and are away during the weekdays for training and miss my sewing mashine a lot, but I spend my free time knitting a brioche shawl, I finally found out how to do the brioche stitch and I´m enjoying it so much. 

Shear or Winter is coming

Winter is coming and something to keep my head cosy is needed. Brooklyn Tweed has in my opinions the best patterns and this one is no exeption, it´s knitted in Fine Tweed from Americo Yarns that I bought when I was in Toronto two years ago. 

And look how beautiful  the decreases are made!

and a side view on one of my summer hats

Stockbridge

I bought this yarn from Geilsk a couple of years ago and knew I wanted to knit a cardigan, but the one I started had a lacy detail pattern that the tweedy yarn did not do justice to so I frogged and put it away and drooled over the yarn whenever I saw it, Then a couple of weeks ago I came over Stockbridge by Isolda Teague and it is basically a very straight knit cardigan, very simple but the body is knit in one piece bottom-up and the sleeves are picked up and knit top down with shaping done by short rows.
I´m currently workin on the looong rows of the body but the yarn is really nice to work with so it´s a treat and the texture of it is lovely.

I´m using two pieces of grey yarn instead of little fancy markers that are actually more fun to look at as you knit. I know I have a tartan wool fabric that I bought in Edinburgh a cople of years ago that matches and I also have a kilt pin with a purple stone to match it so maybee it´s time for my kilt this season.

Manolo Blahník at Bata Shoe Museum

I have to admit that I never heard of Manolo before Sex and the city but I understand that despite the heels they are comfortable, and he actually also do low heels even though Carrie would never wear those.
After PR weekend I spent a week in Toronto who happens to be one of my favourite cities and I visited  the Bata Shoe Museum . I´ve been there before so I skipped the historical exibit and went straight to the Manolos. The exibit will last until jan 6 2019 so you have plenty of time to go there.
There are plenty of shoes to drool over and some of them are combined with sketches or should I say paintings, real artwork, you can come real close up and study the details and pictures are allowed. So I´m just going to add some eye candy here:

Hopscotch

Hot pink addition to my sock drawer, used the pattern Hopscotch from the book Think outside the sox, a book filled with 60 sock patterns with innovative design, these must be one of the basic one. If you are interested in knitting socks from hexagons, entrelac and a lot of other tecniques this is a great book. I don´t remember what yarn I used, I like to buy sock yarn as souvenirs and this one is actually a little more Hot than the picture will show

Closet Case Pattern´s Kalle Shirtdress

Working with Closet Case Patterns is such a thrill! The patterns are well drafted and the Tutorials are always  well written and illustrated. 

I really love this dress, I made the longest version and added yet 5 cm and also did a little bust dart and for the next version I will make it a little bigger. I don´t remember what size I used but it was after my bust measurement and I could have gone down a size but on the other hand beeing very loose fitting is very nice this summer becourse we are having temperatures in the upper 20:ies to lower 30 since the beginning of may and this is something we are not used to but I´m enjoying every day of it

 I did the placket and what I like about it is that it is made exactly the same way I´ve been making sleeve vents for 30 years and its the best way to do them

This was the first time I used my whatchmacallit for cutting the button holes. I bought it at the leather store that´s on Spadina Avenue in Toronto.

The fabric is a rayon challis that I bought at Len´s Mill when I was in Canada for Pattern Review weekend, actually not as tricky to work with as rayons can be, the fabric had some holes in it but I was able to cut out the entire dress and still have some leftovers

The buttons are from a local store called Greger Sy and have an entire wall with buttons and a lot of other things like interfacing, thread, lace, bias tape and also sells sewing machines.

Close up on the back, the yoke is double using the burrito method.

And two more pictures of me wearing the dress.

The pictures with me wearing the dress is taken in my local fabric store run by Sara who is a friend of mine, she also sew and sell clothes  and I´m standing in the part of the store with ready made things. The store is called Den är min! That´s mine! and also do mail orders

Sew House Seven Tea dress

I´ve seen a lot of Sew House Seven´s Tea dresses lately both on the net and in my close sewing community  and bought a pattern when I was in Canada for vacation and PR weekend. I´m very fond of buying 3 meters of fabric and this one needs almost 4 but then I took a chance and used this what I think is Liberty Lawn fabric but not the flowery stuff...( I have one piece with swirls in more blues too) and I think I got away with 3 meters even though I omitted the ties where would have been enough for the too!
I prefer clothes that are not cut off at waistline but I had plans for adding the "watchmacallit" at the back to hold a tie but then I tried it on without  and when summer is like this year this is the way I like to dress.
I did som changes to the pattern like constucting the pockets differently and added a different direction piece of fabric at the top and made the top 4 cm longer and added 5 cm to the shorter version of the dress so it´s something in the middle now.
I´ve been wearing it a lot and have plans for at least one more in the very near future, I saw some pictures on Instagram when 2 fabric where used and I have some fabric in teal that are suitable and I will go with the ties this time.
I´m not so fond of the the way the sleeves end but I saw a nicer way on some better RTW the other day that I will use for my next dress

Gucci Skirt

We are having a really warm summer here in Sweden and the dryest as far as anyone can remember so what´s more suitable than to talk about my wool skirt that I have been wearing consistantly fall- winter- early spring. 

Front view

I made it early fall last year at a sewing camp there we where 20 women sewing for four days and evenings and getting food and coffea served to us reguarly

I was supposted to make a regular 6 gore A-line skirt but forgot the pattern at home so I went with what I had, the pattern is from an old Burda Plus and probably also a Burda Style and has a different cut at front that I liked and a went at the back, no waistband.
The fabric is an endbolt och really nice tweedy rusty wool that I bought from Italienska Modetyger.

Detail from inside back, hangers from the lining fabric and I also put my name on it!

It´s lined with a rayon lining and stabilized at the waist with some kind of twill tape, I´ve made skirts without stabilizing them at the waist but it really makes a differense doing it so no more easy way out here...

The last picture here shows the inside and I completely underlined it with silk organza, it´s the first time I do that in a complete garment, I used it as an interfacing before but never like this. Silk organza is hard to find in Sweden at least at a moderate price but I have a small collection now.

Underlining with silk organza is a winner! It gives a structure to the skirt that suprised me and I feel that it keeps the fabric from not stretching so my promise to myself is that I will never sew a wool skirt without it ever!!!!
Rust is a nice color that works well with navy and I really like these colors that reminds me of fall.

Hello 2018!!!!

New year and new start!
I did not set up any sewing goals for last year but I will for this year;
I signed up for the RTW fast so I´m not buying any clothes for this year....I have a tendency to shop spontanesly so I think it´s a good idea for me . I also used to be the girl who saw things on the catwalk or on high street and made a copy myself and I would like to find her again and to be honest I Think I can do 3 years with the clothes I have part from undies and stockings...no I do Think I have stockings for 3 years....
I would really like to find the optimal wrapdress pattern, I have two wadders that prooves that I´m still searching. One will be transformed into a skirt and the other into something else. I´m not even sure I want a wrap dress, I just want something wrappy over the bust. I like to wear jersey dresses and finding dressier models would be a goal and MariaDenmark and Sysiden is one option but also Knipmode/Fashion style has some great models for elegant jersey dresses.
I would like to find a way to sew the optional pantie or make a decican to just continue buying them.
I would like to sew a shirt in an inexpectly fabric that only can be found in a quilt store.
I will go to Toronto, Stratford, London and Rome and Stockholm and Copenhagen
Will be making some kind of fun X-mas outfit since I will be working all X-mas and NY and need something fun and tacky for this, ugly X.mas sweather is not enought!
I will blog more often...

Better late than never

About 7 years ago I bought a kit from Kantjeboord and I made a bra from it. ( and how I miss my Vivien bra....) Then after cancer and reduction all of my bras were too big and I slaughtered them and saved the hardware and other parts that could be saved.  A couple of years ago I did a new bra from that fabric but the straps came out to short, really easy to fix! Of course I did not do that until today so here´s a picture of my new bra, I even have fabric left to make a panty or two if I mix in some black fabric but until then I wear this one with black panties.

Socks, socks, socks!

I kind of like knitting socks...more than I actually wear them and I have a drawer to prove it!

 

 

Lately I have started to knit my socks on smaller needles like 2,0 mm and it makes them a lot nicer to wear. I always knit them toe up so when I link to a pattern I have not actually knitted the pattern just the design and sometimes a variation of it and I always knit them two at a time using magic loop.

 

This yarn is from Garnkorgen and it the color was called denim and the pattern is Laced-up-socks from Janice Kang, the links are to my Ravelry page for these projects. I Think the yarn might have been a Cascade heritage.....

This one is called Mirror and the pattern is from Knitty and by Josiah Bain and I did a variation of the patter on the backside. My notes says that these where made in Cascade Heritage, so maybee the denim blue where not....

 

I bought this yarn becourse I liked the name of the color; Mango. The pattern is a pattern for half mittens that I made into socks. It´s designed by Gesine Wiemer.
I liked this yarn so much that I decided to mend onother sock that are just basic from the head but had a close encounter this a moth ( I hope that is an issue from the past now but you never know...)

This is what I´m working on now! The pattern is called Fledermaus meaning "bat"  There are some simular designs for more socks on Ravelry. They are designed by Caoua Coffea and are a little challenging to knit and a lot of them have this twisted knit that I think is called Bavarian style. The yarn is Malabrigo sock

Tartan + Tweed = True

I rarely get exited about new books, but this is what I´ve been waiting for since my trip to Edinburgh a couple of years ago. It´s written by Caroline Young and Ann Martin and is a historybook of the two fabrics with a lot of pictures of fashion. It´s almost as if I want fall to arrive so I can sew my rusty tweedfabric into a skirt....well almost....

Burda (pre Style...)2004/03/136 top

I made my second blouse or top from this pattern and can´t recall that I ever blogged about my first...
The first one is the one with flowers, it´s a flea market rayon skirt that I liked the print on, It´s almost a straight 44 from the magazine, the second one is an embrodered cotton remnant that I bought in New Orleans a couple of years ago intended to sew this pattern and made plans for it time upon time and now I decided to do an FBA...Dont need it on Burda´s plus size patterns, and I knew it before and don´t know why I did it???..... So now I have do remove the extra fabric in that area.

 

 This is how the pattern looks like in the magazine, I made view A but sew the sides together all the way BUT since Nygårdsanna used to have a simular top with buttons in the back that is what I did on both . I can see that she has them again but this time without the buttons in the back

 The flowery top has som from the stash buttons that I have in two sizes, and for the white top I bought  hammer on kind of mother of pearl plastic buttons, most becourse I was concerned if I could sew button holes over the emroidery, The are from Stof och Stil and I already hade to replace one....

 The neckline as well as the arm holes are finished with ready made bias tape, and below you can se one of the seams from the original skirt that are placed like some kind of princess seams on the front

Now I will draw a new pattern and make some more tops, they don´t need a lot of fabric and are quick to make, reminds me of a Sorbetto fro Colette, but since this pattern works so well for me I think I stick with it. It´s also something that I like to wear, I might to some different necklines just for the fun of it!

Onion 5019 Wrap blouse OOP

 

I think everybody who watches House of Cards envy Claire Underwood  her wardrobe....I really like her white wrap blouse and wanted to make one for myself. after a lot of googling and going through Burda Magazines I decided to use this pattern, and then I saw that the blouse required far less yardage than my 2,5 meter piece of white shirting I decided to use this fabric from Stof2000 in Copenhagen ( Stof 2000 is a chain but I find the store at Norrebro to be the best)It´s a cotton and the colors goes well with the grey skirt and the cardigan that is yet to be finished.

 

If you look to the right of this picture you can see what the fabric looks like

 I did not do the pleats in the back and made my ties ca 150 cm long and tie them around me when I wear the blouse. I also did a different finish on the sleeves. I have a long torso so I added 2 cm above bustlevel and at the same time I lowered  the apex. This is something I do on all patterns and it´s a really fast fix.
I will be going to Rome for 2 weeks later this spring and one thing I will look for is a nice white shirting becourse I´m determent to redraw this pattern so I get a classic shirt sleeve with vent and cuff  and I will also make it slightly longer and sligtly wider ties.

Burda Sewing Handbook; The Skirt!

I´ve been talking about the Facebook group that I sew with and my plan for spring was this skirt that I "found" in my sewing room, the outer shell that is, and I could not figure out what pattern I´ve used until I woke up in the middle of the night and suddenly recalled it. It´s a lovely 100% wool that are the leftovers from another skirt I have made several years ago...This fabric has the nicest drape and I have no idea where I bought it...

 

It´s a pretty basic skirt with a contoured waistband, I made mine a little bit longer just by adding to the hemline and since I was out of fabric I used quilters cotton for the inner waistband and lined it with something green-greyish that I found in my stash, the lining looks better to the quilters cotton than to the wool...I really like this skirt ! It´s simple enough but is a little bit flowy at the hemline.

If you look in the book there are a lot of different variations of it and I will add it to my staple patterns for skirts.
The blouse was also a part of the plan for spring but I talk more about it later

I almost made a jurk!

Knip mode is available in Sweden or at least the german edition called Fashion Style is. I like it! I like that all styles are up to plus size and are mostly shown on both kind of ladies. and if you sew for a man there is one pattern /Magazine for him too.

 

 

 This dress was a real Karin dress and I had the perfect fabric for it....I was visiting my cousin last fall and the local fabric shop was closing and selling fabric 50 % off if you bought what´s left on the bolt, I did!...I also bought like 8 meters of rayon lining in black, always good to have around the house...

 

I like any dress with an interesting neckline and not cut off at the waist. I knew I had to finish the dress before I went to Mexico becourse the colors is not really what I wear at home but the cut on this one is really nice and I can imagine sewing one in black or navy also .

I wore the dress a lot like here on the day I was traveling from Puerto Escondido to Acapulco. There was enough fabric for a little bolero using McCall  M6559 The pattern that are included with the really nice maxi tank dress that a lot of people have made really nice dresses from and of course I have a nice stripy fabric stocked for making one myself,...but not this week....

 

 

Excuse me for my strange face, having enchiladas mexican style and a cider