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!