Mary Quant earrings

Where was a great variations of souvenirs for the Mary Quant exibit and for different wallets. 

 Since I´m an earring person and my hands where to big for the bangles I bought these two.

Mary Quant at Victoria and Albert

There´s a Mary Quant Exibit at Victoria and Albert Museum in London and it will end february 16 so hurry! It´s worth the trip!

Before the exibit Mary Quant was for me all about short skirts but she was about so much more! All the photos here are the dresses that I remembered...remembered and remembered...I´m born in 1961 but when I walk through the exibit I can see how she must have influenced me both as a child ( ok how my mother dressed me) and how I dressed myself as a teenager and what I wanted to sew for myself. The use of wool jersey is so inspiring and the color blocking. The zipper with a ring to pull is my new detail that I want to put on my next garment. I´m totally in love with the rain capes and some of the dresses that I want slightly longer.... and the skirt and vest with the red backing of the vest....

The dresses all tells a story from the one who bought them, how much they payed and what´s that equals today and how the used the dresses and there are also interviews with Mary showing on screens,

If you want to sew your own Mary Quant minidress where is a free pattern for one and if you want the stripy dress above too there´s also a pattern for that one, its called Georgie .

There are also some great souvenirs from this show, I bought myself two earrings.

Creattiva Bergamo

In september I packed my stuff and two of my sewing machines and went for a vacation in Italy. I rented a little "nest" in Ravenna for 2,5 week and walked and drove a lot around Emilia Romagna but also visited Bergamo for the Bergamo Creattiva a fair that had I think over 300 vendors, not much fabric for clothes but I´ve learned that there is another fair for that called Abilmente. Since my pictures are a lot messed up here I´m just going to write texts explaining  what´s in them

There was a lot of this, you crochet bags from synthetic cord and use readymade bottoms and in this case flap from synthetic leather. I don´t really care a lot for this look but it gives me a lot of options to buy things for the bags I sew

Here are a lot of straps for bags to chose from

This is a view from the room I rented outside Bergamo, I even found a small merceria there an a remnant of black Chanel wool

A lot of these kind of homedec and a lot of patchwork too

The lines where fast when I arrived early, they where not when I was to have lunch....

There was a Contest kind of like Project Runway during the Fiera

More of the bagmaking stuff

Here are ready made bottoms that you should start your crochet from

Here are something to start you of crocheing a backpack

Part of the Fiera was dedicated to woodwork and I just loved this chair, floor and bench!!!!!

These are clousures and something to add straps to that I bought, the prices are OK the clasp to the right 10 euro, 8 for the biggest one and 4 for the smaller

Fatto a mano Made by Hand just as I saw on Dolce and Gabbana´s men´s Collection on instagram today

I also bought some yarn from the industry, Wish it would have been more of that. The Fiera was fun but next time I would like to look more at fabric so maybe Abilmente is an option

London Calling

I will be in London next weekend, a long weekend that extends into monday…. Staying at a hotell in Notting Hill this time and planning to doing the usual stuff and some more:
Portobello Road
Shaukat
Liberty
John Lewis
Kensington Palace
Ray Stitch
Goldhawk Road
Kath Kidston
V & A
British war museum
Mary Quant exibit
Afternoon tea
Fish and chips
Kew Gardens
Fashion museum in Bath
Loop
There is a Canal that I will walk too
Lots of tea, coffea and G&T
Cream tea

So looking forward to this!!!!!
Don´t Think I missed out on anything with that list.

And Attila will be spending time with my dad.

64 stitches aka Vanilla Latte

64 stitches, toe up, magic loop, two socks at a time and some self striped yarn probably from Opal. It also involves a lot of winding to get the stripes wright. and I really need to have them identical….

The pattern is knit 6 purl 2 and only knit next row and then repeat. I think this kind of yarn needs a simple pattern and for the shaping of the sock I just think backwards.

'

I had to edit this becourse I was strolling Ravelry and realised tha the pattern is from Vanilla Latte by Virginia Rose-Jeanes. It´s a free pattern and as usual I only used the pattern of the design of the socks and knitted the my ususal way.

Line2line

I went on two vacations last year on the first one I bought the fabric for this dress and on the second one I did the sewing.

The patterns is from Krestoffer as I understand it Krestoffer is a fabric store i Odense in Denmark and Line2line is their patternline and I buy them from Sara at Den är min my local fabric store.The patterns are well drafted the instructions not so much, there are usually some extra variations like extra sleeves and there are also two lines at the waist one a little more fitted and one a little more relaxed and since I need one size larger at the bottom it´s a good place to walk between sizes there.

The patterns are printed on really good quality paper.

I had plans for India but due to that I got blood cloths in my lungs as a side effect after my injury I had to cancel that trip, I was not allowed on an airplane and when summer came I decided to take a short vacation and go somewhere close and since I´ve been drooling over Metermeter´s webstore and I have a friend who talkes a lot about Aarhus I decided to go there and my plan was also to take a daytrip to Skagen. I ended up liking Aarhus so much that I extended the vacation with 2 nights extra in Skagen, also a fantastic town.

I did som shopping in the store that is really great!!! and the fabric for the dress has a really weird color but I liked the pattern and since my plan was to make a dress I did not have to worry about having anything to wear with it. I love everything about this dress and the fabric, it´s a match made in heaven!

The fabric is not lime nor olive, just a beautiful strange green and those flowers are gorgeous

Lovely neckline and my own label in combo with one from Kylie and the machine that I bought from Metermeter too.
This is a dress that stands out and I love it!

Happy new year 2020!

New year, new decade and a new man in my life!  Meet Attila!

Attila is here comfy in my dad´s house in the window over a radiator. He´s an abbandoned summer cat...I thought people knew by now but apparantly not. He´s a very nice cat, playful, sweet and likes to be near and to cuddle.

I can´t believe I did not write a single blogpost last year so I have a lot to show this year and to talk about.

I used to post goals for the year and I will start this year by doing that too

I will sew pants, I´m stuck with dresses and skirts but I decided to make 12 pants this year but that will include leggings, yoga pants and dressier pants, I have plans for Palisade, Carolyn PJ pants in dressier fabric, Morgan jeans and Sasha pants. I might consider some kind of culottes here to...

I will master my Cover machine including the binder attachment.

Elastic tops has been my nightmare to sew but I think the binder attachment can change that.

Clean/sanitice/ organize my sewing room. I´ve not been able to use it as intended due to the recovery I´ve tried to avoid steps so it has turned ino some kind of storage room but I´m halfway done there.

I will try to find fun outfits with what I have and what I can add from the stash and accesorise better.

Bags are a new interest of mine and by that I mean to sew them so they look more professional. with no black linings….

I have a dream of knitting the Coat of many colors or poncho or wrap or sweather by using all my fingering leftovers yarns, double brioche and just do it randomly. I also have some finishing up to do with my knittings.

I´m pretty good at bra making but I will give Angie one more chance and also making panties to match or more to cordinate. I´ve been saving leftover cotton and rayon jersey fabric but know now that I want more neutral fabrics and mix them with lace. Jessica is my dream bra pattern that I wear all the time and will make more from this year.

Jackets! I need a variation of jackets that I can wear to work and since I´m biking they have to be bikable and also different variation of warmth. I used to love making coats and jackets and I want to find that love again

My goal is to not buy any clothes and not go to heavy on the fabric purchases...

Gudrun mittens

I wanted to knit Gudrun Mittens for years but since I´m not fond of wool mittens I needed someone to knit them for and my cousins dauther Vanna was the perfect choise

 The pattern is on ravelry and by Maria Lärkäng  and I used some stash yarn, the mustard is some kind of superwash wool and the greenish is felted tweed, It would have been so much easier two use two "proper" wool yarns. The pattern is quite big but made the green outerlining more of a frame so I pulled the mustard yarn between switching needles. My sewing and knitting has been down for a while due to this:

I fell and broke my foot in three places and have been staying with my brother ans SIL for three weeks and right now I´m at dad´s house. My appartment is on the third floor and no elevator....Luckily since I got a new job in september I´ve been able to work mostly from home, I brought my sewingmashine and had a Kalle started that I could work on a bit but it´s hard to send someone down to the sewingroom and pick some things up for you so sewing and knitting have been mostly down but I have yarn on the way and hopefully it will arrive tomorrow.

I had a vacation planned for India; Delhi and The Golden Triangle for a week and then Cochin for 11 nights, but due to the footissue I skipped the first part and are only going to Kerala. That is if my Visa is admitted….applying for Indian Visa is a lot of work...

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: