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!

Self drafted 1930s inspired cotton top

So, to state the obvious: yesyesyes! I finally got back to making something (without too much additional angst!) Partly because I used scraps from an old project, so I wouldn't be overly bugged if it turned out crappy.

I managed to use pretty much all that was left :) Here it is, my summery rose patterned cotton top!

And nope, my face did not stick to any of the photos, I'm tired and didn't feel like looking for my camera tripod (I haven't seen it since the big separation and move, where the heck is it? Must have put it in a really "good place"... Ironically those aren't that good for very long, right?) I ended up just putting the camera on the sideboard in the sewing room and myself slouching on the nearest footstool, so all closeups. But hey, as long as you can see the top, all is good!

The buttons in the back are vintage real pearl ones. I love these uneven and rugged little precious darlings!

Here's some of my inspiration, early 1930's tops with open back, draping/folding, and short sleeves that aren't really sleeves.

Quite obvious I've been putting off sewing for way too long... This little darling has folds, tucks, darts (or, not really, just one), fake buttons and whatnot. And it's not even supposed to be fitted but loose and flowy (which it is, somewhat). Since I only had very little fabric I decided not to make a pattern but to just draft and drape as I went. Takes a bit more time but turned out fairly well anyway I think! :) My thoughts when I started: let's not make anything complicated... Well that went well! Lol! Anyway, perhaps the curse is broken!