Crochet hat

More crafting!

Just finished a crochet hat, all made from yarn scraps given to me for free! Pretty much 1970's style/colors... will go great with my new vintage coat!

Here goes: (and yes I look a bit.. nuts)

And it even looks really nice on the inside!

UFO t-shirts now finished

UFO-time! (UnFinished Objects, that is!)

I've had the bodices for these t-shirts cut and then folded and put away since... 2006, maybe. Each time I was thinking of what to sew next I would take them out, think "meh, boring" and put them back in the drawer... But not yesterday!

Here's the result of barely two hours of sewing. Very basic and comfy! I made them quite long, both because I have a long torso (my rtw tops usually have to be pulled back down every two seconds, I do have better things to do, lol) and also so I can wear these both with jeans and with leggings.

Just before I finished the second t-shirt, I managed to slip with the scissors and make a tiny hole in the fabric in the front... Hence the somewhat random flower applique. Fairly good save, though.

I used this 1960's pattern for the sleeves and the neckline on the purple t-shirt.

And of course I had some help from Pippin the cat, who tends to step on everything I'm holding, eat thread and play football with anything that falls to the floor...

Pearl buttons cardi makeover

So, despite now having a sewing room (a.k.a guest room) again, getting in front of the sewing machine seems... hard. I actually got as far as to choosing a nice classic skirt pattern and taking out a really cool fabric... but then I ran out of energy. Maybe tomorrow...

A couple of hours later and very frustrated I decided to do something very easy but rewarding, I changed buttons in a favorite cardigan! It only had three of five buttons left, and they were the cheap and boring kind... Solution? Vintage pearl buttons!

Cardi with original buttons

Sewing time!

The finished result, modeled by a headless me in gray sweats, very fashionable!

My new vintage coat

No sewing, but I just got this amazing vintage coat!

Perfect fit, wool, warm, heavy, classic forest green and it's a coat and cape all in one and I love it. From the cut, mainly the sleeves, I think it's from the 1970's but the style is pretty much timeless. What it cost me? Only 300SEK (thats about 45USD)!

Coats, coats, coats!

It's that time again, the time of the year when you finally realize you have to pack up all those cute but too light jackets and put into winter storage and take out your winter coat! Perhaps you have to invest in a new coat? I have spent quite a bit of time on research these past weeks, wanting to find that perfect coat, the one I can wear for years. One that will complement my old brown leather coat which is, though lovely, often too warm or too cold... It's perfect for a rainy day.

Anyway, what I was getting to: Some coat inspiration! Less talk and more picures! Here goes:

1920's coats and Butterick pattern, late 20s to early 30s.

Simplicity pattern, ca 1949-1950, Marlene Dietrich and Rita Hayworth

Marilyn Monroe, McCall's pattern ca 1956

Vogue pattern Jacques Klein 1966, Jean Shrimpton

Armani ad in Vogue 1980, Simplicity pattern 1980

Linda Evangelista in Vogue 1991, Vogue pattern Givenchy 1971

Harper's Bazaar November 2012

So... what did I get? Still waiting for it to arrive, I'll show you soon!

Some knitting, at least!

Whatever happened to sewing? My life these days seems to consist of working, eating, sleeping, stressing out.

Being stuck at work from 8-5 each day... not helping. I have tons of ideas, but then... actually starting a project... Extremely hard, as it seems. (Everything would be so easy if we only needed say.. four hours of sleep!)

So, the last few weeks at work has been kind of slow, so yesterday I decided to stop circling mail-facebook-news-blogs 6000 times a day, and brought some yarn and knitting needles instead. Before the workday was done, I was about half done with a big shawl... Good plan I think!

This is what I'm working on:

I think it will be a nice warm addition to my fall wardrobe and go well with my favorite tweed jacket!

Finally - Birthday dress!

So - it seems my Birthday dress should rather be called the "Don't want to be photographed dress". I've only tried let's see... three times before to make it stick without all the pictures turning out super blurry or overexposed. But hey, finally I got it! Not the most fetching pics of me perhaps, but you can see the dress!

Oh and by the way, it grows... I already took it in about two inches after the first try, now I'll have to take another two inches. I thought cotton was supposed to be... um, not so stretchy? I guess I'll wash it first anyway, who knows, it might shrink again.

Here goes:

Sneak peek - Birthday Dress

So - I finished the Birthday Dress, in time! Yay me!

Right now I am on a train across Sweden, heading home to see my family... Tomorrow's my birthday so you don't get to see the dress just yet, but I figured a little sneak peek where you can see the colors and pattern of the fabric could be fun...

Oh and this holdall bag is vintage, leather... and I found it in the garbage room of the apartment building I lived in a few years back. Nothing wrong with it, I guess the previous owner just didn't like it. Good for me!

I'll update with pictures of the dress "in action" on Tuesday!

Birthday dress inspiration

And with birthday dress I mean an actual dress and not the... not so dressed option.

I really want to make a new dress for my birthday, and I have two weeks to go. I have a great printed cotton with blue flowers on white in my stash and it would be great for making a classic fifties dress... So with this one I might turn back time a good 60 years, to late summer 1952. Seems much more fun than to turn 29 if you ask me, anyway.

So, here's some inspiration. No collage today but loads of pretty pictures!

(All pictures via google and the vintage patterns wikia)



Lovely dresses and patterns, right? All the patterns are (as far as I know) from 1952!

A little vacation!

Just in time! I get to rest my brain from numbers, excel-files and invoices for a whole week, and it is much needed. Getting used to a new job is FUN but oh so exhausting! 

So anyway, there will probably be no sewing the next week but hopefully loads of inspiration!

And, speaking of inspiration, here's what I'm doing now - packing. I am leaving for the other side of the country and mum and dad out in the archipelago today! Swedish summer is what it is so my vacation wardrobe ranges from minishorts to knitted sweaters :)

Have a great weekend!

Clogs, oh yes!

Not everything on sale is bad.

I pass by (in other words through) a shoe shop on my way from work almost everyday. I look at the shoes, try them on, decide they are way too expensive, and go home. I'm still on the verge of not making payments after being out of a job for months... But today, among the loads of boring and ugly shoes on sale, I found these darlings, 75% off! Last pair, and in my size (how often does that happen?) So, instead of tomorrows standard Friday night pizza (you've got to count some fun and tasty into that tight budget or life will be way too dull!), I got a pair of clogs for 99 SEK (=about 13 USD)!

Very fashionably paired with gray sweatpants, because I didn't feel like changing back to the cream white chinos I wore to work today just to photograph the shoes, but now I've told you I'm sure you all can imagine how great that would look?

I just love them! I'm sure mum would say that's just because I wasn't around last time clogs were in fashion, but anyway!

Also, it doesn't hurt that they look a bit like these Steve Madden ones that cost 90 USD

Or that Alexa Chung wore clogs on the cover of Vogue.

On another note I am making plans for this years midsummer's dress (two weeks to go!), but I'll tell you more about that in my next post!