Tunic is finished despite evil pattern!

I got out of the sewers block pretty much directly after posting about it... I guess that's how it works, as soon as everyone knows, you can't stay a slacker! ;)

As I showed you yesterday, my plan was to use a 1960 dress pattern and shorten it to make a nice and simple tunic. Should have been easy...

I cut the pattern and everything looked fine.. only thing changed was some extra fabric added to the front piece to make sure my boobs would have some space. Now that I look at the picture I can see that the pieces have very low and short shoulders and small neck. I know that 60's fashion usually is a bit tight around the neck and shoulders, but this was bad!
 

The crazy thing is that it looked only a little bit weird all up until I finished the neck, the kind of weird that usually disappear when it's all done. This is the most annoying part of sewing, that you can sew, try it on, sew just a few more seams, and then the whole thing looks completely different on you.

Not so pretty folds up front, and miserable hemming around the neck... At this point, when I tried it on, it looked like it was the right size for a skinny twelve year old around the neck and shoulders, and for someone very pregnant elsewhere. Plus the shoulder seams were halfway over on the front... Angry time!! After a few minutes of despairing and yelling at my poor boyfriend, I decided to chop up the shoulders of the dress and add about 10cm more fabric.

...which, ironically, solved the whole problem. I did not have to change anything else, and the arms of the tunic fitted perfectly in the armholes that were now this much wider... Hm, non-functioning pattern anyone? Heh. That pattern is gonna be tucked away deep down in the pile where it can't hurt anyone.

So, time for the truth: how did it come out? Here it is! (My boyfriend has taken the pictures of me, and the wonderful place we're at is just a five minute walk from where we live. Nice huh?)

Also, look at these wonderful little fellows we saw on our walk:

I love summer...

I have a plan!

So, yesterday I got some new patterns, and was complaining about not getting my behind out of whatever I'm sitting on and start sewing. Today, I am at least a bit closer - I have a plan!

I chose one of the easiest patterns in the bunch, and a fabric I LOVE... Here's the plan:

The pattern is one of the newly bought Swedish ones, and was printed in 1960! I'm making the middle dress, but will make it tunic length instead (partly due to lack of fabric, as always, and partly because I need more tunics). I am planning to wear it with skinny jeans or short shorts! :) Still keeping it sixties style! The fabric is from the vintage bunch I got a while back, and is real silk (and I pray that it won't be as hard to sew as some of the fake silky fabrics I've tried before. If it is, I'm screwed).

Hopefully I'll make it tomorrow, you will get to see it then! (I am still procrastinating and dare not start today, lol.)

New patterns and "sewers block"

I have been a bad blogger for a while now, days are just rushing by like crazy. But I am having fun! However I am having a bit of sewers block, or what one should call it. I have loads of fabric and patterns I want to use... I just don't know where to begin, so instead I do nothing :P (Or, well, there has been a large amount of friends, traveling, concerts and a significant amount of beer lately.)

These things are of course not stopping me from getting new patterns... I am becoming more and more like my dad in terms of collecting stuff for later, in huge stashes. But they will be used, someday, I'm sure.. eh. So today I threw myself at some old 50's and 60's patterns that just came up on Tradera, and way too cheap for me to say no to. Then it turned out that the seller lived very close to me, so I could just walk there and get the patterns today - great success! (I really hate waiting...)

Here are the patterns! In one of the plastic bags there were three patterns, one of them a kid's pattern. I might let this one go in a future giveaway, since I have no kids (yet, and if I keep the pattern planning on making that cute little girls coat in the future, I bet I will only have boys, haha!) The third pattern from that bag has no picture, and no instructions, but from the pieces it looks really interesting. I am thinking of trying to make that dress first just to know what it will look like!

By the way, if you have any tips or suggestions on what to do to break the curse of not being able to start a new project, please let me know, this is getting annoying! ;)

Midsummers dress!

This one was a pain in... well, all over. I didn't have a pattern for this, just some inspiration that came from a 1750's dress I saw in a museum once. But I did have a plan! And I had found a fabric that would be so perfect for a cute and girly dress for midsummers!

After a whole day of sewing, thinking, trying on, ripping seams, sewing again and so on and so on, it was almost done... and fit me like a potato sack. Hm, not quite the plan... I tried it on with my corset underneath, then it looked better. (This is where I was hit by major PMS and felt about as graceful as a hippo). So, I put it in the stash and went to bed angry. Later I decided to finish it and maybe give it away if it still looked like crap on me... But, when it was done... it magically looked great!? Yay happy day! The only thing I did was the stitching around the neck and armholes, can't really see how that made such a difference, but hey - I'm happy!

Sneak peak (or rather, a pic with sneaky) here, more pics below:

Isn't it crazy that I look about the size of a normal 8 year old (I'm 173cm tall...) when I'm holding the cat? He is HUGE!

Before you will get to see more of the dress, in case you don't know: What's up with midsummer?

So, here's traditional midsummer: Everyone leaves town for the countryside, dressing up (a lot of people dress up in traditional folk costumes), dancing and singing around the maypole, eating and drinking (herring, potatoes, beer and schnapps is usually the big thing), and overall celebrating summer...

Pretty idyllic huh? Too bad this is more like what midsummer is for lots and lots of swedes today:

Haha, well anyway, the midsummer party we are throwing this year is now up to around 50 guests... Hopefully we'll have at least something in between midsummer A and midsummer B.

Now: last but not least: The dress!

The only things that are holding it together are the ribbons in the back! Not so easy to construct, but so nice to wear and no zippers, no buttons, nothing that can break! :D

Simple top and extra retarded pics of me...

About two weeks ago, I made a simple top out of yet another cute fabric from my awesome stash...

I didn't take any pics of it, or me in it at the time, cause my inspiration level was zero. However I wore it last week at my brothers BBQ, so I figured, why not share those pics with you. Definitely not the typical look-what-I-sewed-pictures, if you know what I mean... heh.

First, here's the pattern I used, burda couture 4499. As always, the year is not stated on the pattern envelope or elsewhere, but I'm guessing early nineties.

....Aaaand.... here are the very gorgeous pics of me in the top, from the BBQ. Feel free to enjoy my very pretty and becoming range of beer-induced retardation ;)

Yeah, sorry about that... But it was fun, right? :)

The 'absolutely amazing fabric' dress!

Early this spring I was, as usual, looking for cheap vintage fabrics on Tradera. When I found this fabric, I new I just had to have it. Very heavy, blue patterned cotton... (I think it actually was a curtain at some point...)

When I got it, I knew directly that this fabric was meant to be a long dress, there is no way I would cut it. So I made this dress, without cutting anything. I actually didn't even have to hem it, that was already done - at perfect length! I put in a zipper in the back, and then sewed the whole thing into a tube. After that, all I did was deep, 'curved' pleats, (or darts, don't exactly know what to call them) along the sides down to the waist, where I let all the fullness of the fabric come out over the hips.

Here's how it came out! And please excuse the fact that I am totally sweaty and tired in these pics, it's nine in the evening and still about 25 ºC (= 77 ºF) here. For Sweden this time of year, that is HOT! :)

Making it work...

So, this is not a new project, but an old one that was finished but never worn, due to not thinking enough when cutting it.

I made this dress several months ago, I wanted a super baggy dress, very low cut and open on top. However I didn't exactly think about how to make it stay on, heh. So, finished the dress, tried it on, yay cute... but it could basically slip all the way off, literally down to my feet, if I wouldn't hold on to it. So, it hit a dark corner of my wardrobe, and there it stayed for a while.

Until today. I am leaving for an exam in Business Communication in about an hour. People who know me know that this means I will pick up pretty much any project at this point, as long as I don't have to think about studying. So I decided to fix the dress about an hour ago. Luckily, this was very easy, it just needed a ribbon across the upper back to hold it in place.

So now I have something to wear today. (It is very important to dress up during exams, if you look great, you feel great, and by that - hopefully - you will do great as well!) Considering I didn't even buy the books for this course, I guess I need anything that can help, haha!

First, a picture of the dress without the belt. This is how simple the construction of it is!

Here is what it looks like with the belt, and from the back, with the ribbon. As you can see, it was needed... :)

Of course, no outfit is perfect without the shoes, here's which ones I'll be wearing today: vintage kitten heels in bright turquoise!

By the way, I love that the pointy shoes are coming back in style, I have saved loads of them from last time they were in. Never ever throw away shoes that are still in good shape just because they go out of style... every time I did I found myself buying new ones just like them in a couple of years (and had to wear those in as well, ouch). I wonder how many people throw away shoes just as they are starting to become comfortable?